“Do you want to buy some popcorn?”

I was coming out of Safeway when I was surrounded by a group of Boy Scouts in the midst of fundraising.  Clipboards in hand, they asked that question over and over.  I was a Scout, and I sold plenty of popcorn in my day, but I have yet to purchase Scout popcorn in my adult life.

It’s not that I don’t like popcorn; I’m munching on some right now thanks to an air popper from Craigslist ($4, and it was brand new!).  The problem is that “Do you want to buy _____ ?” is not a very good opening line, especially when I’ve just dropped a good amount of coin on food.  Clearly, the pitch needs improvement.

Consider starting: “Do you like popcorn?”

Most people like popcorn, so they will be inclined to answer “yes.”  It’s a strong hook.

For a follow-up question, perhaps: “Great! So do I!   [type of popcorn] is my favorite.  What’s yours?”

This provides affirmation to the customer and serves to build rapport.  It also encourages the customer to continue the conversation by sharing their favorite type of popcorn with the salesscout.  That information will be invaluable for the final part of the pitch:

“Well, you’re in luck: we have that right here! (points to popcorn matching stated preference)  This popcorn helps to fund our camping trips [or whatever].  How many boxes would you like?”

Here, the salesscout satisfies the customer’s preferences, allays any unstated concerns about the money, and — critically — asks for the sale.

Okay, maybe that seemed a bit stilted.  However, if I were the customer and pitched like that,  I’d probably be so impressed and surprised that I’d buy something regardless of my popcorn needs.

Unimpressed by their pitch, I didn’t buy any popcorn that day.  However, when a girl scout came to my door a few days ago and pitched me with a shy, “Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?”, I immediately signed up for a box.  Same pitch, different product, different outcome.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for cookies.

The paper I grew up with, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this evening.

The filing had been expected for some time.  Still, it serves as a sobering reminder of just what a sorry state the newspaper industry is in at the moment.  The Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy a month ago, and The New York Times is in such a perilous financial state that speculation is rampant on its fate.  Years of suckling at the sweet teat of classified ads, crushing debt loads, and general shifts towards electronic media have all contributed to the problem.

Still, there is a ray of light in the gloom that is print publications.  Hyperlocal newspapers, the 20,000-circulation dailies and weeklies are prospering.  Their hardest news tends to be disagreements about street maintenance at city council meetings, but that’s not the point.  These papers provide news coverage that is available nowhere else.  People don’t look at them for national news.  If you want to see photos from the local prep football game, the local daily is the place to go — not the 300,000-circ regional publication. More importantly, they provide advertising focus that is unrivaled: all of the readers are in the right place, and the rates are reasonable.

Although shrinking, there are still millions of people who are willing to dole out cash money for the privilege of getting their national news from dead trees. I still enjoy the serendipitous discovery of information while reading print newspapers; I maintain a subscription to The Wall Street Journal.  The experience is similar to reading a site like reddit or Digg: I read not to see a particular article, but rather for the pure joy of reading.

Each medium has its place: the internet for breaking news, print for in-depth analysis, and television for… nothing; most TV news is partisan rubbish.  What about hybrids, like the New York Times iPhone app or the Kindle?  Those are nice, but the experience is more akin to the internet than the paper.

In the future, I see the hyperlocal print papers flourishing by continuing their coverage of news that will remain ignored elsewhere.  I also see the survival of two or three national print papers to satisfy the customers who enjoy the national print experience.  Specifically, I believe that The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The New York Times will weather the storm (perhaps after restructuring in bankruptcy).  All of the mid-level papers are doomed.

The mid-levels — the Star Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Denver Post, to name a few — occupy the mushy middle.  They satisfy the needs of nobody well.  They increasingly rely on AP feeds to fill space as they trim their newsroom staffs, and that won’t provide enough differentiation from the nationals and the internet.  Some mid-levels may attempt an all-electronic route, but they would emerge fundamentally different: the revenue available to online plays cannot support staff sizes even approaching those of print.

Having worked at a newspaper, their demise makes me sad, but emotion alone will not salvage a broken business model.   Best of luck to them and their employees.

Update Jan 15, 11:12 p.m.: I see that some people have started a movement to make February 2 “Buy a Newspaper Day.”  While their hearts are in the right place, such efforts won’t fix the fundamental supply/demand imbalance.

Temperature when my plane left San Francisco: 50° F.

Temperature when my plane touched down in Minneapolis: -10° F.

Ah, good to be home.

Does it ever snow here in Palo Alto, California?  It’s rare, but the answer is yes:

Okay, okay.  While technically true, this photo is a bit misleading.  It’s a real, unmanipulated photo taken this afternoon.  The catch is that it wasn’t in downtown Palo Alto.  Instead, it was taken on Skyline Boulevard, near the intersection with Page Mill Road:

That’s about 7–8 miles from the Stanford central campus.  The key is that the elevation difference is more than 2100 feet.  Nothing but rain fell below about 1800 feet.

Roughly 3–4 inches of heavy, wet snow were on the ground, providing a source of great delight for the Californians and this Minnesotan.   Kids were sledding, teens were having snowball fights, and the adults were all smiles.  Hard to say what the animals thought:

Has it ever snowed at Stanford?  I can’t seem to find any definitive data one way or the other, but I have to believe that it’s possible.  Maybe I’ll get lucky enough to see it this year.

As you all know, I love cars — particularly fast cars.

Silicon Valley is a great place for carspotting.  Since I been here, I’ve encountered numerous Teslas, Aston Martins, Bentleys, Ferraris, and Lamborghinis on the roads.  I’ve even seen some super exotics, such as the rare Porsche Carrera GT.  Today topped them all.

I pulled out of my apartment complex this afternoon behind… a Bugatti Veyron.

Yes, one of the world’s fastest (0-60 in 2.4 seconds), rarest (fewer than 300 produced), and most expensive (about $1.4 million) production cars.  In the metal.  Maroon-painted metal.

Needless to say, it left the light very quickly.  What a rush.