1974 circulation figures

Perhaps. I probably over-generalized. I suspect it varied widely by city/newspaper, ethnic group and time period. Either way, my larger point stands. Immigrants are what fuels population growth in most parts of this country. If we want to capture them (or their children) as our readers, we ought to do a better job telling their stories, instead of our current pursuit of affluent middle-aged white suburbia and a shrinking pool of oldsters.
And, yes, Frank, I realize our current advertisers want affluent, middle-aged white suburbia. But there are plenty of ad dollars to be made in other places, too, and less competition for them.

 

Ding. Ding. Ding.

 

Well, actually I think most papers are in a futile pursuit of "younger readers" instead of focusing on their most likely customers, affluent white suburbia and a shrinking pool of oldsters. To me this makes as much sense as the people at Geritol deciding, ya know, all our current customers are going to be dead soon, we need to stop gearing our product to them and make Geritol seem like a hip thing for 16-year-olds.

I've been on several papers that tried to introduce Spanish-language products and saw a bunch of papers react to the 2000 census by writing more stories about ethnic diversity. And except in a very few markets -- Miami area, for one -- this is not what advertisers want to see. I am not saying we shouldn't serve these communities -- not everything a newspaper does ought to be geared to the bottom line, sometimes it must serve the greater good -- but from a business standpoint, I don't think what you're suggesting is going to do us any good in the short run or the long run.

 

Actually, I believe I've been consistent in saying circulation is a small part of the picture and that newspapers ought to stress to advertisers who our readers are rather than how many, that newspapers remain strong among people most connected to their communities and that these are the people most likely to shop in local stores rather than save a few cents by buying everything online.

 

That population, like our circulation, is shrinking.
(Not to mention the methodical extermination of the local store.)

Advertisers want to reach numbers, and believe me, very specific numbers. Quantity and demographic for their dollar. They don't want to invest in the "Buick."