Every
few days I read the Paragould Daily Press,
my hometown newspaper—a newspaper I worked at as a sports writer for four years—online.
I’m never looking for anything in particular. It’s just part of my routine: every
morning I skim national, state, and local news for a few minutes. However, when
I visited the PDP today, a few things
were different. First, the website had been redesigned (and not in a good way—it
takes talent to clutter what little content the PDP creates). More importantly, you now have to buy a subscription
to read the paper online.
This
isn’t about having to pay for content (I’m sure the PDP has heard plenty of negative feedback from its online readers
already); I understand what the PDP
is attempting to accomplish with this move. The move to paid content was inevitable
(I remember sitting in a staff meeting and discussing this very matter over
five years ago when I was writing for the newspaper), as it will be and has
been for much larger publications. Nevertheless, it is a move that makes me
wonder how much longer the Paragould
Daily Press will survive.
I’m
not an expert on news media or advertising, but a few things are simple. In
case you didn’t know, small daily newspapers are dying every day. Heck, medium
and big daily newspapers are shutting down, slashing content, and cutting
costs. Moving to paid content online is becoming a must. Who wants to pay for a
print copy when you can read most of the content online for free?
And
here’s the deal, newspapers make money by selling advertising space. However,
what company is going to pay premium prices for print ads when everyone is viewing
the content online? Consider this: according to State of the Media, revenue from print advertising lost $2.1
billion in 2011. In comparison, revenue from online advertising rose by $207
million in the same time (you can find some more solid data here: http://stateofthemedia.org/2012/newspapers-building-digital-revenues-proves-painfully-slow/).
Those are grim numbers for a business trying to sell the impact of print
advertising.
I
know the Daily Press’s plan for the
last couple of years has been to offer a portion of its content for free online
in hopes of gaining new subscribers. We now know that wasn’t enough. While the
move to paid content online may be intended as a sign that the PDP will evolve and continue to serve
the city of Paragould for another 130 years, I’m afraid that it’s the beginning
of the end.
Once
again, I’m no expert, but online advertising presents a new set of problems for
newspapers. Despite what public perception may be, online advertising has a
plethora of problems and may not be as stable as the general public thinks.
Thus, small daily newspapers like the PDP
are forced to make a decision: die a slow death by declining print advertising
revenues or attempt to adapt. The question is whether small dailies can find
the right balance between the two. Of course, this isn’t even factoring in the
specifics of the individual markets.
The
Daily Press survives because of local
businesses. As you may know, small businesses are having troubles of their own.
If local businesses keep buying print ads, the paper will continue to hang on. Even
that may not be enough to ensure survival. However, as the move to paid content
most likely signals, print subscriptions are steadily declining. So in the end,
the survival of the PDP will depend
on its ability to create effective online advertising strategies and convince
local businesses that people are buying online subscriptions to the website,
which means selling online subscriptions. Then again, maybe I am underestimating
the number of new print subscribers, but I doubt it.
The
problem with paid content is that people always find a way to get the news for
free. Whether it is from Twitter, Facebook, Topix, local blogs, or word of mouth. In order to charge for
content, the content needs to offer something more than just basic information.
Believe or not, some people are willing to offer much of the same news and
information for free. Does the PDP
offer enough to charge for its content? Sadly, probably not. Much of the “news”
stories aren’t much more than free advertising for business—but as I talked
about earlier, it’s hard to blame the newspaper whose survival is dependent
upon these companies.
Eventually
the Paragould Daily Press, which is
owned by Paxton Media Group—the same company that owns the neighboring Jonesboro Sun—will shut down (that is,
unless someone local buys the newspaper as an act of love). As the cities of
Paragould and Jonesboro continue to converge, the need for two daily newspapers
in Northeast Arkansas will continue to disappear.
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