Truth in advertising…
Is that expression really even relevant anymore? You have to wonder. Especially when it comes to assertions by newspapers like the Lawrence Journal World which is sporting a full page ad attempting to hitch its fortunes to – of all things – USA Today.
“More,” the ad begins. “More local. More national. More of what matters to you.”
Hold it right there.
While it’s true that the Journal World is pretty much the only game in town in Lawrence, Kansas, it’s a pretty meager game at that. Outside of the odd Karen Dillon investigative piece, the usual KU worship stories, road closings and the odd murder, there’s not a whole lot of local color or in depth local enterprise reporting outside of the shooting-fish-in-a-barrel coverage of the obvious.
For example, they’ve been milking the Rock Chalk Park – aka Sports Pavilion Lawrence – story for like two years. Unfortunately, given the sleepyheaded nature of the local populace and the lack of journalistic teeth, precious little has come of the Journal World coverage in terms of effecting change.
And as for the term, “more national,” it couldn’t get any less.
In today’s edition for example, there’s but a single Associated Press story headlined, “GOP: President sees Iran as legacy builder.”
That and two news shorts about a claim that ISIS “used chemical weapons” and “At least eight people dead after cyclone.”
In other words, if you’re old – and what print newspaper readers aren’t these days? – and rely on the Journal World for national and world news, you’re sunk.
You don’t know Jack about what’s going on around the country or the world.
To that end, the Journal World is throwing a Hail Mary.
It’s hooking up with USA Today to include a a USA Today Local Edition in every copy of its newspaper.
Could be interesting.
Having printed USA Today for years, the Journal World probably has a pretty good idea how many locals subscribe to it and how many locals subscribed to it but not the Journal World.
That said, if you like USA Today – including for its sports, business and entertainment coverage – chances are getting a snapshot inside the Journal World isn’t going to cut it.
And why pay extra for something you already are getting?
Because while the Journal World is trying to entice readers with its experiment at a intro rated of $17.75 for three months – clearly they can’t afford to give it away free for long.
And even though it’s only going to be a six to eight page insert, Saturday’s “A Section” of the Journal World was only 10 pages all in, so something’s gotta give.
Either the circulation’s gotta climb from around 10,000 to 12,000 copies daily (The Pitch claims to put out more than 40,000 btw) or there had better be a huge leap in display advertising and/or ad inserts.
Think of this as yet another example of daily newspapers struggling to find relevancy in the Internet Age.
Unfortunately, in this case it would appear that the Journal World is going about it in the exact wrong way by doubling down on newspaper’s biggest Achilles Heel – national and world news.
The one thing local newspapers have going for them is their ability to provide local and area news with very little competition from the big boys – the New York Times and USA Today – to name two.
Oh yeah, and that pesky Internet.
From appearances, it looks as if the Journal World is attempting to reach out to readers who are somehow affluent enough to pay the considerable freight of subscribing to a daily newspaper but somehow Internet and/or cable news challenged.
In other words, older readers with limited appeal to most large advertisers.
USA Today started this ball rolling a year ago in a number of the country’s larger newspapers with 12 to 14 page inserts – basically double what the Journal World will be doing.
However while the Journal World and other newspapers now carrying the inserts undoubtedly hope to profit somehow from the addition, it’s USA Today that more likely will be able to cash in with national advertisers via its expanded reach.
In any case, it’ll be fun to see how it goes here and, uh, how long it lasts.
Just stick a fork in traditional newspapers. They’re done; just like the telegram and typewriter–and a horse and buggy.
Everything is accessible on the Internet, and there will always be news. The problem is making money off it. There has to be ways without a paywall.
I’m a reporter myself and have no idea what to do next. I’m pushing for more of a social media presence at my job, but it’s one ear out the other. They just stick to the old model and hope to acquire more accounts. It’s like, “whatever.”
There needs to be more independent journalism, I guess.
It’s a really tough call, Steely…
Seriously, newspapers have been trying for at least two decades now to try and figure out a way to make online journalism pay off and while it’s improved greatly, nobody has come up with a way to make it pay off anywhere near the way print does.
So yes, chances are they’ll survive somehow and maintain their leadership in local news. However, there’s really no comparison to sites like KC Confidential, etc because we don’t have the resources to fan out and cover things like City Hall, court trials and news beats the way the Star still does.
We can offer readers some things – and some things the Star can’t or at least isn’t – but it’s far from comprehensive.
The downside of blogger news is that it often is little more than a compendium of other news media’s reporting mixed in with unsubstantiated rumors and unchecked facts, tossed out for sensationalism and/or the fun of it.
Know who I’m talking about?
Print media, for the most part, continues to demonstrate a heart condition that would leave a cardiologist, checking his or her watch for the needed replacement organ. It’s kind of like a television show whose ratings are so bad they are looking for guest celebrities to buy them them the Nielsen points to survive another season. From the Sunday Star or partial thrown on Sunday for free, supposedly a benefit to my P Hill Times, which was obviously not wanted, remaining for days in my driveway, to CPA17 wanting to offer a piece of the New York Times to my clients. It isn’t going to happen. There are exceptions such as the Wall Street Journal, offered both in paper an on-line form which still reports news, along with journalism from all quarters. (Sorry, but it’s owned by Fox). I still get the USA Today, free when I stay at a Hyatt or Hampton, but you still get what you pay for. Yes, boys, we still have the Hilltop, but we’ve learned to live without it, and we no longer get our news from the Weekly Reader. We have met the gatekeepers of the news, the publishers, editors, and even reporters, and they are ours. They have forgotten that we have a choice. Personally, I get a better view of the news from KC Confidential than I do newspaers used to wrap dinner.
🙂 +
Doesn’t the Star print both of those on their presses????
They indeed do print both the Lawrence Journal World and USA Today.
And if you read my most recent layoffs story you’ll see that in spite of that they just got through laying off a ton of the press crew at 18th and Grand. Leaving only the night shift to churn out all those newspapers.
It’s a pretty thin dime these days, guys