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.

Newspapers are dying — Not so much

June 24th, 2008 at 05:49pm Linda Grist Cunningham

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.

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5 Comments Add your own

  • 1. Barney B  |  June 24th, 2008 at 9:58 pm

    G K Chesterton said ….”News is what is printed on the other side of advertisements.” ….I often quote GKC , himself, along with many other things, was a gifted newspaper columnist, to my wife when she laments that the paper today is ‘nothing but ads’….pity the paper deliverer on Sunday and especially at Christmas and Easter. The RRStar prints so many automobile ads that we often refer to the paper as the Rockford Register Car. All in all, we still can not live with out it because of the other ads..Logli and Highlander…and most importantly the obituaries. The “news” is what breaks on CNN and Fox News at any second…No longer do we hear the cry of the street paper boys hawking his wares with cries of “EXTRA, EXTRA..READ ALL ABOUT IT”…. or an evening paper about the days events. I think because it is the main advertising instrument in the Rock River Valley that it will be around for awhile….as far as the news????

  • 2. Karl Vocal  |  June 25th, 2008 at 7:56 am

    Newspapers, particularly large newspaper companies, are killing themselves by not seeing reality and accepting lower profit margins. Yes, readers are leaving, but, rather than providing quality to keep those readers, the companies cut to maintain high profit margins. Those cuts diminish quality and drive more readers away. It is suicide by profit-seeking.

  • 3. Linda Grist Cunningham  |  June 25th, 2008 at 8:59 am

    Both good points, and on some things I agree. Let me add two points for pondering: (1) Yes, all the ads can sometimes overwhelm the space for news, BUT, advertisers pay the freight. Let’s just say that if newspaper readers had to pay the real cost of that newspaper, they wouldn’t. I’d say an ad-free newspaper would likely cost you at least $10 a day, not the 75 cents one pays at the newsstand. And, that’s not for profit; that’s to cover the news and get the work done. Local news coverage is a very, very expensive proposition. It isn’t as easy as it looks.

    (2) Yes, those profit margins are sticking points; newspapers have always been the proverbial “license to print money.” Especially so when they were privately owned and had no competition. But, when private owners sold out and publicly-held companies took over, it wasn’t only the “corporate owner” who wanted those juicy margins, it was the guy holding the stock. That’s gotten increasingly true over the past 10 years. Now, add to the insatiable thirst for stock returns the fact that the economy is shaky AND the more important fact that newspapers are an industry in transition (I prefer to say transformation), and the so-called three-point perfect storm is in play. Even if newspaper companies’ boards and Wall Street all agreed to break even, the industry would still be wrestling with how to jump the print-to-digital divide. Makes “rock-and-hard-place” an understatement.

    But, all that said, I know that local-franchise information centers like the Register Star will weather the current difficulties well. We’ll be delivering something in print every day, on the Web all the time, publishing specialty magazines, like Rockford Woman and BusinessRockford.com, and generally doing what we have always done: cover news, connect sellers and buyers.

  • 4. Millard Fillmore  |  June 30th, 2008 at 11:11 pm

    Linda,
    With regard to point 2, you make reasonable arguments. But a wise corporate person, maybe Warren Buffett once said, “you cannot cut your way to greatness.”

    The challenge for newspapers leaders is to communicate the need for investment to Wall Street. If they cannot do so, they need to step aside.

    Perhaps we need to go back to community ownership.

  • 5. Linda Grist Cunningham  |  July 1st, 2008 at 9:46 am

    Hey, Millard. Just saw you at the “old people read newspapers” post …. Community ownership does have its pros and cons, just as corporate ownership does. I’ve worked both; see good ones and bad.

    Know anyone who has a quarter billion lying around? (Yeah, a B…) That might get someone to the table for a round of bidding….

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