The printed word is not passé, said local newspaper publishers, but business and media experts are reaching to develop a new, sustainable model for community journalism.
Across the nation, several daily newspapers have filed for bankruptcy – including Vancouver’s own Columbian Publishing Co., which filed for Chapter 11 protection May 1 – but local non-daily publications appear to be relatively stable.
However, all see a need for change.
“We’ve moved from the industrial age into the information age,” said Columbian Publisher Scott Campbell.
This means, he said, that the print media industry must transition to a new structure that reflects the new information economy.
The online conundrum
The number of Americans who said they got most of their national and international news online increased 67 percent in the last four years, according to Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism 2009 State of the News Media report.
And more than 92 million people get their news online, according to the 2007 Pew report.
The Columbian’s online audience is the second-largest audience of shared media in Clark County (ahead of TV and radio), Campbell said.
However, there is widespread consumer reluctance to pay for online information (similar to how people expected free music via Napster in the early 2000s).
Campbell said the print media industry needs to develop a new business model, similar to the
way Apple positioned iTunes.
“Unless there’s a way to monetize the online audience,” Campbell said, online information will get “fewer resources, not more resources,” thereby reducing its quality.
“If it weren’t for local media putting local information online, folks would be hard-pressed to get it,” said John McDonagh, publisher of the Vancouver Business Journal. “Newspapers must be compensated for their efforts to get the information online.”
Strength in the local industry
The Columbian is facing some of the same issues as daily newspapers across the country – dealing with a 40 percent decline in advertising in the past few years, most of it in the past year.
The publishing company filed for bankruptcy protection to resolve credit issues with Bank of America, the primary lender on its six-story, $40 million downtown building. It owes about $17 million to the bank and several unsecured creditors, according to the newspaper.
However, local weeklies appear to be much more strongly positioned.
“Last year was our best year ever,” said Marvin Case, publisher of The Reflector, a Battle Ground-based weekly newspaper serving northern Clark County with a circulation of about 28,000.
Case, who has owned The Reflector for almost 30 years, said that although some areas of advertising – such as autos, real estate and classifieds – are down, The Reflector’s revenues through December 2008 “were markedly ahead of the prior year.”
Frank DeVaul publishes the Stevenson-based Skamania County Pioneer and seven other publications in Skamania, Lewis and Thurston counties. His Lewis County-based Business to Business monthly has experienced no decline in advertising revenues because advertisers know their ads will reach a targeted audience, DeVaul said.
“Our revenue in Stevenson has matched or exceeded last year’s first-quarter results,” he added.
Despite the hoopla about the potential demise of newspapers, Vancouver Voice Editor in Chief Ossie Bladine pointed to the crop of niche papers popping up regularly, such as The Green Paper and the Columbia River Reader, both published in Oregon.
The Vancouver Voice moved to every-other-week publication in January 2009, and has a current print run of about 12,000, he said.
“Sales have gone up every issue” since then, and although the newspaper has yet to break even on an issue, “we’re moving in the right direction,” Bladine said.
Cost conscious
Publishers alike are feeling economic pressures.
DeVaul said that although he has not laid off staff, he has taken advantage of natural attrition to reduce staffing expenses, as has the Vancouver Business Journal.
Brent Erickson, executive director of the Camas/Washougal Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber has slashed costs associated with publishing its monthly newsletter 65 percent by distributing it electronically. Now, instead of mailing 400 copies, it mails about 50, Erickson said.
The Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce said it now publishes every other month, and added electronic delivery of its newsletter in July to lower costs and boost interactivity, said Communications Manager Noelani Baker.
“We’re constantly looking at ways to trim expenses,” McDonagh said.
Ensuring the number of pages published matches the advertising revenue generated by each issue is one important cost-cutting measure. But the VBJ is attempting to diversify, stay in touch with readers and attract more advertising revenue by adding products, such as online offerings and a biweekly two-page supplemental issue.
“In difficult times, more information is better than less information,” McDonagh said.
Content metamorphosis needed
The Columbian is exploring adding more user-contributed content to the printed paper, through “reverse publishing” of comments submitted via the newspaper’s website.
Campbell does not see blogs and online reader comments, which he called “unvetted information,” replacing the standard printed opinion page. Instead, these sort of off-the-cuff (and sometimes uncivil) responses supplement the more refined, well-researched letters in the print edition.
According to Northwestern University’s Readership Institute, “Just the facts, Ma’am” reporting is not what readers want anymore. Instead, they’re looking for articles that:
1) Give the reader something to talk about.
2) Make the reader smarter.
3) Address the reader’s civic and personal interests.
“People are being more selective about what they read,” McDonagh said. “It has to be relevant to their interests.”
Publishers also mentioned that some of the responsibility for the continued existence of local newspapers lies with the readers and advertisers themselves – advertisers should ask themselves how they want to reach customers.
Similarly, Bladine said the community needs to answer the question, “Do we really want a local newspaper?” and take concerted action based on that answer.
“Don’t try to provide too much to too many people,” DeVaul said. “Listen to your audience and respond to their requests for information.”
It is an ever-changing environment, he added.
“You have to pay attention and adapt accordingly to minimize potential negatives,” DeVaul said.
