One paper's circulation drop raises some community journalism questions

I think you might find this post on my Common Sense Journalism blog about the precipitous drop in the circulation of The (Columbia, S.C.) State to be of interest.

At the end, I raise some questions it poses for community journalism in the digital age, especially in smaller and midsized cities.

New research: Small-town readers still prefer paper

A new report from the Reynolds Journalism Institute finds that in small communities, the newspaper is still the preferred way of getting local news.

Before we go too far on this, however, keep in mind it is a multivariate problem that also goes to the availability of such news online and the penetration of easy access to online (still not so great in some rural areas).

Readers in smaller communities may prefer the paper, but ...

A new study from the Reynolds Institute and the National Newspaper Association is being framed as "readers in areas served by community newspapers continue to prefer the community newspaper as their sources of local news and advertising."

From the release:

The survey, in its sixth year, shows consistent trends.  

Readers prefer the printed copy to the online version, with 48 percent saying they never read the local news online. 

They prefer to receive advertising through the newspaper (51%) instead of on the Internet (11%). And only about a quarter of respondents said they had found local news through a mobile device in the past 30 days. Slightly more (38%) said they had received local shopping information by mobile device.  

They also have a strong preference for government accountability through newspaper public notice, with 80 percent saying the government should be required to publish notices in the newspaper.

Let me suggest a slightly different interpretation. If a quarter of your market said it was using a device to access your product -- in this case mobile -- would that be an "only" to you or a cause for management to start thinking strategically in that area?

If more than a third said they received local shopping information on a platform -- mobile -- and the suggestion was that perhaps not all of them are going to your site, would that be a cause for concern? Or are you willing to write off more than a third of your audience - a segment likely to grow? (Unfortunately, the release talks about a "trend," but provides no trend data or a link to the time series raw data files. You should also read the footnote to the study carefully because the methodology has changed a bit.)

Yes, it's clear community papers continue to have an important place in the media mix of consumers, but I don't think it's all unicorns and rainbows as the release might suggest with this quote:

"The survey shows a majority of respondents believe that the newspaper does a better job of providing background and depth on stories essential to citizens,” Anfinson said. “Further, the newspaper is more useful to them personally than any other news source. It not only highlights the strong bond between local communities and their newspapers, but demonstrates that people do value good journalism." 

If I'm running a business, I'm not willing to give up a quarter or a third of my market, yet I've sat in many a meeting in recent years where community publishers defiantly act as though digital is the enemy or, if they have digital assets, seem largely clueless about them. Bad move.

(Also published on Common Sense Journalism.)

Will print be dead by 2020?

Russell Viers contends much of print will be dead by 2020 - and he's making the argument aimed at community papers, not the big metros. Interesting debate at his blog with Kevin Slimp and others. Worth considering the graphs.

Volunteer weekly started when chain closed one

Many readers of this blog probably read yesterday's Los Angeles Times story about citizens in a Colorado town starting a newspaper after their local paper closed. The story was fine as far as it went, but for those interested in more details about content, competition, ownership and other facets of the story, read this item in The Rural Blog.

Writer pens a love note to community newspapers, explains why her hometown paper thrives

"Dailies are on hard times, but weekly newspaper readership is hard core," the Daily Yonder says in introducing a piece by Betty Dotson-Lewis, singing the praises and giving many of the operational details of her hometown newspaper, The Nicholas Chronicle in Summersville, W.Va. "This small-town newspaper is a mainstay of Nicholas County," she writes. "On Wednesday evenings a little after 4 o’clock, you will see people braving the coldest or hottest weather, in sickness or health, driving to a nearby convenience store or Wal-Mart to get their copy of their small-town paper."

Dotson-Lewis says the key to success of small-town papers is that "Rural folk are neighborly in the extreme. . . . The majority of rural residents read their weekly paper for dependable and reliable local news." And the Chronicle is "thriving," she writes, because "The newspaper owners live in the community and are involved in community activities," and meet the needs of readers. "The paper is filled with local happenings of nearby small rural communities written about by local people."

The Chronicle recently went online, publishing for non-subscribers the first few paragraphs of a few major stories each week and giving subscribers the choice of the traditional print or the electronic "green edition." The cost is the same, $28.50, except that students can get the online version for $18. (We like that idea.) One couple switched their subscription, but switched back to print, Dotson-Lewis reports, quoting the wife: “I need to hold my paper, turn the pages back and forth, spread it out on the table and take it all in. and if there is a photo of my boys in the paper, I can cut it out.” (This item was originally posted to The Rural Blog)

No comfort in latest figures

Community newspapers like to point out that they are doing better than their big-city brethren. But there's only some comfort in the latest news out from the biennial news consumption survey by the Pew Center for the People & the Press.

From the Editor & Publisher story:

Weeklies, however, are doing a little better: "At a time when daily newspapers are losing readers, the audience for local weekly community newspapers has remained relatively stable. Currently, 33% say they read such newspapers regularly, about the same as in 2006 (35%) and 2004 (36%)....

"As is the case with daily newspapers, however, weekly community newspapers are much more popular with older people than young people. Four-in-ten of those 50 and older say they regularly a community newspaper, double the percentage of those 24 and younger (19%)."

Bottom line: Weeklies can't afford not to have online strategies, either, because that's where young readers are going. Yet some recent research from the University of South Carolina presented at a COMJIG session at the annual AEJMC conference showed that many still do not have a Web presence.

Circulation gains at, you guessed it, community dailies

Editor & Publisher's report on the most recent FAS-FAX numbers presented the usual glum picture for the "newspaper biz" (i.e., the biggest papers in the nation), but to its credit, E&P this year also listed the top gainers in circulation. Only three of the papers listed in the "gainers" sidebar have circulations above 50,000; most are in the 5,000-30,000 circulation range and are in rural and small areas.

Again, we need to be careful not to narrowly define "community journalism" as just small-circulation newspapers, but that is a large part of our discipline, and so these numbers are encouraging.