La Vergne Shunned

I've heard that Smyrna is getting a newspaper and was happily supportive of the idea UNTIL I heard more today. The Smyrna Courier should debut on March 7th and is the product of the Tennessean / Daily News Journal publishers. It is not the Smyrna/La Vergne Courier. As such, it will not be distributed to us unless you have children zoned for Smyrna schools, according to my source. So if you live on the side of LaVergne where your child may attend Cedar Grove or Rock Springs Middle, congratulations. You'll get the paper. But the rest of us are not considered important enough receive a complimentary copy. Why? Because Smyrna has more retail.

I know that LaVergne has had to listen to crap for a LONG time about our lack of retail, but our elected officials are working feverishly to bring it here. And we are seeing progress! PLUS, we do have some outstanding industry here - Ingram, Bridgestone Firestone, etc. (just drive up Waldron Road aka Parthenon). Our population has passed 20,000 people but we don't deserve the newspaper.

My question to those who made the decision to not distribute the newspaper to LaVergne... Do you think we are not newsworthy? Do you think we don't have the financial acumen or muscle to object to this exclusion? If you are a concerned LaVergne resident that we are left out in the cold, please contact fellow LaVergne-dweller Gary Frazier (an editor at the Tennessean) at 278-5155 or 278-6397.

Oh. One more thing. The little hometown I'm from has a population of about 2,000. Even THAT has a weekly newspaper. Why do the decision-makers at the Tennessean/DNJ believe that a community with a population of about 23,000 be unable to support one? Maybe we should start our own and give some competition to their advertising dollars. Who's in?