Commentary
Why Small-Town, Local Newspapers Will Outlast Many Web Services
- by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, July 7, 2011
I'm writing this week from my hometown of Clearfield, Pa., a town of about 6,000 in the Alleghany Mountains two and a half hours north of Pittsburgh, in a rural county where the deer outnumber people many times over. Like many small towns across the U.S., Clearfield still has a local daily newspaper, The Progress, that serves the town and about two-thirds of the county, circulating 12,500 copies a day.
As I read The Progress yesterday, it occurred to me that this local newspaper probably won't go away any time soon, unlike many printed newspapers across the U.S., and unlike many of the news Web-based services, which seem to come and go every day. Pretty contrarian view? Maybe. But here's why I think so:
Owns local news market.The Progress isn't the paper that it used to be, but it still has more local news than any other local media. Regional newspapers and regional broadcasters from cities like Altoona, Johnstown and Pittsburgh can never deliver the local context like a small town paper can. They don't carry pictures of the organizing committee for the 60th reunion of the Philipsburg High School Class of 1951 (my late father graduated in the Class of '50). Even as the New Yorker I have become, I still realize that "city folk" in places like Altoona don't understand "small-town folk" in places like Clearfield.
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Owns local ads. While it may only publish 18-30 pages a day, it's still a must buy for local advertisers. Not many of the businesses owners here want to use self-service interfaces to buy ads. They like it when a local person -- and friend -- stops by to review and renew their column-inch contracts for the month.
It's still independent.The Progress isn't owned by one of the big newspapers chains. While Wall Street for years has encouraged newspaper holding companies to aggregate lots of local newspapers, savvy newspaper operators long ago realized that there is very little scale advantage to owning lots and lots of disparately located local newspapers. You can't scale reporters, ad sellers and printing presses scattered across the country, or even a state, with hundreds of miles separating each of them.
Broad sheet and big type. The population of Clearfield County is older than most of the U.S. Most of them are not regularly online. The Progress still prints on a full broad sheet with large type -- meaning it is much easier to read than most newspapers, which is a real win when a large portion of your readership is over 65. Unlike big metro areas where kids are rabid for the newest technology, this is a place where the paper is still a family tradition and so will have subscribers for many years to come.
Local location-based services: a long way away. While I have claimed Foursquare Mayorships at my sister's Clearfield Veterinary Hospital and local Denny's Beer Barrel Pub (home of the world's largest hamburger), virtually nobody in town uses smartphone check-in services. They will make it at scale here someday, but not for many, many years -- after they have matured their services in large metro markets, an event also many years away.
Slick coupons. In the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, city and regional newspapers basically "bought" circulation to extend their coverage umbrellas into small towns like Clearfield. They used their scale to suck up all of the free-standing inserts and "slick" coupons for the region, at the expense of the local newspapers. Fortunately for the small papers, reality set in for the big newspapers, which have retreated back into their own markets. The coupons and inserts have returned to small-town newspapers like The Progress (which was chockfull of them yesterday). Not only do they bring important revenue, but they are also an enormous circulation driver, particularly in towns like this where the local economies still haven't recovered from the collapse of the steel industry, let alone the last recession.
Afternoon paper. The Progress is one of the last of a breed. It is an afternoon newspaper. While most metro and suburban newspapers switched to morning delivery to match city commuting patterns, The Progress and many other small-town papers did not. They can deliver much more relevant news in the late afternoon and evening, when nobody else has current local news to read, even online.
Local staff.The Progress is staffed and run by people that live in Clearfield, and has been for many generations. That matters.
Web services can launch quickly, grow fast, become robust overnight. They also can become irrelevant and disappear even faster; think about MySpace and Friendster and Microsoft Sidewalk. Not so a strong, small-town newspaper that sticks to its roots and does what it does best. What do you think?
Also important is that honesty and integrity in local politics matter to local papers. They are mindful of city and county elected officials doing the jobs they were elected to do, and doing them fairly. Local papers keep state representatives in touch with the pulse in their districts.
Clearfield may not be able to clean up the Pacific Garbage Patch, but if a developer wants to talk the city counsel into allowing a landfill next to the high school, you can be sure everyone in town will want to know, and will have something to say about it.
Well done! Specialists in change need a refresher course in the huge and often controlling significance of non-change to the bulk of our world's economy. It gets no press and might not be as 'interesting'...but underappreciate it at your own risk.
Folks may also be interested in Jonathan Knee's book, The Curse of the Mogul, that predicted in late 2009 that the smaller, local papers would outlast the heavyweights for a lot of the same reasons articulated in this post.
Dave,
This was very nostalgic and I pictured you out on a deck overlooking nature, drinking a cup of coffee as you typed. However, it's based on what critical assumption, that I'm honestly not sure will hold-up: "Local" will remain important. Local is important today because we are social creatures and need to connect. But our social habits are changing as the generations change over. Just look at local Rotary clubs, Lions clubs, etc.... how many 25-30 years-olds do you see getting their fix of social in these environments. The world is getting flatter and we are all getting our social fixes through casting a much wider geographic net (one w/out borders in fact). As a results, we are getting to know our neighbors less and less. Personally I find that depression, as I'm sure you do based on the nostalgia of your article, but it's hard to argue with trends. If you're not facebook friends with a 20 year old, than you don't exist to them today. Which begs the question, will "local" really matter in the long-run or will it be "interests" on Google circles and "Friends" on Facebook that ultimately replace local? What do you think?
Great article! I agree that many small town newspapers will outlast the new "web locals" like AOL's Patch, but I still think the move to online is inevitable. The older generation that is wedded to print only is shrinking.
Good observation and I agree with the points made here. Having just completed some focus groups with consumers on behalf of a small/mid market newspaper I can tell you consumers also agree for the most part. And there can also be a real sense of pride of the local team - the newspaper employees are often friends, family and neighbors. But what was also clear is that newspapers have to see themselves as media/content providers (in whatever form) and that now means upping their digital game. Consumers expect it and will go elsewhere to get the same content.
From an ex-newspaper man local matters, is needed and is demanded from locals for all the right reasons. The problem with attempts from Sidewalk and other community sites was content, local editorial content, not some listings or what was happening around town.
Conversely, I do think Patch.com is really onto something. While Patch doesn't have a Clearfield edition, they do have about 50 other local town editions in PA. I cite it as analogous to About.com for local. It does a couple of things better and more able because it's interactive web vs print. Doesn't have the manufacturing and distribution costs as newspapers. Can more easily sell adv because its web and run by AOL so they will be able to bring cost scale. Allows for user commenting and involvement by locals because its web and that matters. It captures local pictures of events, political issues the local school budget vote, sports, etc. Lower cost of editorial, it has an editor and and non paid contributors. I think its something to be reckoned with.
RJ, I don't think that many of the small town newspapers will become as central to the lives of 20 year-olds as they are to 60 and 70 year-olds, probably ever. I don't think that they need to. They probably will be able to run a solid business for decades serving those who live less electronically. The older demos may be shrining, but they are still (and will be) enormous blocks of valuable consumers. Of course, as Daniel points out, they will hopefully broaden the vision of their role as platform-agnostic local news, ad and content providers.
Best points are "Own Local Ads" and "Slick Coupons."
Those who predict the death of newspapers base their conclusions on the availability of free news and information on the internet. They miss the point. Local newspapers are a powerful advertising medium for local businesses, and the business people know it. They also know that a good community newspaper is important to the vitality of their communities. Thriving communities support local business people, and business people will support enterprises like newspapers that support the community.
Not every community newspaper will survive -- some aren't very good newspapers -- but many of them will be around a long time. And in communities that lose poor newspapers, there is opportunity for a new, good newspaper. There's money in it.