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  • Guglielmo

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Submitted by oldtimeydave on Fri, 01/19/2007 - 1:32pm.
Well hot off the AP press is a fairly nice article about the high end home espresso machine market. http://www.theolympian.com/105/story/61287.html

What the Olympian missed is the fact that one of the most renowned and respected resources and companies dealing in such goods is right here in Oly.

EspressoParts.com, Espresso Parts, Espresso Parts NW, EPNW, is where I work full time. However you look it up and you'll find the name plastered in all over the internet, barista blogs, and top home coffee user forums. Forums like Coffeegeek.com Home-barista.com and more.

I work at Espresso Parts full time as webmaster and graphic designer. Although our forte is products, equipment parts and services for the professional coffee community at large, this is precisely what high end home users crave -- High end equipment and goods. Espresso Parts also either stocks and/or sells a number of high end espresso machines geared for the home market - none of the $69 garbage at Linens and Things or wherever.

In fact I just sent a few images of some home and pro and home equipment and tools to Portland Monthly yesterday. They can find us yet the Olympian can't drive down the street? I'm not surprised and I know many of you won't be either. We need a community paper that actually cherishes and supports the local community, and maybe does a little more than regurgitate AP fluff our way.
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community

"We need a community paper that actually cherishes and supports the local community, and maybe does a little more than regurgitate AP fluff our way."

I think your post here is an excellent turn in that direction.

"Anybody who doesn't know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose."

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Well I think Olyblog is an

Well I think Olyblog is an excellent turn in that direction... Thanks ;)
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You have a choice in what

You have a choice in what you read.  I think you are letting personal pride get in the way of a non-issue.  The Olympian may be our local paper, but they are part of a bigger corporation that continues to cut staffs and papers all over the country to save $$$.

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huh?

"The Olympian may be our local paper, but they are part of a bigger corporation that continues to cut staffs and papers all over the country to save $$$."

Pardon my ignorance, but exactly what aspect of your statement is a non-issue (keeping in mind that oldtimedavey's complaint regards a symptom of this problem)?

"Anybody who doesn't know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose."

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Uh, McClatchy hasn't been

Uh, McClatchy hasn't been cutting jobs. At all. Nobody has been cut from The Olympian or anywhere else that I know of since the acquisition.

Also, the original poster misses an important point: it's an AP article. We can't edit AP articles. Since we can't edit the article, we can't mention a local business.

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Now I didn't say edit the

Now I didn't say edit the article at all... I've worked with AP at another job and I know the routine. A short side story of all that we have in Oly that relates to the story would have been a nice local touch though.
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I can imagine someone that

I can imagine someone that posts what you do saying that... This is just another fine example from them. Why not print the story and maybe do a little research and see what this story might mean to our community? Which also leads us to the question... How can a bigger corporation that seemingly has no connection to Oly be our "local paper"?

I should add that it has nothing to do with my pride... We are what we are regardless of what they do and don't write.
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How does what I do play into

How does what I do play into my comment?  Running a for-profit business is about, well, making money.  Ask the owners where you work why they are in business.

For 50 cents a day, The Olympian has value.  For free online it has even more value.

I hate to say it, but maybe everyone who wants to be uber-local (to the point they can't for the life of them understand that the earth is a globe) shoud build a big ass bubble somewhere and all live together and never interact with anybody outside of your bubble.  You know, a big clique.  The complaining never ends.

 

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a double huh?

"For 50 cents a day, The Olympian has value. For free online it has even more value."

If you'd like, I can point you in the direction of multiple RSS aggregators which provide far better value than The Olympian for gleaning knowledge about the world-at-large. I don't believe anyone ever expressed an interest in being ignorant about yonder world. Or are you just looking to be belittle for the sake of it?

"Anybody who doesn't know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose."

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If you aren't into

If you aren't into "uber-localism" why do you read and post to a resource like this? To stir the pot?
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I'm in to localism, but I'm

I'm in to localism, but I'm realistic about it.  You're using a computer, right?  90% of that computer came from overseas - if not more.  China, baby... China.
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huh??

"You have a choice in what you read."

"Which makes sense?!?! Don't comment to your main source of information in Thruston(sic)County? No wonder he's not running again."

In one case you blast oldtimeydave because he has the freedom not to read the Olympian, in the other, you blast TJ Johnson because he used that freedom to not comment in the Olympian. How do you reconcile this double standard?

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Blast?  No, I simply stated

Blast?  No, I simply stated if you don't care for the information source, don't read it.  No blasting there.

TJ choosing not to comment, like as in "No comment," is his choice.  He's free to associate with people he'd like.

Thanks for pointing out my mistake in spelling Thurston incorrectly.  Your corretion makes me feel loved.

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Perhaps blast was the wrong

Perhaps blast was the wrong adjective, it certainly felt blasty to me.

You still haven't really answered my question, but you don't have to.

As far as the (sic), no offense meant at all, it's what you're trained to do as a journalist when quoting someone's written words and you come across a misspelling. A lot of that stuff has stuck with me.

“One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world was better for this.

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I fail to see the double

I fail to see the double standard.  Dave blogs a complaint about The Olympian and their lack of covering his local business in an AP article they ran about Espresso makers.  I said then don't read it.  Pretty simple stuff.

TJ loathes The Olympian and what it stands for so he chose not to comment.  I said, "What?"  Just tell them already.  They'll find out sooner or later.  They aren't asking for you to comment on a position or vote - just whether or not you plan to run.  If he were running I'm certain he would have made a comment and it would have been published for all to read.

 

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Analyze This...

I've been thinking about your double standards. A double standard is you telling me "You have a choice in what you read.". I say you also have a choice in what you read and you could have easily just passed by post and chosen not read it mearly by glancing at the title. You chose to comment on my post just like I chose to use this arena to make a statement about the aforementioned Olympian article. However as you always seem to like to do here you chose to stir up some sh**. Is that what a psych major does to a person?

Is there a way to filter out certain users posts?
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What does desiring more from

What does desiring more from our local news have to do with my Macintosh?
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The same as my post and

The same as my post and being a stated way because of where I work.

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Say what?

Say what?
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Don't worry about it, it

Don't worry about it, it went right over your head.
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had it been a legible

had it been a legible sentence it might not of...
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For me, nothing beats one of these








Less then $30 bucks and millions of Italians can't be wrong.





























"I would make it impossible for the covetous and avaricious to utterly impoverish the poor. The rich can take care of themselves."
^@^
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Got the same one...

Got the same one...
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In fact.. Thats one of the

In fact.. Thats one of the items I sent an image of to Portland Monthly.
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maybe it is just me

but I feel a lot closer to our sister to the south (Portland) then our brother to the north (Seattle).  Tacoma would be that uncle that no one is really supposed to talk about.  I'm seeing the Olympian become more like USA Today then a real local paper.  A good editor would have amended the wire service article to include a local angle.  I guess this is what you get when you are just interested in putting out a paper and not serving a community.

"I would make it impossible for the covetous and avaricious to utterly impoverish the poor. The rich can take care of themselves."
^@^
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word

word
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Ditto... Nicely put

Ditto... Nicely put
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My guess would be that it's

My guess would be that it's not that important to them. Or that they feel it's not that important to their readers. Maybe you should write them a letter and see what kind of response you get.

Personally, I'm not that big of a coffee drinker. I read the story in the Olympian, but could honestly care less about local stores that sell to the home espresso folks. Maybe the editor feels this way also.

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Could be... But I suspect if

Could be... But I suspect if they thought that they wouldn't have run the story to begin with.
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Maybe advertising too. Maybe

Maybe advertising too. Maybe they aren't allowed to plug local businesses unless they plug them all? Or maybe they just aren't paying attention and overlooked a local jewel. I truly think you should shoot them a letter or an email or something. Maybe a story about the local company could be a great follow-up to the AP story?
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Thats just it... They should

Thats just it... They should plug them all. There are only a handful of specialty coffee resources in the area. I mean it is still interesting when local folks are doing it too. I was just listing us as an example seeing how we are the espresso equipment folks in the area.

Batdorf sells some really nice coffee brewing equipment and great grinders as well. Plug the local coffee roasters too. We have 3 with national recognition and it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to find them.
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The Olympian and commerce

I believe that the Olympian's take on business, by and large, is that the Lacey style of business is good and that the Olympia style of business is bad.  Olympia doesn't fill the Sunday Olympian with pounds of slick color advertising like Lacey does.  Clearly businesses that don't utilize the Olympian for advertising can not be legitimate businesses.  It only seems natural that the Olympian would not even mention illegitimate businesses.

"I would make it impossible for the covetous and avaricious to utterly impoverish the poor. The rich can take care of themselves."
^@^
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national budgets

"My guess would be that it's not that important to them. Or that they feel it's not that important to their readers."

Dan Gilmore addresses this very issue in We the Media (local papers not covering local issues) and points to media centralization and the accompanying share holder profit growth demands as the culprit(s). The results are apparent in a reduced reporter workforce and an increasing reliance on syndicated press releases (e.g. the AP). I would be willing to bet the editors of The Olympian know very well just how dedicated of a coffee community it serves and that's why they decided to pay for this particular AP story. Which takes us back to oldtimeydave's initial story and The Olympian's failure to send a reporter into it's community. We can be passive media consumers and just take what they give us, or we can be proactive and actually demand that "local" media represent "local" citizens and businesses. Of course, as I'm typing this in a comment thread on a hyperlocal Web site, I'm probably preaching to the choir more than anything else...

"Anybody who doesn't know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose."

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=)

I'm probably preaching to the choir more than anything else...

Wink

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