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Small papers vs. big metros

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by budcrew08, Jun 27, 2008.

  1. mc603

    mc603 New Member

    I work at a 20-23k--on news side, 6 reporters, 1 columnist, 5 editors (copy plus assignment), 2 photogs, 1 designer. Sports, 3 writers, 1 copy editor.

    We laid off 4 in the newsroom and online dept. not too long ago. It sure seems like bare bones here.
     
  2. nmmetsfan

    nmmetsfan Active Member

    Small papers have to go local. We've stopped running AP in the last year and all of the sudden we've leveled off in circulation, actually going up a tick. And our ad revenue is also up from last year, which is a miracle considering the current economy. Granted we are somewhat hickville, about an hour from a major metro.
     
  3. jfs1000

    jfs1000 Member

    Smaller papers under 50,000 having been getting hammered for years. It's hard to maintain relevance for a daily newspaper even if you do your local well. These papers have been destroyed because we don't have the resources to pour into the internet and other things. So we cut and attrition are way to profitability.

    Now, the big guys are struggling and suddenly it's a calamity. The fact that the business model has changed started hurting smaller daily papers first, now it has trickled up.

    Incidentally, bad weeklies are like cockroaches. They will survive this nuclear holocaust. I see two papers in my town that are essentially black and white and only ads with an occasional submitted article. There is an editorial section for letters to the editor, and there is some new age hippie lady who has a health column. That's it. AND THE THING IS FILLED WITH ADS.

    They are raking in the money and go to every home free in town.
     
  4. BrianGriffin

    BrianGriffin Active Member

    We're a family owned. We were 36k/41k 7-8 years ago and we remain 36-41 today. No bigger paper considers this area their "fringe" so there is only mail delivery of major competition and daily deliveries of bigger metros to the local book stores and a couple of the larger supermarkets, but no home delivery competition.

    I think this paper has a pretty fair grip on how to balance local with wire. We aren't hyper-local, but if it's national news, it better be pretty damn big national news (Super Bowl, for example) to be dominant.
     
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