Detroit cuts backs -- does it make sense?

You've undoubtedly heard the news by now. The two Detroit, Mich., metro dailies are cutting back on home delivery. One paper will only deliver on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays while the other just on Thursdays and Fridays.

There will be smaller single-copy editions available on the other days of the week, but readers will have to go out and buy them each day.

Some newspapers, including our own The Dispatch in Lexington, have already reduced the number of publication days each week.

This is a new hybrid. Still publishing throughout the week, but not printing as much. Sending people to the Web sites for more on the non-delivery days.

Will this work? From the business perspective, I recommend reading Poynter's The Biz Blog by Rick Edmonds. You can read it by clicking here.

From across The Pond

Saw one of these commercials mentioned on the E&P blog for Fitz & Jen, then went looking through YouTube and found some more.

These are TV commercials produced for The Daily Telegraph. It's interesting to see how papers in merry old England are trying to attract more readers.



Next one's volume is low. Sorry about that.




Enjoy.

Updating plate sales

If you read December's The North Carolina Press newsletter story on the 2008 election and newspapers, you might recall the report from Hickory Daily Record. The paper did not reprint any of its Nov. 5 papers, but did offer plates of that day's front for $10.

Publisher Eric Millsaps gave us an update today. "Final tally is in and we sold 65 to our readers."

That's $650 in revenue Hickory didn't have before or planned on having.

Making money from news

There's an interesting column by a Peter Osnos, who is a senior fellow for media at The Century Foundation, online now about news media returning to the idea of making money for their information.

In case you haven't heard of The Century Foundation (don't worry, we hadn't either), its Web site says this:

The Century Foundation, founded in 1919 by the progressive businessman Edward A. Filene, is a nonprofit public policy research institution committed to the belief that a mix of effective government, open democracy, and free markets is the most effective solution to the major challenges facing the United States.

Here is one paragraph from Osnos' column. Read the entire column by clicking here.

What has happened with the Internet so far is that the suppliers of hardware, software, and transmission (search engines and aggregators) have built business models that effectively shut out revenue streams for the creators of the information that is being delivered. What has become absolutely clear in 2008 is that this new model for delivering information is a debilitating blow to the creation of quality news content. The companies making money from the internet—Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon, and so on—are entitled to the riches they’ve amassed from their ingenuity and entrepreneurial skill. But as a society, we’ve got to figure out how news gathering and information distribution will be paid for from now on.

Osnos offers his own ideas on how to accomplish that. Whether anyone is willing to try out these ideas is anyone's guess.

What are your thoughts on his ideas? Add your comments below.

P.S. By clicking on the link at the top of this column, not only will it take you to a short bio of Osnos, but an index of previous columns, including one titled "Support Your Local Newspaper."

Outing's advice to CEOs

Steve Outing, who writes a column for Editor & Publisher, recently opined on the API "Crisis Summit" with 50 newspaper CEO-types. It's not difficult to tell that Outing isn't expecting a lot out of these Crisis meetings.

From the times I've read Outing's columns, he doesn't seem to be the type of person who minds poking his finger in the eyes of people he believes to be short-sighted or even blind to the world of new media.

I don't agree with everything he writes, but a lot of it makes perfect sense.

To read Outing's full column, click here.

For purposes of this blog entry (and possibly entice you to read the whole column), below is a list of his main pieces of advice to the CEOs (and certainly it can be used by people at the individual newspaper level too):

1. Issue an edict: Digital is first!
2. Consolidate print and online editing functions
3. Print edition: Don't bother chasing young people
4. Print edition: Focus on the core demographic
5. Guide older print loyalists to a life online
6. Reduce the number of print editions
7. Online: Broaden definition of news to include micro-personal
8. Hire a social VP
9. Experiment, fail, experiment more
10. Leverage your remaining staffers, and augment them
11. Consider retirement

A lot of these points make sense, particularly the advice given in items 3 and 4.

The problem with Outing's list is the absence of ways to make money. Yes, his column does talk some about the money issue, but not enough. Regardless, the column is worth a read.

What do you think about this list? Does any of it make sense to you? Let's get a discussion going on the topic! Add your comments by clicking on the Comments link below this post.

Delivery vs. information

This past week, E&P picked up the story of The News & Observer getting out of the trucking business. Penske Logistics will take over the job of delivering bundles to the nine distribution centers and other sites outside the immediate region.

The independent contracts we know as carriers, still have their contracts to deliver directly to subscribers. People getting the N&O delivered to their homes will still deal with the same people.

Still, 17 full-time jobs and many more part-time jobs will be eliminated from the N&O payroll. (Publisher Orage Quarles believes many of those people will get jobs with Penske.)

Here's another way of looking at this other than just cutting FTEs from a payroll: This move actually follows what some people in the industry have been talking about for a few years, that we are in the information business, not the ink, paper and delivery business.

Through the years, newspapers became good at delivering physical products to physical locations. But other businesses also excel at delivery. What no one else excels at is providing reliable news and information, being a watchdog of government and connecting buyers and sellers. Focusing on those parts of the business that no one else can do makes real sense to this blogger.

Pushing subscriptions

Brinn Clayton, the publisher at The Courier-Times of Roxboro, tells us about his paper's efforts to get more people buying his paper:

The staff is working subscriptions hard. We are selling about 100 (out of 8,800) fewer papers since January. We are trying to do multiple-year subscriptions with big discounts. We are selling 3 years for the price of 2 years. We are offering an early renewal discount.

We are writing letters to customers who have let their subscriptions expire, offering them 2 months free for renewing. We are getting the addresses of all people who submit wedding, engagement, and birth announcements. We are sending them letters giving them a deal if they subscribe.

Getting them back into the paper

Here's a few ideas courtesy of Liz Erwin of The Charlotte Observer:

• Sales executives are offering an introductory rate to get inactive advertisers back into the newspaper. So far, this has landed 25 contracts.
• The paper is creating a remnant program for small, unfilled spaces in the paper. For a weekly rate, an advertiser can get a message in 1x3 and 1x2 spaces. The advertiser is guaranteed a minimum number of inches per week.
• Some plans for advertising special sections are out because advertising is down. But the staff is refocused in those cases on “special pages” in ROP. This helps save the advertising that is still available. This is being done for some annual gift guides.
• The paper now offers strip ads at the bottom of most sections, excluding 1A. They are two inches deep and are only sold at a premium rate. They are proving to be very popular with advertisers. Reader reaction has been almost nonexistent.

Customer needs first

Here's an idea from Orage Quarles, publisher of The News & Observer of Raleigh (emphasis added):

The N&O is implementing McClatchy NOW! training, which focuses on customer needs as opposed to selling the newspaper’s available inventory.

Tickle their tastebuds

Rachel Hoskins, who is the regional publisher at The Franklin Press offered this idea:

Tie in print advertising with online advertising so our advertisers can have the best of both worlds.

Add an online, value-added version to print products, such as dining guides, and include a link to the restaurant's Web site or a static menu.

Check out The Franklin Press' Web site to see how they are doing the menu guide.