US: the right time for a smaller paper?
"There is no question that newspapers under 50,000 have performed much better than large newspapers," said William Dean Singleton, chief executive of MediaNews Group.
Why? For one thing, small papers face less competition from new media and other news sources. They have a stable local market, are relatively protected from ad slumps, employ small staffs with moderate costs, who are usually dedicated to providing news to their community anyway.
"Many of our markets are pretty homogenous and tightknit," said Mary E. Junck, chairman and chief executive of Lee Enterprises, which owns 56 dailies and over 300 weeklies and smaller publications.
Smaller local papers can often pinpoint their readership, both for advertisers and in their content. It is also easier for small papers to go through change, and there are less hierarchical barriers.
Of the 413 US papers in the small-newspaper group of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), more than 25% gained circulation – better than for any other circulation group.
Perhaps the most important reason for small papers’ relative success is what big papers are now trying to reproduce. Small papers are dedicated to local and community content, which often is at the top of readers’ interests.
For example, Lee’s Post-Dispatch recently posted a map showing neighborhood power outages during a recent storm. A large newspaper could never provide such a relevant and reader-driven service, which in turn causes readers to support the newspaper.
Local by itself isn’t enough though, and small newspapers have by no means an easy way ahead. Local content must be appropriate, and many people reversely rely on their local paper to get news from outside of their community. And as much as small papers may have business model advantages, they also have less economic leverage.
According to the NAA, combined circulation of all US newspapers dropped 2.8% in the six-month period ending September 30th 2006, as opposed to ‘only’ 2.1% for small newspapers.
Source: Washington Post through Ifra Executive News service
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: US: the right time for a smaller paper?.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.editorsweblog.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/4915
Interesting: You don't consider the P-D a large newspaper in this context?
Hi Jeremy,
As you say, it's a 'smaller paper' - in this context, and from the examples the Post chose for its article. The point here is that non-nationals and other papers still have plenty of possibilities and tricks up their sleeve compared to larger newspapers that may not anymore.