If You Want to Look Progressive...

...don't put Fox News on your homepage.

Simmer down, my red-state friends. This post is no diatribe against Fox News. This post is not about substance, but image, which is what my friends in marketing are all about. I checked out the new Madison website, an apparent joint effort of the Chamber of Commerce, Lake Area Improvement Corporation, city government, and Dakota State University. My own business is listed in this website's directory, so I have a vested interest in seeing it draw as much attention to our fair city as possible.

So perhaps you can understand my dismay when, after hearing various leading lights in our busy little local marketing clique talk about needing to project a positive, progressive image to visitors and potential investors/employers/relocators, I find the national news feed on the front page labeled "Provided by Fox News" -- and linked, no less! Now I can live with the local news link going to KJAM Radio and not The Madville Times (for now). But Fox? Love it or hate it, you cannot deny that Fox News carries a very definite image that will turn off numerous visitors, especially among the key demographic (young, sophisticated professionals with education and money) over which we local economic developers salivate the most.

Putting a national news feed on the city's main page may have some merit: perhaps it demonstrates how "in touch with the world" Madison is (oh, but oops: we ditched that slogan and removed all the old signs). It at least is an easy way to generate constantly changing content that may drive repeat visits. Still, one could argue those headlines are taking up valuable visual territory with non-Madison information that (a) might carry unhappy information and overshadow the generally positive impression we want to make and (b) web surfers can get anywhere else, thus rendering our site less distinct.

But whether or not the news feed is a good idea, choosing Fox News for our web-welcome mat demonstrates either a lack of understanding of our target market or (yikes!) a conscious desire to put out a sign that says, "Welcome, Republicans!" The latter may sound paranoid, but considering that the president Darin Namken of the web design company in charge has also served as state committeeman for the Lake County GOP, one might wonder.

The point -- read Fox News all you want. But let's try to keep our politics separate from our efforts to promote the town.

(By the way, progressives note spelling, too: "Calendar" is -ar, not -er. Check the Madison sidebar!)