Final Word on Future of Newspapers?

Newsday, a newspaper based on Long Island that competes with the likes of the New York Times, New York Post, and the New York Daily News, is mad as hell and isn't going to take the internet lying down anymore.

Champ or Fiction?

Philadelphia is known for its hard working, blue collar work ethic of its people, among other things. Philadelphia is also an underdog city, living in the shadow of New York City.

The most popular athletes in the City of Philadelphia are usually those who embody that same blue collar spirit. Whether it is Mike Schmidt (who was booed too), Allen Iverson, Villanova’s championship basketball team, or the Broad Street Bullies, this city’s favorite sons have either been hard workers, underdogs, or both.

Boxing is no exception. In fact, Philadelphia is a boxing town and boxing might be the sport that best represents the city. In recent history, Bernard Hopkins, from the Germantown section of Philadelphia, has represented the city with an underdog story that took him from being in prison to on top of the boxing world.

However, there is one boxer that has been synonymous with the city now for a few decades. However, this boxer hasn’t won anything. No titles, no championships, nothing. In fact, this boxer is a fictional character.

Rocky Balboa is his name, the star of the six-movie series about the underdog boxer from South Philly. Rocky touched the heart of many people across the country, but especially Philadelphians. Many people view him as the personification of Philly’s heart. There is even a bronze statue of Rocky in Philadelphia, recently moved to a spot in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This is the same art museum that is home to the “Rocky Steps.”

Meanwhile, Philadelphia is home to a true heavyweight champion. This fighter was known for his toughness and his relentless style of fighting. "Smokin" Joe Frazier is a native of Philadelphia, a world champion who dealt Muhammad Ali his first lost. Yet, while Rocky Balboa is a Philadelphia legend, Joe Frazier is a guy people in the city have mixed feelings about at best.

Rocky Balboa has statues; Joe Frazier has a small, rundown gym in North Philadelphia. He’s rumored to live in an upstairs apartment of the building, due to a state of affairs allegedly caused by his poor business decisions.

On the surface, it’s a head scratcher. Why isn’t Frazier more beloved in the city? Why Rocky is loved so much? After some research, it turns out that it’s not a complex issue at all.

Frazier, like many other Philadelphia sports teams and athletes, never quite got over the hump. He did defeat Ali once, but he lost both rematches, and he lost to George Forman twice. After that, he became bitter, and still has a lot of animosity towards Ali. In a late 2006 article for the New York Times, Frazier was quoted as saying "Ali always said I was nothing without him, but who would he have been without me?"

Meanwhile, Rocky was a story about a guy from South Philly going the distance with the unstoppable heavyweight champion. He was an semi-pro fighter, who went toe-to-toe with the world’s greatest. The movie and the character is solely about working hard, staying determined, and never giving up. Many in Philadelphia can relate to this, and many also view Rocky as the perfect representation of Philadelphians.

Mitchell Weiss, a technical consultant from Northeast Philadelphia, said Rocky represents the Mitchell Weiss, a technical consultant from Northeast Philadelphia, said that Rocky represented the city more than Joe Frazier. Weiss added that he didn't know Frazier was from Philadelphia "until about ten years ago," and Frazier wasn't charasmatic as Muhammad Ali or Rocky. "He was a great boxer, he just didn't have any personality," Weiss said.

Another lesson in the Joe Frazier situation can be applied to a current Philadelphia sports star. Like Frazier, Marvin Harrison doesn’t talk much. He just does his business and stays out of the limelight. Meanwhile, other receivers like Terrell Owens are made prominent by the media and very flamboyant. Like Ali, Owens will always be remembered and will go down as one of the most talked about figures of this era of sports, even though it’s for the wrong reasons. Harrison will likely struggle to be remembered outside of the world of football insiders.

I don’t condone many of the things T.O. does, but he does do a great job of keeping himself relevant.

Back to Frazier and Rocky, I think it’s a shame Frazier is in the condition he’s in. He should be someone who is important to the city. Instead he’s just a bitter legend, and unfortunately, he’s merely footnote in Philadelphia sports history to many.

Here's Joe Frazier during his peak.

Blogs, Blogs Everywhere!

Your names in the list below link to the URL's for the blogs I've received thus far. If you haven't set up your blog, please do so ASAP, and either post the address here, or send it to me via email, and I'll edit this post.

Katie Bradley
Maura Cullen
Nadeem Fernand
Gwenna Johnson
Jennifer Kramer
Erica Lester
Jaclyn Lewin
James Mason
Kyle Michael
Selina Poiesz
Manna Pourrezaei
Melissa Reese
Jennifer Rivera
Gracyn Tighe
Colleen Wolfe

Keep in mind that you must, in your first post, explain to current and future readers why you decided to launch the blog - what gap does it fill in the blogging universe? What's the competition? What audience to you hope to serve? What can the audience expect of you in terms of content and tone? What won't you include on the blog? Will you produce actual content, or rely on clips and excerpts from elsewhere.

PLEASE make sure that a detailed explanation covering these questions appears on the blog by the end of this week!

ONE LAST REMINDER: Remember that your first news story should be posted to your blog by the end of next week (week 4). Please let me know if you have any questions about the newsgathering - sources, quotes, etc. Rough drafts are totally OK, but send soon!

Is CVS Taking over Center City Businesses?

Jennifer Kramer
March 13, 2007
Com 300 Final Story

“They’re killing my business,” Spruce Food Market owner, Stephen Do said near tears in response to how the opening up of CVS on the corner of 15th and Spruce in Center City is devastating sales to his family-run food market down the block.
On Monday, November 6, 2006, CVS the second biggest pharmacy chain in the United States opened its door to business and began the possible closing of many family-run, small business on the block.
A native of Seoul, South Korea, Do moved here with his wife about 11 years ago and they have been operating this mom- and- pop outlet in Center City, Philadelphia ever since.
While the regular customers from residential buildings on the block and wait staff from area restaurants still loyally come in to get cigarettes, flowers or a 6-pack for the night, the grocery prices at the food market just don’t compare to the cost efficiency and ease at CVS.
“As far as the residents in the community are concerned, the prices are great (at CVS), its convenient, but for store owners its really negative,” Jean Siplin, the front desk person at The Drake Apartment Building, said.
CVS, a multi-billion dollar corporation has the funds to promote business with coupons, price breaks and offers of already low prices on pharmaceuticals and groceries.
Spruce Food Market does not have a pharmacy. While picking up a prescription at
CVS, there is that all too easy opportunity to pick up the milk for the week toilet paper or even dog food.
With it’s wide aisles, bright lighting and carpeted floors, CVS has a much more Wal-Mart designed shopping environment that Americans feel at home with.
CVS stores are well-run, efficient, customer friendly, and their prices are competitive. Small businesses are the backbone of the nation’s economy but the government supports big corporations.
Do is not the only business owner in the area who has felt their sales plummet since CVS opened up.
“We’ve already felt the loss of business,” said Joan Ippoliti, the owner of the Jomici Apothecary across the street from CVS.
“About 15% of the business we do is from health and beauty aid products. Since CVS moved in across the street we’ve already lost that almost entirely and the over the counter drugs such as cough drops, gum, aspirin and sucking candies are dwindling in sales recently,” said Ippolita.
Redken, Paul Mitchell, Aveda and Tigi BedHead are among some professional hair care products now being marketed at CVS pharmacies negatively affecting sales of these products at local salons as well as apothecaries.
The salon hair care market in total is valued at $2.2 billion in the US. $93 million dollars were estimated to be lost due to mass- market chains selling these hair care
products.
CVS has an extensive beauty care department specializing in skin care products. In the past three years, skin care has been its fastest growing market. Big name companies such as Finland’s Lumene skin care line sell its products to CVS to reach a larger demographic.
Bald Guyz, a men’s sunscreen line for balding heads to appear non-greasy has also marketed many new products at CVS stores nationwide as of recent.
Small apothecaries and pharmacies will not even get the chance to expand from new brands. Start-up brands are searching for corporations already in power to gain more profits by marketing their product.
With over 6,200 CVS stores in operation in 45 states in America, the company is far from sympathizing with these local shopkeepers or cutting marketing of products.
CVS Corporation Reports recorded its October revenue of $3.5 billion. How can a single family-owned business possibly compete with that number but what other options are there for them?
More than 70% of revenue from CVS is produced through prescriptions being filled by one in every eight retail prescriptions being filled at CVS pharmacies around the country.
Prescription drugs are not the only purchase consumers are making at CVS in center city.
“A lot of grocery products have been flying off the shelves,” CVS pharmacist Rakesh Patel said. “We took over the Food Rite so people who used to rely on Food-Rite to get groceries have been buying out our food products like crazy.”
“A lot of people have come here who don’t have health insurance. Our customers come for the customer service. I always try and make my pharmacy run smooth, no lines and fast, easy service,” Dan Heller, pharmacist at Medical Tower Pharmacy, said.
Panic is not here now but apprehension is stirring in small businesses, even if sales haven’t yet dropped.
“They (CVS) just opened so we don’t really know if it will affect us,” Delores Blakly, cashier at Medical Tower Pharmacy, said.
“We have a built-in customer base from the medical tower next door,” Heller said. But this is a unique situation. Most local apothecaries and pharmacies aren’t so lucky.
As IMS Health suggests, CVS pharmacy sales are expected to grow incessantly at a five to eight percent compound annual rate. As the number one drugstore chain in America this number is not surprising.
The already increasing use of lower-cost drugs or generic equivalents, CVS is boosting their consumer base everyday which is 20 million people on average today and is expected to grow by 3.5 million more who have not had any prior prescription drug coverage.
With condos being built by the second, the increase in residential living in Center City will hopefully lend to stable business competition between CVS and mom-and-pop outlets and some shopkeepers are optimistic.
“Hopefully they’ll filter back after a while,” Ippoliti said. “Most of my customers are residents from the apartments next door and in time they’ll come back and see my prices are more competitive.
Elimination of the small family –run business is one step closer to the elimination of the middle- man in the US economy.
The next step is the loss of a stable economic system in this community.
CVS is expanding and early last week announced its $21 million deal to buy the medical distribution group Caremarx Rx, creating new benefits for employers, more choice for consumers and ultimately more competition for local business.