QUOTE
Speak Out. Online comments. Quick Fix. The Meeting Place. And why we print them.
Comment on this story
What impact do you think the content of a daily newspaper has on the perception of the community?
This is a simple question with a complicated answer -- especially from a newspaper person’s perspective.
We at the newspaper realize that we do have a tremendous impact on the perception of the community. That responsibility resting on the shoulders of newspapers has not changed since our trade was conceived.
In recent years, newspapers, ours included, have been ridiculed for making seemingly unnecessary changes to content.
And, at the heart of the matter is that our industry has struggled to change during the past 50 years, while our audience has gone through dramatic lifestyle changes with the introduction of new technology.
What’s the biggest change newspapers have made in the past 50 years? We started printing in full color, prompted by the launch of USA Today -- an outsider of sorts.
There was a time when everyone subscribed to their local daily newspaper in small communities like La Porte and Michigan City, because that’s what everyone did. It was a good habit.
Back in 1995, The Herald-Argus was at 13,199 average daily paid circulation, plummeting to 12,056 by the year 2000. With such a drastic decline in circulation, mirroring the industry to some extent, was The Herald-Argus supposed to accept this trend?
Industrywide, in 1970, weekday newspaper readership was 77.6 percent and Sunday/weekend newspaper readership was 72.3 percent among adults. By 2001, weekday newspaper readership among adults had dropped to 54.3 percent and Sunday/weekend newspaper readership fell to 63.7 percent.
Since January 2001, the Readership Institute and Northwestern University have collaborated to evaluate what direction newspapers need to go in order to increase readership. Their initial research was comprised of 100 different newspaper markets, with 33 percent of those markets in between the 10,000 and 25,000 circulation size -- which is where we fit into the mix. Researchers conducted surveys with 37,000 consumers in these 100 markets, asking each interviewee more than 450 questions. Since this research began, the Readership Institute has evaluated 74,000 stories as part of content analysis, along with facilitating ongoing focus groups in these 100 newspaper markets.
This project, known as the “Impact Study,” has been noted as the largest survey ever conducted for the newspaper industry and is accessible at www.readership.org.
In the beginning, this was a difficult thing for our industry to put our arms around, because there wasn’t necessarily a road map or track record of best practices in the industry. With every newspaper losing circulation to some degree, it became an experiment in each market to see what increased readership.
We knew we had to do something to change the direction of our declining circulation. If any newspaper loses circulation, it provides less value to its advertisers -- eventually suffering revenue losses. Establishing circulation growth goals and actually achieving those goals are two completely different things.
Of course, everyone in the newspaper industry wishes it were easy to grow circulation. If it were, nobody would be making changes to their product and I probably wouldn’t be dedicating my column to this subject. We’d all stay the same. Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken, right?
But the undeniable reality is that newspapers have been ailing for a long time. Check out the number of media sources in 1950 versus the year 2000.
AM Radio: 1950 - 2,086. 2000 - 4,685.
FM Radio: 1950 - 781. 2000 - 8,032.
TV Stations: 1950 - 98. 2000 - 1,616.
Cable Systems: 1950 - 0. 2000 - 10,451.
Newspapers: 1950 - 1,772. 2000 - 1,483.
Periodicals: 1950 - 7,000. 2000 - 19,000.
Web Sites: 1950 - 0. 2000 - Trillions and growing.
As you can see, the market has become fragmented, with the number of daily newspapers declining by 289. That’s right! Almost 300 newspapers have gone out of business during the past 50 years, while other forms of media have increased. This is scary, especially for people who consider this business their livelihood.
I personally started delivering newspapers when I was 10, then went on to do other jobs before coming back to the newspaper industry as an employee at the same newspaper I started out delivering. Newspaper ink is in my blood, as well as my many friends in the industry, and it pains all of us to see this changing media landscape.
Simply providing local news isn’t enough anymore. At The La Porte County Herald-Argus, we measure our volume of local stories and photos versus wire content. You may be surprised to discover that we have actually increased our volume of local content, including stories and photos, year after year. We measure all of our stories and photos, and we even keep track of our competition, including the South Bend Tribune and the Michigan City News-Dispatch.
We sometimes hear people say that these other papers have more local news than we do, which is purely a matter of perception -- because the real statistics show otherwise. We have been tracking these statistics for about three years now, and I would invite any of our readers to take a month’s worth of our competitors and count all local stories and local photos, and compare them to what we have to offer. Hands down, our newspaper provides more local news than any other media source in La Porte County. And this is a tribute to the employees of our company for making this commitment.
For those of you who think this is a La Porte (city)-only newspaper, and we shouldn’t include any news about Michigan City, a couple thoughts come to mind.
We would be foolish to limit the growth potential of our business. Is Michigan City really that far away from La Porte? If you live in La Porte, how many times per week or per month do you travel to Michigan City to shop or eat? These cities share many commonalities, simply based on proximity. I think we’d be foolish to say there isn’t a connection. In so many ways, our newspaper has reflected those synergies.
Here are some thoughts for those who have concerns with Speak Out, Quick Fix, The Meeting Place or online comments.
First off, The Meeting Place was launched in September 2003, offering something that has been typical of most newspapers I’ve worked at. It’s simply a personal ad section. To those who do have concerns with it, I say: Don’t read it. I’m sure there are television channels or programming that similarly don’t interest you. If you’re disturbed by it, then move on to another page. You may not want to believe it, but there are actually people in La Porte County who use the personal ads. I’m sure you may even know of someone who has met a person over the Internet. I’ve even heard of people getting married after meeting on the Internet. It’s amazing but true!
OK, now for the Quick Fix briefs that appear on the bottom of the front page each day. Research shows that this type of news, local and weird, attracts readers. I’m sad to see it myself, that we have a steady flow of local people who seem to be auditioning for an episode of “COPS.” I can’t help but wonder if they’re all related somehow. Nevertheless, this drives readership.
Lastly, regarding Speak Out, I’ve heard rumors that people are expecting Speak Out to cease once I have left the building. Does that mean I get to take all of the Speak Out T-shirts with me?
For those of you who have gotten your hopes up, don’t pop the cork on your bottle of champagne just yet.
The Speak Out feature was started in Moline, Ill., at The Daily Dispatch more than 20 years ago by the owners of this same newspaper you are reading today. The Moline newspaper is the same place where John Newby, who will follow me as interim publisher, is coming from after serving as its circulation director for the past four years. Newby is very familiar with Speak Out, as it has been in existence at his newspaper since way before he arrived. I should mention it was also launched in Kankakee, Ill., at The Daily Journal more than 15 years ago, which is another newspaper I worked at.
Interestingly, when I first encountered Speak Out while working at the Kankakee newspaper, I had trouble understanding its value. While networking in the business community, I would get hassled by business leaders and politicians about the subject matter. I wasn’t necessarily a fan of the feature.
Then, while visiting my wife at a hospital where she worked, the purpose of Speak Out became evident to me. Several of my wife’s coworkers were reading The Daily Journal, where Speak Out runs in the newspaper every day of the week (be happy you get it only Wednesday and Friday with the H-A -- if you don’t like it). Naturally, being curious about their utility of our product, I asked them what they read in the newspaper. All of them resoundingly stated that Speak Out was the first and sometimes only thing they read in our newspaper. I was shocked. I knew we had more to offer. But these 20-somethings knew why they bought the newspaper. It was for Speak Out.
So, the moral of that story is that our newspaper needs to provide something for everyone. While you may detest Speak Out or Quick Fix or the Meeting Place, there is another reader who can’t wait to get their eyeballs on it. And ironically, it appears that those who can’t stand these features tend to read them with more passion than those who enjoy them. I envision the antagonists of Speak Out mimicking Homer Simpson while reading each Speak Out comment, sitting on their sofas, eating donuts and drinking Duff beer while repeatedly saying “D’oh!”
For those concerned with the online comments, again that was initiated in Moline in early 2006 and was eventually rolled out at all of our daily newspaper locations, dramatically increasing our Web site traffic. That’s the point. Increasing traffic provides value to advertisers who wish to promote their business and services on the Web.
I will let you know that John Newby and I have been working on this issue of growing readership over the past several years, attending many of the same conferences revolving around the findings of the “Impact Study.” In the announcement of my resignation, Newby cited that he is a strong proponent of “Disruptive Innovation,” which is another common denominator we share.
Whether it’s John Newby, myself, or any other person charged with leading this organization, change will have to occur in order to grow. It’s inevitable.
To tie all of this together to answer my original, simple question, from a newspaper person’s complicated perspective, we realize that we have an impact on the perception of the communities we serve -- but we have found that we need to find more interactive and creative ways of getting your attention. Society has and will continue to change the content demands of daily newspapers if this relationship is going to persist, hence changing the perception of the community together.
Comment on this story
What impact do you think the content of a daily newspaper has on the perception of the community?
This is a simple question with a complicated answer -- especially from a newspaper person’s perspective.
We at the newspaper realize that we do have a tremendous impact on the perception of the community. That responsibility resting on the shoulders of newspapers has not changed since our trade was conceived.
In recent years, newspapers, ours included, have been ridiculed for making seemingly unnecessary changes to content.
And, at the heart of the matter is that our industry has struggled to change during the past 50 years, while our audience has gone through dramatic lifestyle changes with the introduction of new technology.
What’s the biggest change newspapers have made in the past 50 years? We started printing in full color, prompted by the launch of USA Today -- an outsider of sorts.
There was a time when everyone subscribed to their local daily newspaper in small communities like La Porte and Michigan City, because that’s what everyone did. It was a good habit.
Back in 1995, The Herald-Argus was at 13,199 average daily paid circulation, plummeting to 12,056 by the year 2000. With such a drastic decline in circulation, mirroring the industry to some extent, was The Herald-Argus supposed to accept this trend?
Industrywide, in 1970, weekday newspaper readership was 77.6 percent and Sunday/weekend newspaper readership was 72.3 percent among adults. By 2001, weekday newspaper readership among adults had dropped to 54.3 percent and Sunday/weekend newspaper readership fell to 63.7 percent.
Since January 2001, the Readership Institute and Northwestern University have collaborated to evaluate what direction newspapers need to go in order to increase readership. Their initial research was comprised of 100 different newspaper markets, with 33 percent of those markets in between the 10,000 and 25,000 circulation size -- which is where we fit into the mix. Researchers conducted surveys with 37,000 consumers in these 100 markets, asking each interviewee more than 450 questions. Since this research began, the Readership Institute has evaluated 74,000 stories as part of content analysis, along with facilitating ongoing focus groups in these 100 newspaper markets.
This project, known as the “Impact Study,” has been noted as the largest survey ever conducted for the newspaper industry and is accessible at www.readership.org.
In the beginning, this was a difficult thing for our industry to put our arms around, because there wasn’t necessarily a road map or track record of best practices in the industry. With every newspaper losing circulation to some degree, it became an experiment in each market to see what increased readership.
We knew we had to do something to change the direction of our declining circulation. If any newspaper loses circulation, it provides less value to its advertisers -- eventually suffering revenue losses. Establishing circulation growth goals and actually achieving those goals are two completely different things.
Of course, everyone in the newspaper industry wishes it were easy to grow circulation. If it were, nobody would be making changes to their product and I probably wouldn’t be dedicating my column to this subject. We’d all stay the same. Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken, right?
But the undeniable reality is that newspapers have been ailing for a long time. Check out the number of media sources in 1950 versus the year 2000.
AM Radio: 1950 - 2,086. 2000 - 4,685.
FM Radio: 1950 - 781. 2000 - 8,032.
TV Stations: 1950 - 98. 2000 - 1,616.
Cable Systems: 1950 - 0. 2000 - 10,451.
Newspapers: 1950 - 1,772. 2000 - 1,483.
Periodicals: 1950 - 7,000. 2000 - 19,000.
Web Sites: 1950 - 0. 2000 - Trillions and growing.
As you can see, the market has become fragmented, with the number of daily newspapers declining by 289. That’s right! Almost 300 newspapers have gone out of business during the past 50 years, while other forms of media have increased. This is scary, especially for people who consider this business their livelihood.
I personally started delivering newspapers when I was 10, then went on to do other jobs before coming back to the newspaper industry as an employee at the same newspaper I started out delivering. Newspaper ink is in my blood, as well as my many friends in the industry, and it pains all of us to see this changing media landscape.
Simply providing local news isn’t enough anymore. At The La Porte County Herald-Argus, we measure our volume of local stories and photos versus wire content. You may be surprised to discover that we have actually increased our volume of local content, including stories and photos, year after year. We measure all of our stories and photos, and we even keep track of our competition, including the South Bend Tribune and the Michigan City News-Dispatch.
We sometimes hear people say that these other papers have more local news than we do, which is purely a matter of perception -- because the real statistics show otherwise. We have been tracking these statistics for about three years now, and I would invite any of our readers to take a month’s worth of our competitors and count all local stories and local photos, and compare them to what we have to offer. Hands down, our newspaper provides more local news than any other media source in La Porte County. And this is a tribute to the employees of our company for making this commitment.
For those of you who think this is a La Porte (city)-only newspaper, and we shouldn’t include any news about Michigan City, a couple thoughts come to mind.
We would be foolish to limit the growth potential of our business. Is Michigan City really that far away from La Porte? If you live in La Porte, how many times per week or per month do you travel to Michigan City to shop or eat? These cities share many commonalities, simply based on proximity. I think we’d be foolish to say there isn’t a connection. In so many ways, our newspaper has reflected those synergies.
Here are some thoughts for those who have concerns with Speak Out, Quick Fix, The Meeting Place or online comments.
First off, The Meeting Place was launched in September 2003, offering something that has been typical of most newspapers I’ve worked at. It’s simply a personal ad section. To those who do have concerns with it, I say: Don’t read it. I’m sure there are television channels or programming that similarly don’t interest you. If you’re disturbed by it, then move on to another page. You may not want to believe it, but there are actually people in La Porte County who use the personal ads. I’m sure you may even know of someone who has met a person over the Internet. I’ve even heard of people getting married after meeting on the Internet. It’s amazing but true!
OK, now for the Quick Fix briefs that appear on the bottom of the front page each day. Research shows that this type of news, local and weird, attracts readers. I’m sad to see it myself, that we have a steady flow of local people who seem to be auditioning for an episode of “COPS.” I can’t help but wonder if they’re all related somehow. Nevertheless, this drives readership.
Lastly, regarding Speak Out, I’ve heard rumors that people are expecting Speak Out to cease once I have left the building. Does that mean I get to take all of the Speak Out T-shirts with me?
For those of you who have gotten your hopes up, don’t pop the cork on your bottle of champagne just yet.
The Speak Out feature was started in Moline, Ill., at The Daily Dispatch more than 20 years ago by the owners of this same newspaper you are reading today. The Moline newspaper is the same place where John Newby, who will follow me as interim publisher, is coming from after serving as its circulation director for the past four years. Newby is very familiar with Speak Out, as it has been in existence at his newspaper since way before he arrived. I should mention it was also launched in Kankakee, Ill., at The Daily Journal more than 15 years ago, which is another newspaper I worked at.
Interestingly, when I first encountered Speak Out while working at the Kankakee newspaper, I had trouble understanding its value. While networking in the business community, I would get hassled by business leaders and politicians about the subject matter. I wasn’t necessarily a fan of the feature.
Then, while visiting my wife at a hospital where she worked, the purpose of Speak Out became evident to me. Several of my wife’s coworkers were reading The Daily Journal, where Speak Out runs in the newspaper every day of the week (be happy you get it only Wednesday and Friday with the H-A -- if you don’t like it). Naturally, being curious about their utility of our product, I asked them what they read in the newspaper. All of them resoundingly stated that Speak Out was the first and sometimes only thing they read in our newspaper. I was shocked. I knew we had more to offer. But these 20-somethings knew why they bought the newspaper. It was for Speak Out.
So, the moral of that story is that our newspaper needs to provide something for everyone. While you may detest Speak Out or Quick Fix or the Meeting Place, there is another reader who can’t wait to get their eyeballs on it. And ironically, it appears that those who can’t stand these features tend to read them with more passion than those who enjoy them. I envision the antagonists of Speak Out mimicking Homer Simpson while reading each Speak Out comment, sitting on their sofas, eating donuts and drinking Duff beer while repeatedly saying “D’oh!”
For those concerned with the online comments, again that was initiated in Moline in early 2006 and was eventually rolled out at all of our daily newspaper locations, dramatically increasing our Web site traffic. That’s the point. Increasing traffic provides value to advertisers who wish to promote their business and services on the Web.
I will let you know that John Newby and I have been working on this issue of growing readership over the past several years, attending many of the same conferences revolving around the findings of the “Impact Study.” In the announcement of my resignation, Newby cited that he is a strong proponent of “Disruptive Innovation,” which is another common denominator we share.
Whether it’s John Newby, myself, or any other person charged with leading this organization, change will have to occur in order to grow. It’s inevitable.
To tie all of this together to answer my original, simple question, from a newspaper person’s complicated perspective, we realize that we have an impact on the perception of the communities we serve -- but we have found that we need to find more interactive and creative ways of getting your attention. Society has and will continue to change the content demands of daily newspapers if this relationship is going to persist, hence changing the perception of the community together.