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3 Gannett papers going to 3-days-per-week

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Steak Snabler, Mar 8, 2017.

  1. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    It sounds like Gannett is in the final stage of rolling Opelousas into Layayette though ownership will maintain the Daily World banner to demonstrate their committment to local journalism. Is something similar happening in Alexandria and Hattiesburg? The staff will be virtually elimimnated and a larger paper will assume editorial responsibilities.
     
  2. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    It sounds like Gannett is in the final stage of rolling Opelousas into Layayette though ownership will maintain the Daily World banner to demonstrate their committment to local journalism. Is something similar happening in Alexandria and Hattiesburg? The staff will be virtually elimimnated and a larger paper will assume editorial responsibilities.
     
  3. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    With the exception of Detriot, which has two newspapers operating in a JOA, I thought that only Newhouse had gone to three days a week. I think this is a first for any other chain.
     
    Last edited: Mar 10, 2017
  4. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    I don't think it's any secret that my old shop went 3x/week about four years ago. And we started counting the days at that point.

    I have not picked up the paper since last fall's football tab, which just pissed me off when I saw how far things had fallen. I do hit their website on a regular basis which, of course, is what they wanted all along.
     
  5. PaperDoll

    PaperDoll Well-Known Member

    I'm waiting for more of this to happen in New Jersey and Wisconsin, where many of the sports (and layout) operations have already been consolidated. I wonder if the JMG acquisitions will follow suit as well.
     
  6. Bamadog

    Bamadog Well-Known Member

    When I first started in the Magnolia State in 2006, the American had a fully-functioning sports department (got their Ole Miss and State coverage from the C-L) and was a relatively strong paper with excellent Southern Miss and preps coverage.

    By the time I left the dead tree industry, its circulation slid so perilously that it was competing with my former paper in contests. If the trend lines hold, it'll just be an satellite office of its sister paper, which itself is beset with problems. Thanks to Katrina, the growth of USM and Camp Shelby (Army base), Hattiesburg is a pretty prosperous city that has some economic activity.

    From what I hear, it's only a matter of time before the C-L does the same and goes to three days per week. Half of their fancy building in Jackson is vacant and, like the American, their news hole is a fraction of what it once was.
     
  7. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    As we all know, the reduction in the number of print editions is all about the advertising and business side of the industry. Our shop might be on the brink of this as, apparently, we saw "unprecedented" loss of circulation in the past six months. One of our chain's smaller dailies (less than 4,000 circulation and falling very fast) is switching to a twice-a-week print "product" next month.

    Think about the businesses that advertise in print. Do any of them put an ad in all seven days? Probably not ... so the thinking is, reducing print production to the two or three most popular advertising days (usually W, F, Sun) doesn't hurt ad revenue much. And it saves on printing/delivery costs, of course.

    To shotty's point about driving readers to the web site: Even with reduced print circulation, our business remains unable to drive advertisers there -- at least not for the same amount of $$ they paid for print ads. That's why there seems to be no floor to our industry's declining revenue.

    A photographer I used to work with said something interesting when we converted the long-unused darkroom into a storage room: As digital cameras and smartphones make photography so much easier for so many people, the VALUE of good photos has plummeted. Just like the Internet has done to the value of information.
     
  8. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    A letter to our readers

     
  9. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    "Strategic change." "Strategic decision." "Position ourselves for the future." " Robust as ever."

    Who knew Sean Spicer was the publisher of the Hattiesburg American?
     
  10. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    I'd suggest the writer of that sustain some minor burns, but that wouldn't be right. I guess.

    If you love it there, asshole, stop trying to kill it there.
     
  11. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    Nice sales job by the Hattiesburg publisher. Readers, for the same subscription price you get less than half the amount of print editions ... but access to our new and improved, updated 24/7 website! Of course, they probably already had access to the latter. And the chances of this paper adding staff and actually updating the website more often are slim.

    Here's the money graph (literally): "Our three-day-a-week print products will be as robust as ever, if not more so, and contain all of the great content you have come to rely on and enjoy. We are taking every step to ensure our most popular features and columns find new homes in print. In addition, the majority of our businesses have already opted for a 3-day model in print, with the Sunday, Wednesday and Friday editions currently containing the majority of the American’s print advertising."
     
    Bronco77 likes this.
  12. Bronco77

    Bronco77 Well-Known Member

    I wonder if employees also got a memo, full of corporate crap-ola such as "going forward," "at the end of the day," "best practices," "repurposing," "rightsizing" and "exciting times."
     
    Baron Scicluna likes this.
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