Editor’s Note
Back in the old days — that’s less than a decade and before there were such things as blogs and interactive conversations with readers — editors used to respond to their newspaper readers with an “editor’s note.” Sometimes it clarified a point made in a letter to the editor. Sometimes it offered a correction. Sometimes it was just a simple explanation. An editor’s note was a handful of sentences; maybe a four or five paragraphs. It was always a personal link between the editor and the reader. Only difference between it and today’s blog is the immediacy and the platform. Welcome to Editor’s Note.

Archive for June 24th, 2008

Newspapers are dying — Not so much

5 comments June 24th, 2008

Some are. For sure. Not the Rockford Register Star. Not even close. Love us; hate us. We’re still the gorilla information center that gets results for advertisers and covers the news better than all the other media combined. More on that amazingly arrogant statement in a minute. Back to the dying.

Mostly, it’s the major metros, like Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, that are in trouble. Even the legendary ones, like the Washington Post and the New York Times, find themselves wrestling with a bleak forecast they never imagined. One newspaper group owner predicts by the end of the year that as many as 19 major metros could be gone. I think that’s a tad hysterical, even if the guy is a friend. But, though times are tough for us mid-size markets, too, and we must transform more quickly, we’re in no danger of disappearing. For one reason: We’ve always known that local news, information and advertising combine to make up our franchise. Do those things well; stay alive and kicking through the transformation that takes us into the full-blown digital age.

So, how can I make those arrogant statements? ‘Cuz I have the research to back it up. We just completed our every-three-year market research and we’ll be sharing the results over the next couple months. But, here’s a headline for today:

* The daily and Sunday newspapers reach 71 percent of the adults in the market. Add rrstar.com to the mix and we reach 74 percent. In short, if you want to connect with anyone 18 or over in Winnebago or Boone counties, if you want them to know something or buy something from you, you’d better have a presence in this newspaper and on our Web site. How does that compare with three years ago? We’re down three percentage points and up almost 9,000 readers (that can happen when the market grows as this one did.)

Frankly, we expected a 10-15 point drop because that’s what’s been happening everywhere else in the country, and in some places it’s been even more.  I know some folks will (a) not believe me, or (b) wish they had an alternative. But, for right now, I’m going to enjoy the fact that both my newspaper and my Web site are doing just fine. More headlines later this week.