Monday, October 27, 2008

AJC,Boston Globe, Cox and Gannett Face Scary Six-Month Stats

Halloween is still a few days away, but print journalists are already scared to death. The latest stats show slumping numbers in major daily papers such as the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, which lost a staggering 13% of its readership in the past six months.

The dwindling numbers from industry leaders such as the Boston Globe, are echoes of the panicked screams we heard from  the Los Angeles Times and Palm Beach Post back in July, who remedied plunging profits by promising a stronger focus to the local news. 

I've worked at a metro daily and a weekly community paper. Initially, the community paper had a good model, but didn't prioritize its website, and the daily feared any drastic shift from its traditional model. The daily stretched so hard to retain the loyal readers, that by the time the editors realized they were about to drown, the water was already over their head, and the doors were slammed shut on the entire building.
David Hunke of the Detroit Free Press, a Gannett Paper, is a perfect example of yet another publisher who is about six years behind the curve.  I'm not sure how long he's been the publisher, but his quote to the Wall Street Journal reveals an industry-wide failure to recognize years of flawed philosophies.Hunke admitted

"It's time for us to look at some radical departures from our business model."

Welcome to 2008 Mr. Hunke. An interesting aspect of the latest reports is the slight increase in Sunday readership. I believe that spike is due to the extra coupon sections and the slower pace of a weekend that affords the average reader more time to relax and read through a section they would neglect during the busy weekdays.

So what's a reasonable short-term solution for these papers? "Well, with no sign of an economic recovery in the near future, more unemployed readers searching the classifieds and frugal families clipping coupons, here are three quick and easy fixes I would propose.

• Daily editors and writers should load their best features for the weekend.
• Weekly papers that publish in the middle of the week should shift their print date to Saturday or Sunday
• Stop insulting the IQ of the average reader by calling your self the "new" Boston Globe.

By Matt O'Hern at 09:19 AM | Comments (0)

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