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of the Internet as a shopping resource is already changing
the face of local advertising.”
– Neal Polachek, of the Internet Research firm,
The Kelsey Group
Articles
Free Community
Papers Survive Not all the news about papers is bad. Our industry is best positioned to move to the forefront. By: Dan McDonough Jr. and Alan Bauer - Wed
May 6, 2009
Haddonfield, N.J. – It's widely reported – and
has become generally accepted – that the newspaper model
is either dying or already dead, when, in fact, thousands of newspapers
across the country are doing quite well. Thousands of newspapers
deliver for their readers and advertisers every day. Thousands
of newspapers are positioned to embrace – not be destroyed
by – emerging technology.
But we don't get to read much about those newspapers. Sure it's
news when giant corporations crash and burn and lives are disrupted.
Stories that report on incompetent leaders who, ironically, receive
outlandish compensation are widely read. Documenting the downfall
of powerful entities, whether they are governments or businesses,
is a legitimate pursuit. But, as any respectable journalist knows,
when you tell only half the story, the story is incomplete – or
just plain wrong.
In this instance, the half that receives little to no attention
from big media involves the men and women in the newspaper industry
who write the stories, sell the ads, print and deliver the papers
and update the websites every day, without fail, for media companies
that are far from dead.
The National Newspaper Association (NNA) last month reported on
a study that showed community newspapers were far less affected
by the challenging economy than the industry in general (or the
economy in general, for that matter). The Suburban Newspapers of
America and NNA's reporting group showed 2008 fourth-quarter advertising
revenue of $428.7 million, only a 6.6 percent decline from the
same quarter in 2007. The Glennco Consulting Group estimate was
much worse, however, for the overall newspaper industry. There
it showed decline in fourth-quarter advertising expenditures of
21 percent, according to the NNA.
So while advertisers cut their spending by 21 percent across the
industry, the impact to community newspapers was less than 7 percent.
In addition, 26 percent of the SNA/NNA reporting group launched
new products in 2008. Indeed, many community newspaper companies
are growing.
The fact is that gains among progressive community newspaper companies
are offsetting a large part of the massive losses being suffered
by the staid, big newspaper companies.
"Community newspapers certainly are not immune to the economic
downturn that is affecting all businesses, but, as the primary
and sometimes sole provider of local news in a community, they
remain strong and viable," NNA president John Stevenson said
in the article.
These "strong and viable" companies recognized and adapted
to the changing economy in a way that larger newspapers – for
the most part – are not. They adapted to evolving reader
habits and emerging business models. They abandoned the traditional,
head-in-the-sand mentality of denial and exploited the opportunities
presented by their often larger, but undeniably obsolete, brethren.
At Elauwit Media, we learned long ago that people don't want to "pay" for
their news anymore.
We know that, for advertising to be effective, people have to actually
see the ads. Our business model and philosophy of making sure "Everybody
Gets It. Everybody Reads It." pushes us to bring local news
not found elsewhere to everybody who has an address in town. It
fills a very specific need for our readers and it works so well
that, for the past two years, we have been listed among South Jersey's
10 fastest-growing privately held companies. We've gone from a
start-up in 2004 with $100,000 in revenue to a thriving company
with revenues in excess of $2.4 million in 2008.
That's certainly not the story we're hearing about newspaper companies
today. But that's the story of so many of us smaller newspaper
companies that have adapted to the changes in the market.
This success is no great mystery – it's the American way.
Ingenuity, creativity, and the entrepreneurial spiritalways have
been rewarded. The newspaper companies that have altered circulation
methods and policies, have focused their content and developed
news delivery methods to fit today's audience and advertisers are
thriving. They found new streams of revenue and ways to reduce
costs that didn't eviscerate their core products.
In other words, they ran their businesses the way businesses ought
to be run. For instance, huge regional daily newspapers would do
better to stop requiring people to subscribe and instead deliver
the paper to everybody in their target demographic (the market
that key advertisers want to reach). If big newspapers would charge
the advertisers, not the readers, they could still turn things
around. That would be a bold way to evolve. It is highly doubtful
they'll do that. We did.
So as the giant media conglomerates continue to watch their kingdoms
crumble, and the self-styled scribes of truth chronicle their every
misstep and blunder, the rest of us will continue to vacuum up
their former readers and advertisers. We'll continue to grow. We'll
continue to adapt. We'll continue to profit. And we'll do it all
while upholding the standards of journalism that make newspapers
so important. And therein lies the future of newspapers – one
that's not so gloomy for everyone.
Dan McDonough Jr. and Alan Bauer are founders of Elauwit Media,
a community newspaper/media company based in Haddonfield, N.J.
