Park Cities People Described as ‘Fan Magazine’
I just started thumbing through The Park Cities: A Walker’s Guide & Brief History, which was published 25 years ago by SMU Press. In their foreword, authors Diane Galloway and Kathy Matthews offer “special thanks to Marjorie Waters of the Park Cities News for her interest in the book.” So I flipped to the index to see if Park Cities People was mentioned, and it was, once, in the “Did You Know” section:
Did you know that the Park Cities News was founded in January, 1938? Early Park Cities residents could hardly wait to read their small-town weekly from cover to cover, starting with the Police Reports. Sometimes free, sometimes under a different title, the News has developed into a prize-winning paper under its current owner, Marjorie Waters. January, 1988, marked its fiftieth anniversary.
Did you know that another local newspaper, Park Cities People, was founded in 1981 on the theory that the Park Cities didn’t want a newspaper, they wanted a fan magazine starring themselves?
Whoa. That sounds a like a shot. And for some reason it made me flinch, even though I was in the eighth grade when it was published.
Let’s see the current PCP front page headlines:
Mugging mastermind gets 40 years. Yep, that’s news. Definitely not a parkie vanity piece.
Then there’s
Disco balls and dancing machines (UP Elementary PTA party)
Weekly readers aid kids’ literacy (Parkies volunteer at poor schools)
Doughnut business makes trivia tasty (UP donut shop sales gimmick)
Jesters steal spotlight, hearts (Parkies do a church play)
Nothing wrong with embracing your fan magazine identity.
January 1938, maybe? The PC News hardly seems likely to win prizes anymore. Your paper is named PEOPLE. We see or read about our neighbors. Are we “fans” of local school kids? Papercity is the one with pictures of the rich and famous.
@Disagree: Oops. I transposed the 3 and the 8. My lexdysia must be acting up.
If you think stories such as “Local Kids Think Mom is Best Ever” or “Cub Scouts Build Treehouse” are appropriate above-the-fold front page blockbusters, then the Park Cities News is the paper for you. Anything more hard-hitting would be too distressing for the assisted living residents and fragile shut-ins who comprise its readership.