An old saying is, if you put a frog into boiling water he will jump out, but if you put that same frog into cool water and turn up the heat until it boils he will cook. (This is an old wives tail and do not try this at home.)

   Does the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News believe the people of Denver don't realize what's happening to them with regard to inflated newspaper advertising rates? What will happen if the advertisers boycott? What if everyone just goes to CNN.com for the news? 

  It seems the strategy is to vilify Jake Jabs in order to shift attention away from the facts. Businesses in Denver will either pay up or their bigger and better backed competition will out spend them, and ultimately force them out of business. It will be said the successful companies were better managed when all they did was out-spend the little guy on advertising. 

   Yes, advertising works and everyone knows it. It is the underlying principal of marketing 101. It is easy to write about how much money Jake Jabs makes from his furniture business as if in some way to disassociate the working public from a "furniture mogul". But, who else could afford to tackle injustice on behalf of the little guy. Would Jake Jabs stand to benefit from a roll back on advertising prices? Most definitely, but so would Jerry Roth Chevrolet, Medved Chevrolet, Argonaut Liquors and more than 70 other business who formed the Coloradans Against Newspaper Monopolies. 

   With Jabs withdrawing from the fight many of these businesses will seek alternative forms of advertising. Where will they go? Radio, Television, The Westword or the Internet. Reuters reports the Rocky Mountain News lost $123 million in ten years and the Rocky Mountain News reported Jake Jabs made 275 million last year. Seems like the newspaper business needs to be run by oh, I don't know...businessmen.

Internet Sminternet!

   The Rocky Mountain News claims no fear of losing advertising revenue to the Internet, but notice the advertisers on the Rocky Mountain News website. The exponential growth of the Internet will certainly drain advertising dollars from traditional media. 

   The recent closing of many overpriced and overvalued dot.com companies, is merely the technology sector "culling the herd". Those companies with no realistic revenue model for success are rapidly shutting the doors. 

    Investors are no longer buying into a new dot.com idea without a viable source for profitability. Unfortunately much of the funding has already been lost. Investment companies "advertise" they are qualified to make investments on your behalf. Those who thought they lacked the knowledge to invest on their own turned to trained investing professionals. 

   Janus Managed Funds lost $52 Billion dollars in the FIRST quarter of 2001, and this is staggering especially if it was your money. It now seems the companies doing the investing were just betting on the "long shots" and these horses never reached the post. 

   This doesn't mean the Internet is going to fail. It only means that companies, which execute mind numbing business practices, will not flourish. The Internet is here to stay and many businesses are thriving online.

Chuck Green is no Patricia Calhoun but has anyone seen them in the same place at the same time?

   The front-page section of the Sunday Denver Post, April 15,2001 has, as the Headline photograph, "Daddy's home". This China / spy plane story is by two writers from the Washington Post. In point of fact this 24-page section contains no less than 21 news stories written by other news agencies including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press. 

   Ten years ago we had to read the local newspaper because it scoured the "newswire" and reported the stories to us. Times have changed. Now, anyone with an Internet connection can "log-on" directly to CNN.com, Reuters.com or the Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) and read, or read and print-out the story first-hand. Those people without a home Internet connection can "log-on" at the public library, or many "net cafes". Imagine having the original story in a digital format available for archive, completely paperless.

Chuck Green, (whom, by the way, we’ve not read before JOA coverage began) is typical of journalists with a forum or platform to speak. We believe in his right to have an opinion, we just believe a better forum to be a soapbox in City Park. 

   On April 01, 2001 the Chuck Green diatribe is, like so many who could not play the game, a comparison of salaries between Todd Helton, Mike Hampton and Larry Walker of the Colorado Rockies professional baseball team, and teachers and cops of Denver. 

   The subject of this article is huge pay for playing a game vs. teachers educating our children and cops risking their lives for little above the poverty line. This is overstating the obvious Chuck, but why chose baseball as an association of salary injustice? Why not choose Bank Presidents, National Attorneys, Hollywood Actors or Nachio? Here is why journalists attack baseball and other professional sports. 

   They can’t play the game themselves, but feel an intellectual superiority to athletes because of college degrees, internships and the struggle for a chance to file a story with a "by line". There is no one interested in having Chuck Green in the Television booth of a Rockies game, even if he was qualified. However, little kids (junior broadcasters) and ex-ball players, managers, scouts, equipment vendors, umpires, meatpacking tycoons, and other sport athletes, make more interesting commentators. 

Chuck Green / financial commentator?

March 30,2001 – Jake Jabs claims to be a businessman. If he is, he is giving business a bad name. -Chuck Green-

Thus starts Mr. Greens’ (he must be a successful businessman himself) column and again he is attacking Jake Jabs. Make no mistake, if you shoot the messenger, somehow the actual message carries less credibility. 

   By focusing on Jake Jabs the businessman Mr. Green does not have to address the advertising rape of former newspaper customers. Once again Chuck Green feels compelled to describe to you and me, the future business plans of American Furniture Warehouse and Jake Jabs.

-And now, rumor has it, he wants to get into the newspaper business, but it would cost roughly $200 million dollars. –Green- 
***Chuck, we will sell you ours for half that. -ed-

Business Negotiations only in the Newspaper business? or I will say anything I want, "I'm Gumby Damit!"

   For 25 years Jake Jabs used his size and name to negotiate newspaper-advertising rates favorable to American Furniture Warehouse. The newspapers acted shocked that businesses would operate in this fashion. In all cases if they felt they were being bullied by Jabs, they could have stopped taking his money, but they didn’t. The JOA permits a new company, the Denver Newspaper Agency, which oversees business functions for both papers. Dean Singleton is chairman of the Denver Newspaper Agency and publisher of the Denver Post. How many corporate executives would keep their jobs in light of the following statement to the press?

   "Jake Jabs has terrorized both newspapers for 25 years. In too many cases, both newspapers were selling advertising below cost, substantially below costs"

    "I am not afraid to call Jake a bully, a liar and a deceptive businessman."

   "I am looking forward to a Denver Post and a Rocky Mountain News with no American Furniture ads."—Dean Singleton-- 

   We can promise that any corporate executive who made a statement like this to the press about one of its largest sponsors, would be fired before the day was done. There is no company in this country which would allow any representative to make these types of statements to the press. Most certainly not the chairman. -Unless you owned the press! - 

   Yeah, sure you supported us for 25 years but now the government has allowed us to circumvent normal business rules and we don’t need your lying deceitful ass. Are you kidding me? Hey, Chuck why don’t you write about your arrogant bonehead boss Singleton? Whoops, sorry Chuck should’ve known better.