Goodbye, All My Memories

Draper scrapbooking store All My Memories closed yesterday. The Trib did a nice article on it last week, perhaps a bit too nice. The owner talked about closing the store because she didn't want to sign a five-year lease, and the reporter let that go at face value. Other bits and pieces in the story indicated that the problem was far deeper than a simple lease dispute, though. The owner had already shut down three other retail outlets and her supply manufacturing facility. That would indicate that, contrary to the owner's claim that the scrapbooking industry has plateaued, it is in fact careening down a cliff. That's information business owners and those of us who serve them would like to know, but the reporter didn't go there, pulling a Mary Sunshine instead.

I like media coverage of local business, but I like it to be coverage. Tossing softballs a la Larry King doesn't give readers the information they need.