Commentary
Fleeting Print: Publishers Are Reducing Issues And/Or Sending Them By Mail
- by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 3, 2023
Gannett, which has been not-so-slowly moving toward digital, is still trying to serve print customers after a fashion.
The publisher will now mail the Lebanon Daily News through the U.S. Postal Service, as opposed to delivering it directly.
That move will presumably save money, although postal rates are also steadily rising, and there are problems relating to sacking and other procedures. In July, the U.S. Postal service eliminated the use of sack containers for newspapers and other periodicals and is now only accepting those publications in bulkier containers that are more labor intensive and expensive to organize and handle, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) charged.
Moreover, news does not age well when delivered by post. Of course, this coverage may be so localized and feature-oriented that it will hold up.
In a sense, it is a return to the 1850s when the periodical rates were established. (We hope the delivery is better than it was then.)
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Gannett is also closing and consolidating print plants. And, it has cut Saturday print editions at numerous papers.
Its rival Lee Enterprises has also moved away from print by reducing printing to three days a week for most of its newspapers.
Maybe these are wise moves that will strengthen ROI and ensure survival for local titles.
But this is not the only news concerning the decline of print: The Telegraph reports that Financial Times may forsake print in some countries and locales.
What have we come to?
In the interest of full disclosure, this reporter regularly consumes the FT weekend edition. Unfortunately, it is no longer available in my neighborhood thanks to the closing of the local Rite Aid drugstore. And even before, it was often not delivered to the store — when there was a slight drizzle, for example.
Why bother with the print edition when the same material can be read online?
It’s not as much fun. And you get instant bragging rights in a coffee bar when you pull out that iconic pink spreadsheet on a Saturday morning.
Stay with print!
And the beat goes on.
Print still has a place, particularly for weeklies in rural areas. Breadband is still an issue in many rural areas, and the populations skew older. Wew've used the USPS for subscriber delivery - well since it was available. Our paper is 222 years old. Postal delivery within county can be essentially same-day, if the publisher takes advantage of the overnight drop privilege and alsu uses Exceptional Dispatch to deliver to outlying post offices within county. We get good service from our 11 local post offices. Now, out of county, not so much, but that's a small part of our total circulation.
We're online with a website updated daily and a push e-edition, so we're not exactly luddites. I get a lot of people saying they appreciate being able to still get the paper in print.