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Discover Mid-America — March 2005

Results in, Paramount coup and from Vermont...
by Bruce Rodgers, Editor/Publisher

The results from our readers in voting on the 2nd Annual Best Of are in, along with a survey from selected dealers we contacted. (See page 14.)

If last year’s reaction is any gauge, the results are bound to surprise and, maybe, agitate a little — particularly if a business didn’t get the most votes as expected or was recognized in a category it didn’t expect to be.

We received nearly 500 ballots, both Web site voting and in the mail. For the ballot to be counted, the reader had to vote in at least three categories with three different businesses named, included in this count were ballots without a reader’s name. However, duplicate ballots — same name or same handwriting on more than one ballot — weren’t counted. Ballots in which the same business was noted on numerous different categories — without mention of any other business — were considered evidence of ballot stuffing and not counted. Following these criteria means the Best Of winners and runners-up reflect — as much as possible — the opinions and perceptions of our readers.

The major rationale for the Best Of is to better connect our readers with the businesses we serve and advertise with us. With that in mind, we’re hopeful that businesses use the results for some self-praise or self-reflection.

A good example of how a Best Of survey can help market one of our advertisers — and show the geographic reach of Discover Mid-America — came to us by way of the Paramount Antique Mall in Wichita. Bob Swisher, the antique columnist for the Champaign News-Gazette in Champaign, IL was passing through Wichita last December and visited the Paramount Mall. On Jan. 22, 2005 co, Swisher wrote about the mall in a column titled “Wichita, Kan., mall voted best in mid-America.” Congratulations to the Paramount people for that publicity coup.

This month, I’m proud to announce the addition of a new columnist, Peggy Whiteneck, a collector and writer living in East Randolph, VT. Peggy’s column, “Good Eye,” is unique in that, in her words, it “looks at the antiques and collectibles trade with a practiced eye and from both sides of the sales transaction.”

It’s my belief that “Good Eye” could inform business owners and managers about how to better serve customers, and help consumers become more knowledgeable as to what they buy and collect.

Peggy’s first column in Discover (page 23) deals with a deceptively simple aspect of doing business, the price tag. I’m sure as she brings her “outsider objectivity” to “Good Eye,” her ideas will be food for thought.

* * *

An apology is in order because of a production slip-up in last month’s excellent cover story by Ken Weyand, “Lickskillet, Possum Trot and other odd place names.” Three paragraphs of the story were left out at the beginning of page 24. We apologize for the mistake. The complete story can be read online at www.discoverypub.com.

Contact Bruce Rodgers at
publisher@discoverypub.com

> Editor’s Notebook Archive — past columns