Sign of the Times

Our view: Budget fails to fit state’s future needs
June 5, 2012
Ruston school raises
June 5, 2012
Our view: Budget fails to fit state’s future needs
June 5, 2012
Ruston school raises
June 5, 2012

Amid the kerfuffle from the Times-Picayune’s announcement on May 25 that it will reduce publication to three times a week, emphasize its digital format and lay off staff, the reactions have been varied. Some are celebrating, whether because they despise the T-P in particular or because they fully embrace the digital age. Some traditionalists are in mourning over the loss of a centuries-old tradition. Some journalists and, no doubt, press operators and delivery personnel, are looking for work. And journalists at other newspapers are probably wringing their hands and wondering when their time on the chopping block will come.


The questions, however, have yet to be answered or – in many cases – even asked.


What will be the impact on news? In the digital age, more and more of us rely on the Internet for timely news. Having grown up with the Washington Post as my daily newspaper and having been a consumer of newspapers since I was 10 years old, I reluctantly let my home-delivery subscription to the T-P and other newspapers lapse several years ago. This was partly because I filled my trash can with too many crumbled sheets of newsprint on a daily basis, but also because by the time I picked up the paper from my driveway each morning, it was *yesterday’s* news. The 24-hour news cycle and the advent of the Internet mean I have access to constantly changing information. I could read the newspaper at 5 a.m. and go online an hour later to find things had already changed, often in drastic ways. This did not, however, reflect on the quality of the journalism in place at newspapers, but simply on the means of information delivery. So, sure, we can continue to get news on our desktops, laptops and smart phones. Well, many of us can. That’s not the potential problem. Rather, the concern is that with the reduction in staffing at newspapers, the quality of information we’re receiving by alternative means will, perforce, diminish. It remains to be seen, and the validity of the fear will vary depending on the market and the alternative news sources.

What of local broadcast news? Television and radio news have always been inferior to the printed word. It is a function of the finite nature of time itself. A newspaper can add more pages if more space is required to accurately report a story with some depth; a broadcast outlet cannot add more minutes or hours to a day. Thus, broadcast news is inherently shallow. It’s not that TV and radio reporters, photographers and producers don’t do a good job; rather, it’s that only so much information can be relayed in a 150-second story. Walter Cronkite once said that if he began reading the newspaper at the beginning of his broadcast and did nothing but continually read for half an hour, he would barely cover the front page. The printed word provides the opportunity for much greater depth.


Will online news improve? Possibly. It would come as no shock to see the award-winning staff of the T-P band together and form their own online news source – or even a printed one – to compete with, replace or supplement what the reduced-run Times-Picayune can offer. It’s not completely implausible that the Baton Rouge Advocate would expand its coverage area, although not likely all the way into New Orleans and the Northshore. Moreover, in keeping with simple economics the journalists most likely to be let go at the T-P and elsewhere will be the longer-tenured, higher-paid ones – in other words, the better, more experienced ones. The quality of news comes from THEM, not from the paper itself. And, like newspapers, online news sources can simply add more “space,” since that space is virtual and cheap. Contrarily, however, there are myriad online “news” sources that are about as reliable as Ouija Board because there’s no one to vet what is published, and no editorial check on content or the credentials of the writer(s). Bloggers masquerading as journalists are plentiful, and consumers are often fooled. This has a deleterious effect on American society at large, and we need to all be more careful.


What will be the impact on advertisers? On the macro level, there are many, many people who do not use the Internet – for news consumption or for anything else. Older demographics, most typically, rely on printed or broadcast information and advertisement – not on the Internet. How will advertisers reach them? How long will that demographic remain viable? The latter question is one for demographers; the former, a question for publishers, ad directors, and agencies like mine. We have the answers for those who need them.

What of small newspapers? Their moment is now. Many advertisers will continue to insist on printed outreach to consumers. The retrenchment of the Times-Picayune provides an opportunity for small weekly or semi-weekly newspapers to reach out and grab them. Small newspapers are also likely to be inundated with the resumes of former staff from major-daily newspapers (not just the TP) looking for work and accepting the reality that a $60,000 starting salary is no longer tenable, Ivy League degree notwithstanding. Smaller papers also tend to serve less urban, often less affluent populations with limited or non-existent access to online news sources and, in many markets, with less access to cable or satellite broadcast news sources. Smaller newspapers and other media – including radio stations – have an increasingly important role – and increasingly broad opportunities – to reach advertisers, advertisers’ customers, and consumers of *news* itself.

Seize it, and you’ll outlive the big dogs by a full generation. Wring your hands and wait for your turn at the guillotine, and it will be self-fulfilling.

If smaller news outlets evolve and evolve rapidly, they can seize the day. Many already have an online presence for those of us who choose the virtual method of consumption, but even those who don’t can adapt. Reach out to advertisers and remind them there are alternatives for increasingly targeted outreach – something harder for large-circulation papers to offer. Reach out to readers and assure them you’re not going the way of the dinosaur but are committed to serving them. Reach out to displaced journalists, be flexible, make some deals – perhaps even for stringers and freelancers – and you can contain personnel costs while improving coverage in terms of both quantity and depth. Keep your core staff in place; you need the ones who know the community best, in both news and advertising. And leverage a reduced demand for paper and ink into lower production costs; don’t think the TP is the first or last to move in this direction. Supply-and-demand still holds, so less demand for printed news in major markets can mean more demand with greater supply in smaller ones.

Make no mistake: This will continue to happen, particularly to urban dailies. But smaller newspapers are still mightily positioned to do business, serve their readers and advertisers, and to truly make a difference in local communities.

Above all, don’t despair. You can change. You *must* change. But that’s what you do. You’re in the business of changing the world, aren’t you? If you’re not, you are already in the wrong business.

EDITOR’S NOTE: James Hartman, a former writer for a semi-weekly newspaper, is the founder of James Hartman & Associates, a New Orleans-based political consulting, advertising and public relations firm. Contact him via info@jameshartman.net or (504) 267-9406.