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

We all know the answer. In a perfect world, the person who wrote those memos would be the first person rightsized into exciting times as a repurposed fast-food cashier. In the real world, not so much.

 

"These moves, while painful, will position us for future success. Would you like to upsize that combo meal?"

 

Instead, this will be the moron who collects a six- or seven-figure bonus from the board of directors ...

 

When the internet came along the newspapers thought they would gradually convert the audience and the advertisers to the on-line product. The transition might be a bit rocky but advertisers would continue to place ads advertise because only the newspapers could aggregate sufficient audience. And the publishers would live happily ever after.

But what no one realized was that on the internet the marginal cost of creating ad space dropped to essentially zero. So the supply of advertising space increased to infinity. Which means lots of cheap options opened up for advertisers and add revenue for newspapers have plunged.

Companies like the New York Times are desperately trying to figure out ways to develop ads that can reach specific audiences so they can charge premium rates, not entirely successfully. But executives at most newspaper publishers are generally ex-salesmen who were hired for their sales skills and not because of their quantitative abilities. And now most newspaper companies are standing in the middle of the traffic on the highway with no idea what the hell to do.

 

Corporate at our chain has sworn they will always be 7 days a week.

But I don't know how much longer they can hold out. Lately the big push as been shoving deadlines as early as possible and killing replates/second editions.

When I arrived here in 2011 we were 10:15 and 12:05 6 days a week (with replates till 1 a.m.), and 9:30 and 11:3o on Saturday. Only the outlying areas got those early-edition papers.

Now it's 10:00 6 days a week (one edition), and in a couple of weeks it'll be 7:00 on Saturday (one edition). Everybody gets the shit edition, because that's all there is.

 

Wow, 7 p.m. deadline for the only Sunday edition? Is the sports section all features, previews and commentary?

 

Opelousas publisher's letter to readers is pretty much word-for-word. Why even pretend you care about the community if you're going to just regurgitate something Hattiesburg and Alexandria publishers are also telling its readers.

 

Jesus, the only thing different was the circulation numbers and some market-specific news events.
To be fair, however, I doubt the publishers even wrote those. Somebody higher up the corporate food chain did. They probably have the template saved on a computer in the PR office.

 

Yeah, I'd imagine it was a form letter with an "insert specific examples of your paper serving its community" part in the middle.

Either way, not very genuine.

 

Doesn't start for another couple of weeks. Will really suck not getting in 3:30 p.m. college football games if they are intent on not doing a second edition.

On the other hand, walking out the door at 7 p.m. on Saturday is fine by me.

 

Our management says it's committed to seven-day-a-week print publication through at least 2020. But I don't have a high degree of confidence in that.

As for early deadlines, it's a matter of "when" and not "if." Don't see anything as draconian as 7 p.m., though -- more like 9 or 10 p.m. One desk person is always assigned to stay around until 1:30 or 2 a.m. to update the e-edition with late scores and huge breaking news if it occurs (for instance, Ali's death), so it'll mean an interesting schedule with a lot of post-print-deadline dead time for somebody.

 

I think the subscription numbers in test markets like Hattiesburg will determine if Gannett converts the whole chain. I read an article by a retired publisher from Vermont who argued that it made no economic sense to move from seven days a week to three days a week. But he assumed a pro rated cut to the subscription price. The way he did the math the cost savings from reducing frequency of publication would not offset the reduced subscription revenue.

But Hattiesburg is going to charge $18 a month for a subscription for three days a week or about $1.40 a day. I don't know what the old rate was but I am pretty sure it was not over $40 a month for seven days. It will be interesting to see how many subscribers Hattiesburg loses from afar. And I am very happy I don't work there.