Post by Jaga on Jul 9, 2008 16:09:01 GMT -7
I am on the Community Advisory Board of our local newspaper Post Register. The main editor of the newspaper is worrying that .... young people would stop reading the newspaper since they are so used to electronic news. What do you think about it?
here is the e-mail I received:
“Mini-Monday”
For newspapers, not to mention the rest of the information-consuming-and-disseminating world, 1980 was a watershed year. That was the year that Ted Turner launched CNN and the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch became the first newspaper to produce a digital edition via CompuServe. Turner also famously predicted that newspapers wouldn’t survive that decade.
Turner may have been wrong about the imminent death of newspapers, but he clearly helped to trigger the beginning of the destruction of the ages-old newspaper business model. The Internet has accelerated this sea change, beginning in earnest in the late 1980s. Imagine for a moment a day when there were essentially three sources for local news: broadcast television, radio and newspapers. That was the news world for most of the 20th century.
Now into the second generation of this wrenching change, most newspapers are still operating on the business model of the mid-20th century, for two simple reasons: The old model turns a lower but still handsome profit, and the new media models don’t. Indeed, take away the profit from the old business model and there is no new media for local news.
However, clinging to the old ways – the printing of news and advertising on paper and delivering it to paying customers – will eventually lead to the slow, agonizing death of the local newspaper. On the other hand, an immediate forsaking of this old model will lead to a quick, painless death. The only answer is a careful but inexorable transition that will likely take another generation to complete.
Newspapers are caught in a tug of war between those who are comfortable receiving their daily news fix on dead trees, perhaps occasionally supplementing it with a peek online, versus those (typically under 30 types) who can’t imagine reading anything printed on newsprint. The latter group is offended at the thought of actually having to pay for the privilege of reading local news. The former group can’t imagine the idea of sipping their morning coffee/orange juice without the “deadwood” edition of the paper.
All of this is a roundabout way of saying that the Post Register is beginning a months-long process to consider ending its Monday print edition.
Shocking, yes? Well, perhaps not so much.
Up until 1996, the Post Register was a six-day paper – it didn’t publish on Saturdays. That year, the newspaper converted to morning delivery and added Saturday. In the 116 years up until then, the republic was not threatened by the lack of an “every day” paper in eastern Idaho.
Now, as we consider going back to six days a week for our print edition we have the luxury of providing continuous local news on our web site without regard for when our printing press rolls. There are nearly 6,000 people who have a password to our site, the vast majority of whom are print subscribers who also get a password to the online edition at no extra charge. Every weekday, about half of those people visit our web site, resulting in 500,000 page views (and growing) a month.
The Monday print edition is weak. Advertisers don’t like it, readers are indifferent to it. For about nine months out of the year it’s a money loser. As the cost of newsprint and gasoline continue to rise, so do the Monday losses.
So, are we serious about this hybrid future that incorporates both print and online? Of course we are – we have no choice. What better way to experiment with a potential future model than by going online-only on Mondays? Plus – let’s be honest – we can save money by doing this.
We’re considering a two-step process to get to an online-only Monday. Almost immediately, we are seriously considering producing a “mini-Monday” paper, which would be about two-thirds or less the size of our current Monday edition. At the same time, we’d beef up our online news for that day. Then, on Jan. 5, 2009, we’d convert to an online-only Monday edition. Between now and then we’d engage in a pretty constant promotional campaign to alert and educate our readers.
So, there it is: the “whopper of a topic.” I’m giving you advance notice because it’s a complex issue and there are so many things to consider.
here is the e-mail I received:
“Mini-Monday”
For newspapers, not to mention the rest of the information-consuming-and-disseminating world, 1980 was a watershed year. That was the year that Ted Turner launched CNN and the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch became the first newspaper to produce a digital edition via CompuServe. Turner also famously predicted that newspapers wouldn’t survive that decade.
Turner may have been wrong about the imminent death of newspapers, but he clearly helped to trigger the beginning of the destruction of the ages-old newspaper business model. The Internet has accelerated this sea change, beginning in earnest in the late 1980s. Imagine for a moment a day when there were essentially three sources for local news: broadcast television, radio and newspapers. That was the news world for most of the 20th century.
Now into the second generation of this wrenching change, most newspapers are still operating on the business model of the mid-20th century, for two simple reasons: The old model turns a lower but still handsome profit, and the new media models don’t. Indeed, take away the profit from the old business model and there is no new media for local news.
However, clinging to the old ways – the printing of news and advertising on paper and delivering it to paying customers – will eventually lead to the slow, agonizing death of the local newspaper. On the other hand, an immediate forsaking of this old model will lead to a quick, painless death. The only answer is a careful but inexorable transition that will likely take another generation to complete.
Newspapers are caught in a tug of war between those who are comfortable receiving their daily news fix on dead trees, perhaps occasionally supplementing it with a peek online, versus those (typically under 30 types) who can’t imagine reading anything printed on newsprint. The latter group is offended at the thought of actually having to pay for the privilege of reading local news. The former group can’t imagine the idea of sipping their morning coffee/orange juice without the “deadwood” edition of the paper.
All of this is a roundabout way of saying that the Post Register is beginning a months-long process to consider ending its Monday print edition.
Shocking, yes? Well, perhaps not so much.
Up until 1996, the Post Register was a six-day paper – it didn’t publish on Saturdays. That year, the newspaper converted to morning delivery and added Saturday. In the 116 years up until then, the republic was not threatened by the lack of an “every day” paper in eastern Idaho.
Now, as we consider going back to six days a week for our print edition we have the luxury of providing continuous local news on our web site without regard for when our printing press rolls. There are nearly 6,000 people who have a password to our site, the vast majority of whom are print subscribers who also get a password to the online edition at no extra charge. Every weekday, about half of those people visit our web site, resulting in 500,000 page views (and growing) a month.
The Monday print edition is weak. Advertisers don’t like it, readers are indifferent to it. For about nine months out of the year it’s a money loser. As the cost of newsprint and gasoline continue to rise, so do the Monday losses.
So, are we serious about this hybrid future that incorporates both print and online? Of course we are – we have no choice. What better way to experiment with a potential future model than by going online-only on Mondays? Plus – let’s be honest – we can save money by doing this.
We’re considering a two-step process to get to an online-only Monday. Almost immediately, we are seriously considering producing a “mini-Monday” paper, which would be about two-thirds or less the size of our current Monday edition. At the same time, we’d beef up our online news for that day. Then, on Jan. 5, 2009, we’d convert to an online-only Monday edition. Between now and then we’d engage in a pretty constant promotional campaign to alert and educate our readers.
So, there it is: the “whopper of a topic.” I’m giving you advance notice because it’s a complex issue and there are so many things to consider.
