Buying a weekly

[typefitter]

So, I'm thinking of buying at least a portion of the weekly newspaper in my small hometown. The first thing I ever had published was in it 20 years ago, and I fear I'm thinking a little too sentimentally. But another part of me thinks there's a real opportunity here. It is, to be kind, a piece of ****. Shoddy writing, terrible design... There would be high school papers that are far better. And yet it has a lot of community support and is full of ads. I can see it becoming a special little paper.

Obviously, I understand that the newspaper industry has had its issues, but I'm wondering whether anyone here works at a small weekly (I would guess the circulation of this paper is around 1,000 copies; it has no online presence), and how they work as a business. This particular paper faces no competition. It has a monopoly on local news in a growing community. Again, there is no online alternative or anything like that.

I'm fine with doing things just for reasons of the heart, but I'd like to think there are sound economic reasons to do this, too. Am I deluding myself?

Thanks.

 

[Songbird]

I helped launch (well, replaced SE 9 months after launch) small weekly near Dartmouth in August 2003. Small dedicated staff built it from zero circ to just under 10K in 3 years, going head to head with the 50-year daily just down the street. An old farmer who bought the Claremont properties owned the weekly and other start-ups like it.

We were guided by a very smart Editor. We told timely stories, edgy stories and provided everything on a hyperlocal level. I produced the best weekly sports section in New Hampshire, second-best in New England.

It was a lot of hard work, and a lot of fun.

Go for it. You'll love the challenge.

A year after I left the weekly it closed.

 

[reformedhack]

Do your due diligence and look at the books first (or hire a professional to do it for you). You don't want to buy into a business that looks good on the surface but is really about to go belly-up because of long-term debt that you might be acquiring. My initial thought is that there's gotta be a reason why it's (A) for sale and (B) a weak product, and I'm betting the financial ledger might shed some insight.

If everything's on the up-and-up, go for it if (A) you think you can get a return on your investment in a reasonable amount of time (and only you know how long that is) and (B) if buying it will feed your soul in some way. Owning your own business is hard work and will cause you a lot of sleepless nights, but it's very satisfying when you're successful.

 

[LanceyHoward]

I helped launch (well, replaced SE 9 months after launch) small weekly near Dartmouth in August 2003. Small dedicated staff built it from zero circ to just under 10K in 3 years, going head to head with the 50-year daily just down the street. An old farmer who bought the Claremont properties owned the weekly and other start-ups like it.

We were guided by a very smart Editor. We told timely stories, edgy stories and provided everything on a hyperlocal level. I produced the best weekly sports section in New Hampshire, second-best in New England.

It was a lot of hard work, and a lot of fun.

Go for it. You'll love the challenge.

A year after I left the weekly it closed.

Why would you advise buying a paper that closed? It might have been to fun to work at but it does not sound like a financial success.

 

[Songbird]

I'm not advising that. I said that the weekly I worked for closed.

 

[93Devil]

I would ask someone how much money it would take up front and monthly to keep the website decent and respectable.

Does the paper print its own paper or sub that out? Are presses part of the deal? How many inserts can you count on each week?

Every town needs a way to get its own news. I would be worried about how decimated the current situation is at the paper.

 

[typefitter]

Thanks for the replies so far.

There's no debt. There also aren't presses or anything like that. Printing is farmed out. According to the books (which are of dubious quality), the paper turns a small profit, based mostly on advertising. (Subscriptions account for a small percentage of revenues.) It's for sale because it's owned and operated largely by an older husband and wife and the husband has had health issues and they want to retire. This is a really small paper. Since I posted I found out its circulation is 900 copies a week, 650 of those to subscribers.

I guess I'm less worried that I'll take a big financial hit and more worried that it will become a massive time suck. It's the kind of thing I can see really enjoying later in life, but right now, I couldn't devote all that much energy to it. And yet I can see myself pouring all sorts of energy into it.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

A business like that is going to take just about all of your time. I'm assuming there's only a few employees. Ad salesperson gets sick, you're out selling ads. Editor gets a vacation, you're editing the paper. Reporter moves on to greener pastures, you're out covering stuff. Maybe all in one week.

Just be prepared for it.

 

[93Devil]

If you do take this on, I would remember that the people working for you will probably not be as talented as yourself. Don't expect the world as far as design and actual writing. Slowly make those two areas better with your guidance. Just be accurate with information and be caring to those who read the paper.

I was told a long time ago that two grocery stores and two car dealerships are all a paper needs to stay open. I don't know how true that is now.

 

[JR]

Type

Financial issues to one side, do you plan to put a lot of day-to-day time into this venture or would you see yourself more as a consultant?

If it started to take a lot of your time, couldn't it be an energy drain on your writing?

Just askin'

 

[wicked]

I guess it depends on what you want to do with it.

Do you solely want to preserve it?

Do you want to turn it into some sort of journalism lab?

Do you want to use it as a spot for young, talented writers, where they can learn their craft from you?

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

No offense to any of us -- or to myself -- but I would be asking publishers I know, rather than editors. If it were me, I would start with an ex-publisher I know who briefly was a newspaper broker, although I would not rely on his judgment alone, he'd just be my starting point.

A few random observations:

1.) More than 10 years ago I interviewed to be editor of a daily in my hometown, and I sought advice from a wide range of people. One of them -- we had met at that newspaper in 1976 when we were both 16 -- told me that he knew me well enough to know that talent below a certain level would drive me right out of my mind and that the owner would only break my heart. Increasingly, I see that my friend's advice was sound. There is a point at which the potential payoff to my vanity comes at too high a cost to me as a human. And at this stage of my life, how bad of a product am I willing to be a part of? That may strike some here as egotistical -- because obviously someone must work for that paper, some people with less taste than I possess (LOL) -- but self-knowlege of one's shortcomings is part of being an adult, and I am acutely aware of mine. If I think something sucks, I am not very good at hiding my feelings. I am not very patient about making it unsuck. And while I think I am very good at teaching some professionals, I do not enjoy teaching people who lack even rudimentary skills. Other people may be good at developing a staff at that level, but it's not in my toolbox.

2.) During the same process, I received some excellent overall advice from a small-town editor who had been my mentor at a paper a good deal larger than his current one. But good advice from afar goes only so far -- some issues in other markets simply do not translate to the market in question.

3.) Same guy in No. 2 had a stint as interim publisher and not long ago I asked him what he'd learned. Quite a bit, it turns out, but the key thing is that what really hurts you are unexpected expenses that you could not have avoided, such as equipment breaking or the roof starting to leak.

4.) My late father, a newspaper advertising manager, and a few of his colleagues regularly met in our dining room while they considered buying a local weekly together. I was only about 10 and was in the room only to fetch beer and food, so I wouldn't rely on my recollections, but my primary lessons were a.) they were producing a lot of paperwork, b.) they were doing this because they cared about more than money, c.) but they cared enough about money to walk away from the idea even after a lot of work toward it.

5.) Nevertheless, I've indulged the thought, too. I have a few How To Buy/Start a Weekly books upstairs, but this week a visitor is sleeping in that room and I can't go in there tonight. They're all pretty much the same, though. Worth about what you paid for them to get a general idea. For a narrative on the topic, I like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Hard-Way-Odyssey-Newspaper/dp/1882593006

 

[JimmyHoward33]

Is there room for growth? Do the advertisers care about content? Would there be more ads if you improved it, or are the advertisers always going to advertise because its the only shop in town?

You're in the business so you know what to expect....generally it seems like places run into trouble when ownership is looking for higher profit margins, is saddled by debt and limited by chains. If there's no debt and no infrastructure problems, and you're going in understanding what the margins are going to be, that could be a great thing. It'd be important for your partner(s) to see it that way, too, I think.

 

[typefitter]

I really appreciate the replies, guys. Some very good food for thought here.

I was talking to a successful business guy I know tonight, just to strip the conversation of sentiment—to just talk about it as a business. All he's worried about is the growth of money. I think there's two ways to make money here—you increase the value of the paper by making it better, and you run an annual profit. (I don't need the profit to be ridiculous, but I do need it to make a profit. I'm not willing to lose money on it.)

My friend's concern was what Jimmy's talking about. If we invest in the product and make it better, will subscriptions go up, and will advertisers pay more? I worry a bit in a town the size of this one, that the advertisers just aren't willing to pay that much for an ad. They're advertising, for the most part, to people who already know they exist. I would guess that many of them advertise in the paper as a form community service. I think the only way we increase profits, or at least get more money to invest in the paper, is by getting more people to read it, to grow it. So then it becomes: Will more people read the paper if it's good? It's the only source for local news, and it's been around a long time, but is that enough to generate a bigger audience? I'd like to think so, because I've been saying for years that for newspapers to survive they need to be better products. But I can't say for sure.

The other question is the work. Like JR said, I can't spend a lot of time and energy on it. I have two jobs already. But I know myself well enough to know that I'll want to work on it and make it better. Half the pride of ownership would be that.

I'm talking myself out of it right now, but when I wake up, I think I'll probably still be thinking about it. Put aside the worries, and I really think it would be cool in a lot of ways.

 

[Versatile]

I typed out a 300-word response, then hit delete because I can say what I need to say in two sentences:

Don't put your own ambitions before the needs of the readers. This isn't some experiment to them; this is how they get the news.

 

[deskslave]

It's worth remembering that what we consider "good" often pisses off people in small towns. If you make the paper "good" by the journalistic definition of the word, are you going to scare off your advertisers? (You won't scare off the readers. They'll threaten to cancel their subscriptions, but they won't, because if they did, they wouldn't have anything to be pissed off at.)

And who are your advertisers? It's all well and good to say "I'm gonna shine light in dark corners," but if the county commissioner hiding in that dark corner is also the manager of the local car dealership -- and depending on the town, that's highly possible -- he has a pretty big sword to hang over your head.

 

[YankeeFan]

I guess I'm less worried that I'll take a big financial hit and more worried that it will become a massive time suck.

Don't do it. You're a perfectionist (and an idealist). You'll end up dedicating far too much time towards it.

 

[Songbird]

Do it for a year or two then write a book about the trials and tribulations. You have a huge audience, so the book will pay for your expenses at the paper, and then some.

 

[JayFarrar]

First, what are the paper's physical assets?
Do they own or rent the space they are in?
What about computers, printers, phone system, and all the other things that go into a real office like desks, chairs, etc?
Does the current owner have a physical inventory of everything in the building down to the paper clips?
The next question is what kind of computers and how dated they are? That sounds dumb, but the paper might look like poop because they are still running out justified columns of text and pasting it up. Upgrading would be expensive.

I have more but I'm being told she wants her iPad back.

 

[typefitter]

First, what are the paper's physical assets?
Do they own or rent the space they are in?
What about computers, printers, phone system, and all the other things that go into a real office like desks, chairs, etc?
Does the current owner have a physical inventory of everything in the building down to the paper clips?
The next question is what kind of computers and how dated they are? That sounds dumb, but the paper might look like poop because they are still running out justified columns of text and pasting it up. Upgrading would be expensive.

I have more but I'm being told she wants her iPad back.

Essentially, I'd be buying the name, the history, the subscription base and the advertising base. All printing is done off-site, and their computers are crap. I'd be buying new computers. They also rent the office space. (I'd move it back downtown; it's hidden right now.) Part of me thinks it would be cheaper just to start a new paper, but I think I'd look like a villain, trying to crush the old one when it's weak. There are instances when small-town realities conflict with the most efficient business decisions.

I really couldn't be more torn about this.

YankeeFan knows me too well. He said exactly what the smart half of my brain is whispering. But the smart half is way smaller than the dumb half.

Yes, I know what I did there.