Magazines thrive due to niche audiences

Julie Brooks, 20, looks forward to the one day in the month when her favorite item comes in the mail. InStyle Magazine.

This fashion addict from McDonough, Ga., reads fashion to catch up on the season’s trends and where to shop. Something you can’t find in the local newspaper.

To find out what’s happening the world, one can read the newspaper. But what about the reader who’s learning how to garden or the reader that wants to know the best advice on how to plan a wedding?

Those readers can turn to magazines. Magazines are able to concentrate on a particular subject matter, rather than local happenings of the community. Readers can find their “niche”.

“Reading a magazine is an experience that fulfills personal needs and reflects values of the reader,” according to the 2009 Magazine Publishers of America Handbook.

Although many magazines have closed, in 2008 alone 195 new publications made its way to the press, according to MPA. On the other hand, newspapers continue to close and new ones are not developing, but rather are adapting to new technology developments.

This could be the downfall of print newspaper, but the rise of magazine publications.

“I do not read newspapers in print really anymore,” said Brooks. “Anything I need to know I can go online or can watch CNN to find out what’s happening. I read magazines for fashion because it’s the easiest way to get that certain kind of information.”

Magazines are able to pinpoint a certain interest and focus on it for readers. Within the 195 new publications in 2008, the top subject categories were entertainment/celebrity, apparel/accessories and travel. Subject matters that are most likely not found in the local newspaper on a daily basis. Although many fear print media is heading downhill, readers can rest assured magazines have found their place in the market.

With less readers heading to the newspapers, advertisers have begun to look elsewhere to draw their business. The concentration of subject matters allows advertisers to pinpoint their audience. For example, a business that specializes in cakes can reach their intended audience easier through a bridal magazine.

The steady market of magazines has led businesses to look to this print form to get their word out.

“It makes sense that businesses are going to want to advertise where they can reach the most people,” said Whitney Morrow, 19, a business major from Marietta, Ga. “Say I want to find where to get the best shoes, I’m going to read a fashion magazine.”

According to MPA, the closing of magazines and newspapers are due to advertisements, not readership. But readership and advertisement are closely related.

If readers are not reading newspapers, advertisers are not going to want to spend the money they will probably not get back. In turn, publications are forced to shut down due to the lack of advertisement revenue.

So where do businesses turn? They’ll go to the place where they can attract the most exposure.

According to MPA, 85 percent of adults 18 or older read at least one magazine regularly.

“I think it’s encouraging that people are still reading magazines,” said Caitlin Hughes, 21, a political science major from Dacula, Ga. “It just means that they’re still making money, which is always a good thing.”

Small Media Causing News to Think Big

The internet as it existed at the end of the last millennium was minimalist when compared with the multimedia web sites of today’s web 2.0 boom. The text was plain, video streaming was not yet realized in in sites like Youtube and newspapers saw a web site as an opportunity to expand, not to retreat.
The next step in the evolution of news, however, is through internet-capable mobile devices that changes the way consumers see and use news and information.
Nicholas Jones, a 21-year-old Japanese Language and Literature major, said that the length of his internet use on a daily basis has increased after he purchased his HTC Magic phone in December of last year. “I needed a new phone and had skipped out on the iPhone, because it was pretty expensive and I didn’t want all of its features,” he said, “The Android phones are great because I can keep up with the internet all day while I’m at work but it was pretty affordable, even then.”
Android is the mobile operating system initially developed by Google, and later the Open Handset Alliance. The Open Handset Alliance is a consortium of several mobile device- related companies, including Google, who announced the operating system as a method of establishing open standards for mobile devices. This means several companies can compete to establish themselves as hardware developers for the industry, but without setting up the proprietary, licensed systems that companies like Apple have.
Nathan Edwards, a 20-year-old International Affairs major, purchased a Blackberry phone despite being an otherwise loyal Apple customer. “I certainly like Apples products- they are stylish and do what they were designed to do- but mobile media is different. Having the hang-ups of Apple’s exclusive design in a mobile isn’t just undesirable, its downright annoying.
On the other hand, that logic probably won’t apply soon. Things like Android are forcing the [mobile] companies to be more open. The deal is this: I’m using this thing every day, I’m making myself more open to communication, I need to be able to use this thing like my computer when I need to. When they limit what you can do with a thing that’s designed to be this super-convenient swiss-army knife of electronics, you lose the busy people who wanted to buy your product,” said Edwards.
News is being read by mobile devices. In a display of mobile might that could have some die-hard newspaper fans groaning, The New York Times reported in June that it had 60 million page views on mobile devices a month, with 10 to 20 million of those coming from iPhone apps, the Nielson Company reported in June.
According to the Nielson Company, there are 53.4 million mobile internet users in the United states with 22.3 million of them accessing news through their mobile.
It’s no surprise that the top two websites accessed by mobile devices are the web sites Facebook and Myspace. These sites are important to mobile consumers and are being designed and retooled now to deliver content via a mobile device.
Twitter, a newer social media network, had 735,000 unique mobile visitors to its site in January.
“Twitter is almost perfect for mobile social media,” said Edwards. “It has a word limit of 140 characters that sort of ensures what you read is small, it’s good for devices like Blackberries.”
Mobile websites are sparse, have few to no pictures, and have few ads. But then a mobile site is designed to be the PC experience made convenient; minimalist user interfaces with few colors but a smooth layout are key.
Kiah McClain, 19, has noticed a change in the way he uses the internet on his phone. “I do use the internet more thanks to my Blackberry, but I also tend to read information in little short snippets. I do browse Facebook, yeah, when I’m in class or work. I can’t always scroll through a New York Times column. I usually just read headlines, check something quickly on Wikipedia or watch a news clip on Youtube I can’t remember the last time I watched or read something on it for more than a few minutes.”
Newspapers are tailoring the way they write news online with these devices in mind; headlines, article summaries and alternative media stories are being used more frequently.

Digital devices provide new way to read books

By BECKY ATKINSON

Editor MIRIAM CAMP

Running out of battery has never been a problem for books before.

New digital devices such as the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader are providing a new way to read books - electronically.

Though these digital devices offer a new way to read and other benefits that may be improvements over print reading, these new devices have new problems that printed books have never had to face.

“Last night my Kindle ran out of battery,” said Scott Shamp, director of the New Media Institute at the University of Georgia. “This is never been a problem with print books.”

Shamp downloaded his first Kindle book four days ago, a book called “Loving Frank” about the life of Frank Lloyd Wright. Before he had only read newspapers on his Kindle.

“It’s something really cool to wish I had the New York Times and then, boom. I do.” Shamp said.

Though his Kindle ran out of battery, Shamp still thinks the Kindle has some great features. He loves being able to change the font size, being able to make notes and to access a dictionary directly from the Kindle.

Being able to buy books immediately is another feature he enjoys.

“The other night after I finished my book, I just went online and downloaded another one,” Shamp said. “It took two minutes.”

He also hasn’t noticed a problem reading a book from a screen instead of printed pages.

Dr. Shamp believes the Kindle and other digital devices will ultimately be successful.

“I think it has to,” he said. “We can’t have more dead trees.”

Elizabeth Davis, director of the writing certificate program and an English professor at UGA, agrees that there are pros for the Kindle and other such digital devices.

For one thing, downloading digital books is cheaper and more economical, and thus more affordable for people.

According to Amazon.com, the price of the new Dan Brown book “The Lost Symbol” is $9.99. The print version is $29.95.

Shamp was impressed by the fact that an individual issue of the New York Times is only 75 cents.

Davis also thinks people will like the portability of the digital devices. The Kindle weighs 18.9 ounces and has a 9.7” display screen and is as thin as a pencil.

Another feature of digital devices Davis thinks will be beneficial is the greater access people will have to a wider variety of texts.

“The more that goes online, the more access we’ll have,” Davis said.

The benefits of increased access are similar to benefits the Gutenberg Project and the Google Book Project provides. More books will be available for everyone to read.

Despite these features, Davis herself still does not have a Kindle, mainly because of the hefty price tag.

“What limits people is the first initial outlay of cost for the device,” Davis said.

The Kindle costs $299, but the Kindle DX, the newest Kindle with improved features such as larger screen size, costs $489.

But even without having to pay for the device, some students at Princeton University still aren’t satisfied. Two weeks ago, 50 students received a free Kindle DX as part of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader pilot program. According to The Daily Princetonian, Princeton’s independent student newspaper, students seemed to agree that the devices made it difficult to annotate books, such as highlighting and writing in the margins.

Davis believes some people will like digital readers such as the Kindle and some will not.

“It’s not an either-or situation,” she said. “Books and digital devices are going to co-exist.”

Peggy Gaffney, an employee at Borders bookstore in Athens has experience with digital devices and books co-existing.

Borders all over the country are selling the Sony Reader, another digital reader that is similar to the Kindle.

The Sony Reader provides many of the same features as the Kindle but with a lower price tag. Prices range from $199 to $299, according to the Sony website.

“We’ve done well with it,” Gaffney said about the Sony Reader. “Now that it’s come out with a new version, I expect it to do well. A lot of people are interested, especially for the holidays.”

The new version is able to download photographs, notes and music.

Gaffney agrees with Davis on the fact that some people will like the digital devices and some people won’t.

“I don’t think it’s for everyone,” Gaffney said. “There will be certain people who like it and some who don’t. Some people won’t want to mess with another electronic.”

Gaffney is not worried about selling a machine that some think might take the place of books.

We’re just providing another way to read books, she said.

Multimedia's Affect on Readership of Print Newspapers

Multimedia’s Affect on Readership of Print Newspapers
by Chari Sutherland
Edited by Pricilla Kathe

The newspaper industry has been concentrating many efforts lately on keeping their readers reading. This concern has increased the use of multimedia on news Web sites as a way of engaging the audience more. But the idea of readers flocking to Web sites because of video is uncertain.
The Athens Banner-Herald has been using video on their Web site for three years. Melissa Hanna, Executive Editor of the Banner-Herald, said the videos they use are all locally oriented. She said, readership “is a difficult thing to determine.” She said most of the time they find that readers appreciate the videos, especially those covering UGA games.
Susan Catron, Executive Editor at the Savannah Morning News, said, she can’t tell if videos are paying off in print readership or not, even though they upload a lot of videos their readers want to see.
“What I think has happened is we have become a brand,” Catron said. “That’s what I want. When people are looking for news, I want them to see us as that source.”
She said deciding when to use video depends on which stories are better told in that medium. For some stories, it gives that added dimension, she said.
“Today we have up (on the Web site) a video showing how an explosion in Savannah happened,” Catron said. “It explains very well how 14 people died. I don’t know if we could’ve told that story in a better way.”
The Savannah Morning News monitors how many times a video has been viewed and passed on to friends. “That’s key—if it was passed along,” Catron said.
Dave Enna is the Web site Manager for Content at the Charlotte Observer, which has been using video for six years. The paper produces about 15 videos a week. Enna said video page views are only a small amount of the millions of page views the Observer gets daily. In spite of this, they continue to see video as a plus. He said they are good for certain types of content.
They recently did a video story about a child with a severe disability due to a brain tumor. “(Readers) could see how the child acted due to the disorder,” he said. “This helped support the story.”
Catron says her paper also provides their readers access to AP videos from their AP feed. Readers pick what they want to see from the feed. The Charlotte Observer also subscribes to the AP video feed, said Dave Enna, The Observer’s Web site Manager for Content. “We get 1000 page views a day from it,” he said.
All three papers rely heavily on video for sports coverage. Catron said her paper also does Web casts for local football. At the Charlotte Observer, two videos are produced each week to cover sports. Sometimes they embed YouTube videos and provide streamlined, live video, Enna said.
In addition to Web casts for football, Catron said, the Savannah Morning News also provides Web casts for movie reviews and music reviews. She said they plan to add podcasts this year to add to their variety of news delivery. “You have to throw (ideas) at the wall and see what makes them stick.”

###

Reporters re-evaluate their future in Journalism

by Jennifer Johnson

Matt J. Duffy’s Facebook statuses make him feel like he’s courtside in a short skirt, waving pompoms.

“I try to cheer up my students and reporter friends and let them know that they aren’t wasting their time with journalism,” Duffy said.

Duffy teaches communication law and media writing at Georgia State University, using stories from his years in the newsrooms of the Boston Herald and The Marietta Daily Journal to teach students about what it’s like to be a reporter.

“As far as writing, though, that’s it for me,” Duffy said. “I’d rather been in a classroom, stressing to students that they’re learning the skills here that can apply to any form that newspapers will eventually take.”

Reporters are starting to choose classrooms and bookstores over newsrooms as the industry treads further into uncertain waters. Even though enrollment at accredited journalism programs across the country has yet to decline, according to the Columbia Journalism Review, would-be reporters are asking questions about the future of the print media field.

“I tell every student the need for written-word journalists will never go away,” Duffy said. “People are always going to need written news. Not everyone is going to watch video news.”

The success of future journalists depends on their educational foundations, according to Duffy. Writing good news leads, debating ethics, and learning communication law and history are important to the doctoral candidate.

“The answer to whether or not journalists will exist tomorrow is all about keeping a check on the powerful,” Duffy said. “Journalism today will go away. It’s what it becomes next that is the issue.”

It’s an issue that Sara Player has been thinking a lot about recently. She’s a student in Duffy’s media writing class, and often stays after lectures to hear more stories about covering Boston in the late ’90s.

“He’ll talk about popping in and out of the newsroom all day and calling in stories from the field,” said Player, 23. “I keep thinking that, that won’t ever be me—that the newspaper will be dead before I get the chance.”

Though her journalism instructors assure her that newspapers will persist, Player looked into transferring to the English program at GSU even though she’s a semester away from graduation.

“I have such anxiety about it,” Player said. “I feel like I need to have another option, but I really don’t want to do anything but this.”

Player plans on finishing her journalism degree and said she hopes there will be careers for journalists once she gets out of graduate school.

Donny Bailey Seagraves didn't believe that journalists could make their reporting a viable career. That's why Seagraves left the Grady School of Journalism before getting her undergraduate at UGA.

"I love journalism, but I actually left before I graduated," said Seagraves. "We were in a downturn and I didn't think that I could make a living doing it."

Seagraves had several other jobs though continued to write for newspapers like the Chicago Tribune and the Athens Daily News. She still writes for Athens Magazine when she's not doing publicity for her new book.

Her children’s middle grade book, Gone From These Woods, was published in August by Random House’s Delacorte Press. Seagraves has written nine books, but this is the first she’s had published.

Seagraves will talk about moving from nonfiction to fiction work at an authors and illustrator’s panel at the Athens’ Borders Books on Oct. 4.

"It's almost like loosing an old friend," Seagraves said. "I'm sad to see newspapers dying.”

Duffy doesn’t think that will ever happen.

“I’m going to be reading my students’ writing when I’m in my nineties,” Duffy said. “I might be reading it on a book reader-screen thing, but it will be there, and so will their jobs.”


Edited by Lauren Costley

Not Quite There Yet: The Amazon Kindle

by Mark Stephenson
Rough Draft
Editors: Anne Connaughton, Ryan Brooks

Newspapers in desperate need of financial relief eagerly anticipated Amazon.com’s May release of the Kindle DX—introducing their widely-discussed new service, “Kindle Newspapers”. However, problems beseiging the wireless reading device soon put a damper on their high hopes. A month later, Kindle owners received the following notification:

“We recently discovered a problem with a Kindle book that you have purchased. To remedy this situation, we have processed a refund to the payment method used to purchase Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984). Upon the activation of the wireless, the title will be automatically removed from the device.”

The irony of this Big-Brother-like redaction was not lost on customers and the media alike. Kindle users took to the Amazon.com discussion boards to voice their concerns.

User “Caffeine Queen” wrote that she was “annoyed that the email announcing the refund gave no explanation.”

Amazon’s ability to automatically, wirelessly delete the novel from a Kindle brought up additional worries about digital rights management (DRM), also used by Apple’s iTunes software for music downloads. DRM technology enables media publishers to impose limitations on the use of their content—even after it has been purchased.

“I'm concerned now that I don't really ‘own’ any of the books on my Kindle, and that any could be ‘taken back,’ ” wrote Caffeine Queen.

New York Times technology writer David Pogue called it “ugly for all kinds of reasons”:

“As one of my readers noted, it’s like Barnes & Noble sneaking into our homes in the middle of the night, taking some books that we’ve been reading off our nightstands, and leaving us a check on the coffee table.”

Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos later issued an apology to customers, calling Amazon’s reaction “stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.”

He went on to note Amazon’s blame in the situation, promising to “use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward.” Despite Amazon’s swift damage control, however, the somewhat Orwellian event represents only one example of the issues revolving around the Kindle reader, made even more problematic with the introduction of newspaper content onto the device, which is ill-suited for publications with images. As a result, Kindle seems to be taking a while to catch on.

Dr. Richard Menke, a professor of English Studies at the University of Georgia and a specialist in new media, said he wasn’t planning on purchasing one.

“The idea is an interesting one, but I’m not sure Kindle is quite there yet,” he said. “My wife was really jonesing for one back when the first came out. But she heard about the problems it had with illustrations.”

Dr. Menke pointed out that the reader is most suited for “the thing you need it the least for: out of print, standard, straight text novels. Like Jane Eyre.”

But, Menke noted, readers can easily go buy a used copy of Jane Eyre for similar prices as Amazon’s digital e-book, without the fear of losing it due to copyright infringement, or that the technology will soon go out of date.

“In a way this sort of technology is like the newspaper. What we care about that seems really big and important today, we don’t care as much about tomorrow,” Menke said.

When asked about Kindle Newspapers, Menke had heard of the service. “They’re probably better suited for that,” he said. However, he repeated, he still wouldn’t be getting one before some kind of significant design update.

While Dr. Sarah Steger raved about her Kindle’s ability to easily transport her library of books, she too didn’t find it’s imageless format adaptable for reading the news.

On the other hand, Dr. Chris Pizzino was more embracing of technological trends.
Pizzino, who teaches a course on Science Fiction, said that “If that’s where the times takes us, I’ll go with them.”

“In five, ten years, I may be teaching all my classes from a Kindle textbook, so students can save the money from having to buy a new edition every year,” Pizzino speculated. He also pointed out the environmental benefits from saving the paper required to print newspapers and magazines by subscribing to them digitally.

So far, problems with the current device have prevented news readers less inclined towards science fiction from jumping on board. Perhaps with a few hardware updates, however, Kindle might provide a viable new market for struggling newspapers.

Customized News Possible with RSS Feeds

by Anne Connaughton
In today’s world of instant gratification, one fear is that newspapers are losing readers due to the volume of news presented, when only certain news stories interest a particular individual—the possible solution, is customization.

The ability to craft a news source catered completely to an individual’s tastes and preferences may sound like a distant dream, but in actuality, there is a service currently in existence that can accomplish this for readers.

Anyone who reads online news articles or blogs may notice a small, typically orange symbol with three white arcs somewhere on the page. This symbol accompanied by the initials RSS, indicate that article is available to be part of an RSS feed.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a way to automatically compile news from online sources on topics of interest on an individual level. The first step is to download a news aggregator to collect the content. There are versions of news aggregators available for free downloading, and both Yahoo and Google offer aggregators as a way to include RSS on the homepage.

After acquiring an aggregator, any website with an RSS symbol can be added to the feed. Feeds can be as simple or complex as desired, depending on the span of interest.

Though this may sound like an easy and ideal way to collect news, a relatively small number of people are taking advantage of this technology. In a 2005 study conducted by Yahoo, only 12 percent of Internet users know what RSS feeds are, and only 4 percent of those people have intentionally used one.

“I’ve heard of it,” said Lauren Welty, 19, a biological science major from Grayson, Ga., “Maybe I got something about it in an email one time.”

Other university students were even less informed.

“I’ve seen the letters, but that’s it,” said Chelsea Williams, 19, an undecided major from Statesboro, Ga.

Andrea Orton, 19, an exercise science major from Grayson, Ga., spends a lot of time online but had never heard of RSS feeds, or even noticed the icon. “I’m not very observant though,” she said.

Williams believes it is a promising concept, however. She would be interested in RSS feeds so that she did not have to go searching for the latest updates on all the news that interested her, though she thinks she would use it more frequently for blog updates.
Welty agreed. “They could be popular if people actually knew about them,” she said, “Like if they were the front page story in the Red and Black.”

Story 2

Priscilla Kathe
Chari Sutherland
Children are the future readers of news print

The future of news print lies in the tiny hands of children. Local reading programs are helping kids today learn to be readers of the future.
“If you can get a kid that reads for pleasure you’ve got it made,” said Barbara Dinnan of Athens-Clarke County Library.
“We’ve done a great job.”
Dinnan and the Athens-Clarke County Library along with book stores have set up many programs to help children learn to love reading. With programs such as Bedtime Stories, Read to Rover, summer reading programs and Japanese Storytime it is no wonder that they are getting kids excited about reading.
“These programs are geared to reading skills and fun incentives to read,” said Dinnan.
The one that gets the most response is the Read to Rover program. This program has children reading to a certified therapy dog.
At Barnes and Noble book stores they have set up many programs, like the library, to get children reading. The main program at Barnes and Noble is their summer reading program.
“The summer reading program yes absolutely [helps children become future readers] a lot of kids and teachers look forward to it,” said Patt Foley of Barnes and Noble book stores.
The program main goal is to reward kids for reading. The kids read eight books of their choosing and write in a journal about what the liked best about the book. The kids then turn the journal into the store and receive a coupon for a free book.
Borders book store also holds a reading time for children once a month. The participation at these events is more like a play date and all depends on the parent’s encouragement, said Peggy Gaffny of Borders book stores.
This fun atmosphere helps children think of reading as something fun other than required school work.
“You notice a difference in who has come to the programs and kids who haven’t,” said Loran Hollahan of Athens-Clarke County Library.
“As for the reading ability, once they go to school they hit the ground running. They check out books other kids are scared of.”
This reading ability is important for the news print business as well as the children. Newspapers and other medias need consumers who can comprehend the information that is laid before them. These programs obviously help children with their ability to read, but they also help news prints readership. Adults who never learned to love to read are far less likely to pick up a newspaper or magazine.
With television, internet and video games all vying for kids attention it is important to make sure that children still read and enjoy it.
The programs at all of the stores are pretty constant.
“They go off to preschool, it grows and changes with the kids,” Dinnan said.
Other than the normal influx from kids growing up and going to school the programs are all a success. With a full calendar of events one can see why the kids keep coming back.
By helping these children learn to love reading people like Dinnan are helping the news print business. When these children go to the business world they will be the consumers of news print.

Miriam Camp- Magazine Readership

By: Miriam Camp
Editor: Becky Atkinson
Sept. 30, 2009
Magazine Readership

Magazines use online and social networks to stay up with fast moving trends in today’s culture.

Judy Johnson, a managing editor for Southern Distinction, said, “We’re jumping on the band wagon with Twitter, facebook, and blogs. We don’t want to fall behind”

Johnson said on Sept. 24, 2009, that they were currently working on making sure they were set up with accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs.

The Athens Blur Magazine’s executive editor, Alec Wooden, said that new media has helped his physical publication, even though it is free. He thinks that online and social networks help the smaller magazines.

“Big ones do it so they don’t fall behind,” said Wooden.

Maintaining readership has been good for Blur. “We’re in a fortunate situation because we print a low number,” said Wooden. They do not have millions of subscribers, but they are able to get rid of their copies, because they are free.

Blur produces 4,000 copies every six weeks, a total of eight issues per year. They do not have a fixed cost; therefore, it is not a struggle to distribute their magazine.

Online presence helps Blur, because it keeps them in the audience’s mind when they are between publications.

Johnson admits that Southern Distinction’s biggest demographic is the Athens community, but they are developing a following. They have subscribers in 27 states across the country.

Southern Distinction is mostly sold by subscription, Johnson said. Copies of the magazine are also found in places such as: Publix, Barnes and Noble, stores in Atlanta, and hotels in Athens, Ga.

A bookseller at Barnes and Noble from Athens, Ga., Elise Stangle, who deals mostly with magazines said it is hard to say which type of magazine is the most popular.

Magazines are generally placed on the shelves of Barnes and Noble by corporate decisions, but Stangle can make requests based on customer suggestions.

At a bookstore the cover of a magazine is significant. Costumers will pick up a magazine and flip through it if the cover is striking.

Along those lines, Wooden said Blur’s process is simple. “Has to be something that appeals to people and looks good, Wooden said. “We try to make each issue look a little better and read better than the last.”

Blur uses a blogazine and receives about 4,000 views to their online publications. The largest viewing was around 10,000.

Wooden said they “constantly use all the social networks.” Promotion for their physical publication is found online.

Blur’s Twitter account is mainly used to direct people to their blog. They daily receive around 400 hits a day to the blog. Facebook friends for the magazine’s account have now reached 1,470.

Wooden spoke highly of new technology, calling it hugely beneficial to the industry. “People fear that people will go online only, but if anything it makes people crave the physical issue,” he said.

A year ago social networks were not prevalent in the industry; now they are, “necessary for survival,” Johnson said.
Mary Catherine Kinney, 21, from Albany, Ga., checks her Twitter account from her Blackberry phone.

Athens Banner-Herald Hoping to Change With the Times by Patrick Adams

The Athens Banner-Herald is shifting its marketing approach to embrace the increasing role of the Internet in journalism.


The newsroom at the Athens Banner-Herald needs to be geared around the online publication, http://onlineathens.com, according to Melissa Hanna, executive editor of the Athens Banner-Herald.

“Newspapers should treat online and print equally,” said Hanna.

As of May 2008, the Athens Banner-Herald reported its total market reach as being 84 percent of the Athens area, yet it is a loss in readership and a decrease in circulation compared to previous years, according to Hanna. The publication’s retail trading zone includes Athens-Clarke, Oconee, Madison, Jackson and Barrow counties.

Web site traffic will be an important dimension of the business now and in the future for this local paper.

“We need to capitalize on online hits to survive,” said Hanna. “We need to provide news online that consumers can’t get at other Web sites.”

Like other newspapers across the country, the Athens Banner-Herald is attempting to decide how much journalistic effort should be invested in both the print and the online publications. However, print remains crucial to business, according to Robyn Green, Director of Digital Innovation at the Athens Banner-Herald.

“Print is still what pays the bills,” said Green. “It’s true everywhere.”

In conjunction with the traditional print version of a newspaper, the online version can be a more dynamic product, according to Green.

“Our ultimate goal is to get a message to our readers,” said Green. “We have to find a way to make online just as valuable as print.”

The online publication has the potential to be updated constantly with more recent news than the print publication. More fresh content and interactivity will make the Athens Banner-Herald’s Web site successful, according to Hanna.

Onlineathens.com allows registered users to comment on articles posted on the Web site. Stories posted on the Web site sometimes receive up to 250 comments in just an hour, which is very good compared to other newspapers, Green said.

“Dialogue and discussion drives site traffic,” said Green.

Keeping in step with Internet social trends is also important at the Athens Banner-Herald. The online department wants to attract new, youthful readers with access to their site from popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, according to Green.

There are some problems with keeping page viewers on the site long enough to provide an audience to advertisers.

A large share of the site traffic is not significant enough in terms of time spent on the site. Users who view Onlineathens.com but leave the page without ever clicking a link amount to 16 percent of the site’s total traffic, according to Green. This is an indicator that users are only skimming the headlines before moving on to other Internet distractions.

A high percentage of superficial site traffic looks bad to advertisers, but advertisers may be part of the problem. Less than one percent of users of Onlineathens.com click on ads displayed on its pages, according to Green.

Another problem is determining the demographics of users of the Athens Banner-Herald’s online publication. The online department can track users’ internet service provider numbers, but not much else.

“You can’t pinpoint who you’re delivering to with the online product,” said Green.

To resolve some of these issues, Green believes that the Athens Banner-Herald’s journalistic responsibility is a priority.

“Quality content is what it’s all about,” said Green.

Other solutions include redesigning the Web site with a more modern and attractive layout and providing video to be available to registered users. However, only some topics merit news coverage in video format for the Athens Banner-Herald. Football is the one of the few topics that brings siginificant traffic, according to Hanna.

Because of the tough condition of the economy, the Athens Banner-Herald is struggling to financially sustain forward action in the business as far as digital innovations go. Even the editing team in the newsroom is understaffed, according to Scott Morrissey, Publisher of the Athens Banner-Herald.

Jobs in the newsroom

By Rachel Bunn
Edited by Rebekah Baldwin

Journalism jobs may be changing, but despite reports about the decline of print media, students and career experts say journalism students are not going to find it difficult to find jobs.


Alone, the raw statistics may seem discouraging. According to several recent studies, the number journalism jobs are decreasing while the number of journalism graduates is on the rise.

In August, the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research released its annual survey of journalism graduates, showing a dramatic decrease in jobs/job interviews from the 2007 findings.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says jobs in journalism have declined over the past 20 years, with the sharpest declines coming in the past five.

From 2008 to 2009, enrollment at journalism schools across the country has increased about 30 percent, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Journalists and business experts are releasing new analyses of the future of the news industry on a regular basis. What is really happening to newsroom jobs?

“I’ve heard some students say they’ve had a hard time finding a job, but not a lot,” said Marian Higgins, Grady Career Consultant at the University of Georgia Career Center.

Cecil Bentley, director of career services at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, says that although the Cox survey may be influenced by the recent downturn in the economy, it may be an indication of things to come.

“There will be a continuation in magazines, newspapers and other publications with seeing jobs disappear and change,” Bentley said. “I don’t see all jobs coming back [when the economy recovers].”

Bentley said that journalism schools are trying to keep curriculum current to give students an edge in the job market.

Students, although aware of the changes taking place, are not discouraged.

“I think all Grady professors are pushing the idea the newspaper isn’t going to last, but I still think they are going to be available,” said Mimi Ensley, a junior magazines major from Dalton, Ga.

Both Bentley and Ensley said that the newsroom is changing so quickly that graduating in 2011 will be offered jobs that do not yet exist.

“Digital has changed how we do things,” said Bentley. “There’s still people doing work—they just have broader skill sets.”

Bentley says the major words for journalists have been “multi-platform” or “multi-purpose” journalists. This means, journalists should be responsible for more than just telling stories—they should be editors, photographers and digital media experts as well.

“More experienced higher paid individuals are the ones being let go. Publications are hiring more entry-level candidates with different skill sets,” said Bentley.

Higgins said that journalism students should be focused on transferable skill sets, giving them a greater variety of jobs they can apply for.

“Skills I would look for are communication (oral and written), leadership, teamwork (whether you can work well with others), familiarity with technology, whether or not you can work independently and your level of creativity,” said Higgins.

So does that mean students should abandon their journalist roots? Not necessarily.

“I would say start with an initial goal [such as] magazines, then look to newspapers, publishing companies, PR firms and other companies,” said Higgins.

Bentley says that students should be open to any opportunities that come their way.

“Be more open-minded about the type of work you’re willing to do; don’t look past what’s out there,” said Bentley.

Still, students are a little wary of what the future holds for them.

“It’s scary, as a student, not knowing what jobs will be available when I graduate,” Ensley said.

Changing revenue sources for media

Rebekah Baldwin
Edited by: Rachel Bunn
9/30/09

Information can spread like wildfire over the Internet, which many argue is a good thing for our society, but wildfire is hard to control, and when you can’t control something, it’s hard to charge for it.

When the Internet first started becoming a source of media, the industry didn’t have a model to charge for online content. As a result, illegal downloading flourished, and newspapers, knowing they had to create an online presence, started putting their stories up for free. Paying customers began to expect their music, news, and other online content free of charge.

In response to this, the music business has started to exploit other revenue sources. Ringtones, merchandise sales, and song placement in movies, TV shows, and commercials, have all become more important ways to generate profit than ever before.

Some in the music business have even learned to take advantage of the benefits that free music has to offer. Lindsey Epperly, a third-year music business certificate student at the University of Georgia and street team director for a band called the Dirty Guv’nahs, is an advocate of using free music as a promotional tool.

“I think it allows the artist to build a growing relationship with their fans, helps them connect, and often promotes their group, pages, and mailing lists by directing them to the site where they're giving away music.”

The music industry might be able to replace some of the loss of recorded music sales with other revenue streams, but it will be harder for the news industry to survive without their traditional 3-legged stool: subscriptions, newsstand sales, and advertising.

With both subscription numbers and newsstand sales down, newspapers and magazines have to rely more and more on a single source of income- advertising.

Not all publications are ready to abandon circulation and newsstand revenues however.

“Marketing for circulation is an ongoing strategic part of the newspaper business, even though we recognize that the internet is a viable way to get our product out there,” says Jenna Wages, Strategic Innovative Director of Marketing at the Athens Banner-Herald. “We’re not going to just give up one one area of our business because its not doing well.”

For The Fayette Citizen, a local paper that covers Fayette County, Georgia, a single source of income is nothing new. The paper has always been free, and survives on advertising revenue alone.

A publication that survives solely on advertising could potentially be a source of ethical conflict, but Joyce Beverly, the Fayette Citizen’s publisher, says she has no concerns on this issue.

“I don’t have a single ethical problem with it. Really, we don’t run into many problems. If you want an advertorial I’ll sell you one,” Beverly says.

Even if the ethical issues are taken out of the equation, there are other problems associated with relying on a single source of income. If advertising dollars dry up, the publication has no other revenue source to back it up.

This has become a problem in the current economic climate, as total advertising expenditures were down nearly 17 percent in 2008, and internet advertising fell for the first time since its introduction according to a report by the Newspapers Association of America. Additionally, the competition for classified ads with Craigslist has significantly reduced newspapers’ advertising revenue.

But Beverly believes it is still possible for publications to survive on advertising alone.

“I really believe that you can survive on ad revenue. Google’s the biggest company in the world, and they get their revenue strictly from advertisements,” she says.

In a culture where no one wants to pay for content, and advertising dollars dwindle, the media industry will have to use innovative new strategies and search for new sources of revenue in order to survive.

Magazines Do More With Less

By: Kate Parham
Editor: Becky Taylor

Budget cuts, layoffs, fewer pages. Just another day at consumer magazines.
By now, it’s obvious that magazines are hurting. Some are folding, many are producing smaller issues and most have had major staff reductions.
A spokeswoman for Time Inc. told The New York Times that Time Inc. laid off 600 employees last October. Condé Nast magazines have lost about 8,000 ad pages through the October issues compared with last year, according to Media Industry Newsletter. And according to Audit Bureau of Circulations, newsstand sales were down for all but one of Hearst’s magazines.
The future of magazines is grim and many are struggling just to stay afloat. With less money to spend and fewer employees at work, numerous publications are forced to discover what it truly means to do more with less.
Nick Marino, managing editor at Paste Magazine in Atlanta, said, “We do a lot more ourselves than we used to: the staff has to write more, we’re all responsible for more in general, but that’s journalism in the 21st century.”
Journalism’s new face does not exactly exude money. Even the big, national publications are feeling the effects of the current economic climate. In fact, according to The New York Times, after a three-month McKinsey & Company project at Hearst, several magazines were told to cut about 25 percent from their budgets.
According to Marino, Paste has also had to make budget cuts of 25 percent, in addition to smaller page counts for each issue. “Our editorial budget has been cut drastically,” said Marino. “We use different freelancers now, instead of the highest paid writers, but it’s ok because there is no shortage of people who want to write for us.”
Fewer staffers is a concept Kali Justus, editor at Lakelife Magazine in the Lake Oconee area of Georgia, can relate to. Justus is literally a one-woman show, as she has been the only full-time employee in the editorial department at Lakelife for over six months, but come October Justus will be joined by an associate editor.
“Before I got here there was only a part-time editor and maybe one intern per summer,” Justus said. “Some of the decisions that have been made by the publishers, like hiring 2 full-time employees, reflect a growing need for in-house workers, which is of high value these days.”
However, Lakelife has been moving in both directions—in-house growth and freelance needs—according to Justus. “The previous editor did not rely as much on freelancers because the stories tended to be a lot longer,” Justus said. “Whereas I’ve added a good many more stories, but cut down on length, which has created a need for additional freelancers.”
In Justus’ opinion, the increased need for freelancers is very simple. “If you have more stories, that’s a lot more places that one person needs to be.”
Ramsey Nix, editor at Lake Oconee Living, is, of course, in the same boat. “We saw our biggest decline in ad revenue between last fall and last winter,” Nix said. “We were up to 168 pages and by last winter we were down to 112, so that was quite a dip.”
Nix said that Lake Oconee Living has instituted a much stricter budget- of $4,000 per issue for freelance, compared with $6,000-$8,000 in years past. “It’s not much at all, once you break it down between the 8 features we run in each issue and the 8 departments we have at the magazine,” Nix said. “Once you break it down, it’s spread really thin.”
Lake Oconee Living has also seen staff reductions. “We used to have 5 staff members and now we’re down to 3,” Nix said. But rather than increasing their freelance budget, Nix said that, “We’re just doing more work.”

Daily papers after the loss of the print AJC

by: Becky Taylor
editor: Kate Parham

“Covers Dixie like the dew,” was the slogan of the Atlanta Journal.

That could have applied to the paper’s distribution as people in all corners of Georgia could purchase a printed copy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Beginning in 2007, the paper began eliminating areas of the state from their distribution zone. Daily papers in Georgia that always had the Journal-Constitution as a companion were now alone in reporting news in a daily printed format.

The Valdosta Daily Times has made no changes in the way it handles the news.

Within months, the paper not only saw the Atlanta Journal-Constitution rescind its distribution, but the area also lost access to the printed version of Jacksonville-based The Florida Times-Union (which sold under the title of The Georgia Times-Union north of the state line).

“We’ve continued on what we were doing,” said Sandy Sanders, publisher of the paper.

He said they have attempted to cover the local area better.

The Valdosta Daily Times has a circulation of 18,000 on weekdays and 19,000 on Sunday.

Sanders said he has not noticed any effects of the loss of both publications other than that they “may have picked up some single copy sales.”

George McCanless, publisher of The Macon Telegraph, has experienced one direct effect of the loss of the printed Journal-Constitution from his area.

The Telegraph received business from the Journal-Constitution by acting as a carrier of the paper.

McCanless said the paper has not attempted to expand its coverage area or its distribution. The Telegraph covers seven middle Georgia counties and delivers papers to 23. The paper’s circulation is 50,000 daily and 65,000 on Sundays.

The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer falls between the Valdosta Daily Times and The Macon Telegraph in circulation numbers. Daily, it is about 35,000 and 40,000 on Sundays. Senior editor for news Dimon Kendrick-Holmes said the numbers were smaller than they had been in the past.

He said the Ledger-Enquirer covers the Chattahoochee Valley area which includes such areas as Harris County, Ga., and Russell County, Ala.

Holmes-Kendrick said the Ledger-Enquirer’s goal was to reach more citizens in the area who were now looking for a daily newspaper with the loss of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

But there is a contradiction.

Holmes-Kendrick said The Ledger-Enquirer is expanding their coverage into the LaGrange/Troup County area. At the same time, he said the distribution area was smaller. Print copies of the paper are distributed in a 30-40 mile radius from the city of Columbus. Previously, the radius had been 100-150 miles.

The Vinyl Precedent

by Mark Stephenson
Editor: Ryan Brooks

Though print media is faltering with the rise of online platforms, the newspaper is not the first to experience such hardships in the face of change. The music industry—with sales declining due to music downloads online—has undergone similar changes.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the market for digital music has consistently grown over the past seven years. In the first half of 2009, digital sales reached up to 35 percent of the entire market, up from around 30 percent last year. Of these, the popular music platform iTunes accounted for a 69 percent share.

"I download all my music,” says UGA sophomore William Hodges. “It’s so much easier than carrying around a bunch of CDs.”

However, according to a 2009 press release from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the vast majority of music downloading—as much as 95 percent—is done illegally, with no reward for artists and producers.

“We all do it,” says Sam Williams, a DJ at UGA’s student-run radio station WUOG.

Due to its ease and availability, the illegal downloading of music from online sources like blogs has hurt musicians and the music industry in much the same way free news blogs have hurt news-people and the newspaper. The RIAA reported a 24.7 percent decrease in CD sales last year, with music sales overall down 8.3 percent.

Amidst all the negative statistics, one trend in the music market may hold promise for the offline news industry. As CD sales plummet and illegal MP3s cripple the digital market, the sale of vinyl records has increased exponentially in recent years.

In 2008, the RIAA estimated an overwhelming 124 percent increase in vinyl sales with more than 1.88 million new vinyl LPs sold. Predictions for 2009 put total record sales at well over 2 million. While vinyl’s share of the total music market is still very small at about 1 percent, the nostalgic medium seems to have found a new niche—and that niche is growing.

In many of the small, downtown stores of Athens, Ga., one can easily find that niche at work. On Clayton Street, the sound of Janice’s turntable is often audible outside her vintage clothing store, Minx. Janice says she has been strengthening her vinyl collection for longer than she can remember, and she guards her records carefully behind the front counter.

“I’ll sell you my records over my dead body,” the storeowner says, scoffing when asked if any of her large selection of ‘70s LPs were for sale.

WUOG has always prided itself for its large archive of vinyl music, a rarity in college radio. But Sam Williams says he thinks it would be better to make the conversion to a solely digital platform.

“Vinyl gets messed up. Records get stolen. I just make playlists on my laptop before my show,” Williams says. Asked if he thought WUOG would convert all its vinyl to digital music any time soon, Williams’ answer is strangely similar to Janice’s.

“The station’s going to die out before vinyl does,” Williams says.

Now a town staple, Wuxtry Records has carried vinyl since it opened 33 years ago, cashier Mike Turner says. Upon first glance around the store at the record collection accrued over so many years, this makes for an intimidating shopping experience. Rows of boxes filled with albums line the floors, the walls and everything in between. Spanning across generations of eclectic musical styles and genres, the record prices vary anywhere from $3 used copies of Fleetwood Mac to $40 double LPs by Radiohead.

The differences between the somewhat luck-based, haphazard process of finding and buying an album at the Wuxtry and that of the instantly-gratified music download are immediately discernable. Turner believes the vinyl record listener has an entirely different mindset than an online music consumer.

“The problem with blogs is that they don’t have any original critical thought,” Turner says. “They just post a picture and a press release and then a free song. They recycle other blog posts, constantly update with new music.”

While hesitant to attribute a lot of credence to the much-hyped “vinyl resurgence,” Turner, who also owns local independent label Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records, says he’s seen a consistent stream of vinyl customers over his five years working at the Wuxtry, and acknowledges a recent increase.

“Even Best Buy is stocking vinyl now,” he says. But despite new media, fads and fluctuations in popularity, Turner believes the niche market for vinyl has always been there and always will be.

Vinyl will never hold the share of the marketplace it once did, nor will the printed news industry ever be again what it once was. But newspaper presses might take hope and direction from the precedent of vinyl, which continues to be pressed at increasing rates for an increasingly marginalized customer base.


Vinyl shoppers browse the shelves at the Wuxtry in downtown Athens.

UGA students still pick up newspapers

By: MIRIAM CAMP
Edited by: CHARI SUTHERLAND

Although students at the University of Georgia use new media to get national news they still grab the old fashion newspaper on campus.

The Red and Black has been able to keep their readership with all the new technology available, but editor Carolyn Crist admits that students at UGA pick up the paper, because it is available, on their way to class.

Crist said that students may only get the paper for the crossword puzzle and because it is easy to flip through the six to eight pages.

Barry Hollander, associate professor of journalism at UGA, agrees that students grab The Red and Black because, “it’s free and in their face and hard to avoid.” He admits that the paper can be more interesting to students then the lecture they have to sit through. Hollander also stated that The Red and Black keeps readership numbers up by keeping it free and focusing on their audience. Since the writers are part of their audience’s demographic they have an advantage.

Crist, the 21- year- old editor from Newnan, Ga., said that The Red and Black Web site can receive hits from all over the world for various reasons such as study abroad students or when a national news event occurs in Athens, Ga.

“In the last two years we have definitely seen an increase to hits online,” she said.

Bridget Mailley, a 20-year-old UGA student, does not have a Twitter account and does not think that new technology has harmed the news industry. Big news organizations such as CNN using Twitter seems unprofessional to Mailley.

Mailley, a senior from Athens, Ga. studying international affairs, said she reads news, “less than I should.” When she does get news she turns to online newspapers such as The New York Times or BBC. She also grabs a copy of The Red and Black on campus, because it is free and convenient.

In the future, Mailley said she would consider paying for a subscription to a paper before she would think about buying an individual paper.

Mailley said she watched the Obama election online and when she heard from a friend that Michael Jackson had died, she looked up the story online.

Jeffords, a telecommunications major from Marietta, Ga., said she gets news daily using her AOL homepage news headlines when she is online.

Like Mailley, Chelsea Jeffords, 19-year-old sophomore, does not have a Twitter account. She said that she does not think new technology has harmed the news industry, because blogs and Twitter cannot bring in revenue like print media.

Hollander does not believe that UGA students use Twitter in large numbers. “The Facebook news feed almost makes Twitter redundant,” Hollander said.

Mailley said she thinks newspapers will be out of print in the next 10 years. Jeffords disagrees. “I’m going to say no, because I hope not,” she said.

UGA student, Mary Catherine Kinney, 21, from Albany, Ga., checks her Twitter account from her Blackberry phone.

Campus Print Readership Steady

Jessica Smith and Antionette Rollins, both journalism majors, scan the front page of the Red and Black outside Park Hall.

by Chari Sutherland

Miriam Camp, editor

For a college newspaper, it can be a challenge to get their print product into student hands that seem perpetually connected to technological devices.

However, Ed Morales, the Editorial Director of the University of Georgia’s The Red and Black, said there are certain events that lead the reader to print media. Last spring’s stories about the shooting involving UGA marketing professor George Zinkhan is one example. “(During that,) you couldn’t find a paper anywhere on campus,” Morales said.

A recent challenge for The Red and Black was the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ceasing delivery of its papers to the Athens area. The bins that The Red and Black had shared with the AJC were removed. This decreased readership slightly. Morales said the print edition has not consistently suffered despite this. “Our circulation is 30,000 to 35,000 with the pass-along rate,” he said. Readership is encouraged, he said, because the paper is free and it gives students something to do while waiting for class.

At The Daily Gamecock, the student newspaper of the University of South Carolina (USC), the situation is similar.

“We can’t keep the print version on the shelves at the beginning of the semester,” said Scott Lindenburg, Director of Student Media at USC. By midterms, their readership begins to decline slightly, possibly due to the level of student schoolwork, he said.

USC’s Gamecock experienced growth beginning in 2006. “We went from a three-day a week paper to a five-day.” He said there were spots on or near campus that are found to be hotter or colder depending on stories and time of year. They also do readership surveys to find out what readers want to see in the paper. Their writing style has gotten shorter and they rely on more images to draw people in.

Danielle Everson, the Managing Editor at Valdosta State University’s The Spectator,
said their readership has also increased. “Our staff has been focused on the issues that matter the most on our campus,” she said. Last year, they increased their number of published copies from 3,000 to 4,000.

Alex McDaniel has been editor of The Daily Mississippian at the University of Mississippi since March. She said in previous years, the print version of The Mississippian declined primarily because of poor content and design. The paper was still trying to serve as its readers’ sole source of breaking news—a model that has started to fail. Readers have begun to access news from online sources.

“We were giving readers things they didn’t need or want,” McDaniel said. “(We) needed to give them something they couldn’t get elsewhere.” As a result, the paper is now doing more features and investigative stories, which is more interesting and inviting. At USC, Lindendburg said he’s found readers are also drawn to original cartoons or Sudoku puzzles.

The Mississippian readership responses are becoming more positive, McDaniel said. There have been more empty receptacles, a high pass-along rate and more Web site traffic. She said this is because, “we package stories so they lead online.”

When discussing social media, Morales, Lindenburg and McDaniel all spoke about “the brand”—their individual papers. As McDaniel put it, The Mississippian doesn’t think separately about their print product, their Web site, their Facebook page, or Twitter account. “We see it all as a brand--one brand and one product.”

McDaniel said Twitter and live blogging are valuable for getting campus news—such as game scores—out quickly. The USC Gamecock also uses Twitter to post updates on a football games and breaking news.

Morales said The Red and Black’s Web site readership increases during football season also. As many as 80 to 82 percent of visitors to the site are from outside Athens. The Red and Black football blog gets 1000 viewers a day. Lindenburg said The Daily Gamecock gets as many as 8,000 hits a day during game season.

The Spectator’s participation on Twitter and Facebook has helped increase the VSU student body’s awareness of the paper. However, keeping those online media updated is a constant challenge, Everson said.

###

For some, community newspapers are best bets

By Jennifer Johnson
Editor: Patrick Adams



Marisa Waldrop doesn’t watch CNN, listen to NPR or point her browser to any Web site to get her daily news.

Like many Americans, Waldrop is sticking close to home when it comes to choosing her newspaper.

“It’s what comes to my door,” said Waldrop, a Gainesville State pre-nursing major. “I like it because anything national that affects me is covered on a local-level."

Readers are investing their time in community newspapers because they provide information that they are unlikely to get anywhere else. Instead of filling their pages with information already available on the Internet, community newspapers are specializing their coverage, focusing on important events in their town or county.

"We’re what we call ‘hyper-local,’ so we don't cover anything outside the county line," said Walter Geiger, owner and publisher of the Herald-Gazette in Barnesville, Ga.

With a circulation of 5,000, the weekly has served as Barnesville's hometown newspaper since 1869. The Herald-Gazette posts two-paragraph teasers of every major story on their website, but restricts access to full-length articles and images to newspaper subscribers. It’s this business strategy that Geiger credits with his newspaper’s continued success.

“Large daily newspapers are getting their ass kicked because they’re giving away their content,” said Geiger.

His friend and former colleague John Greenman agrees — to an extent.

"I think that Walter Geiger's observation is influenced by timing," said Greenman, a former publisher of the Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Ga., and current journalism professor at Grady College at UGA. "A lot of the smaller newspapers began their Web sites later than the larger ones and learned from their perceived mistakes."

Since Jan. 13, when the Herald-Gazette's Web site became blog-oriented with comment fields, they’ve had 1.9 million page views.

"It has become more than a newspaper," said Geiger. "It's become a forum for grateful parents to thank ER staffs for taking care of their kid's broken leg or citizens to complain about potholes on their street."

Journalists are now finding more work at community newspapers than they are in the city, said Georgia Perimeter College journalism professor Col. (Ret.) Robert G. Knowles.

“Used to be large newspapers were a mecca for journalists escaping small-town newspapers,” said Knowles. “Now, because the big guys are failing so quickly, they’re running back to the one-stoplight towns to report on the Methodist Church’s bake sales.”

Even advertisers are recognizing the value in smaller newspaper markets. According to a survey by the Inland Press Association, advertising revenue in daily newspapers with a circulation of less than 15,000 rose by an average of 2.5 percent in 2008, while ad revenue dropped 25 percent at dailies with greater circulations.

"It’s a timing issue more than anything," said Greenman. “It will happen, but newspapers in smaller markets just haven’t yet been hit by the same kind of forces that the larger markets have been hit by.”

These forces include the consolidation of traditionally large advertisers like department stores and the rise in popularity of online sites for real estate, automobiles and jobs.

"If I’m an employer, I'm not going to advertise my job in Cumming, Ga. with [online sites] Monster or Career Builder when I'm really looking for a local person," said Greenman. “I’m going to go to my local newspaper.”

Citizens in smaller newspaper markets continue to place their trust in their hometown newspapers.

"I’ve always felt like they have my interests at heart," said Mary Quinn of Winterville, Ga., who reads the Athens Banner-Herald every day. "I don't feel that way when I pick up newspapers like the AJC [Atlanta Journal Constitution] or the Wall Street Journal."

As a kid growing up in Savannah, Geiger had an Atlanta Journal Constitution paper route and had read it all his life. Now that the newspaper has ceased home deliveries to his community, he’s stopped reading.

“They used to say that the AJC covered the Dixie like the dew,” said Geiger. “Now it’s like the ‘don’t.’”

[Patrick Adams Final Draft] Falling Print Readership In Relationship to Advertiser Dollars

By Patrick Adams
Editor: Jennifer Johnson

Ivy King, a senior social work major, rarely reads newspapers anymore. She picks up a few headlines from her Blackberry phone, but does not generally rely on print.

“I just don’t want to buy them except for the Sunday paper for coupons,” King said.

She belongs to a current trend of citizens becoming further alienated from news print media. Newspapers are failing to bring in new readers, like King, and losing advertiser dollars at the same time.

More Americans are losing interest in quality journalism, according to Conrad Fink, director of the Cox Institute of Newspaper Management Studies, and current journalism professor at the University of Georgia.

“I believe that Americans have disengaged from serious consideration of the compellingly important political, social and economic issues of the day,” said Fink.

Consumers are increasingly going online to find their news instead of buying the print version. The digital shift is a problem for newspapers primarily due to a lack of interest from advertisers.

Newspapers typically draw 75-80 percent of their revenue from advertising rather than sales and subscriptions, said Fink. Advertisers depend on newspapers largely because of their ability to penetrate households fitting into specific demographic categories. Advertisers want to reach people that might buy their products.

Newspapers traditionally attracted great business from advertisers, but news print has been losing that ability recently.

“Advertising is moving away from newspapers – that’s for sure,” said Dr. Dean Krugman, advertising professor at the University of Georgia.

Readers who are switching to online publications are now spending very little time viewing news before they move on to other Web sites.

“New York Times users are coming on for about 28-30 minutes monthly, meaning just seconds daily,” said Fink. “Users at other newspapers are coming on for much less time.”

Readers traditionally spent 28 minutes daily reading the print product, but this is a decreasing trend, according to Fink.

Citizens who now prefer to go online for their news complain the major reason for not reading the newspaper is that there simply isn’t enough time in the day.

Citizens are receiving less value from reading newspapers thoroughly than doing other things with their free time. Dr. Fink believes that news print management is somewhat at fault.

“By cutting costs, we [newspapers] were losing journalistic value,” said Fink.

The newspaper industry spent too much effort cutting costs in order to adapt to an ailing economy that they began neglecting valuable journalism, according to Fink. If newspapers fail to provide quality reporting, advertisers are not going to reach the right audiences and will give their business to newsprint’s competitors.

“The [Athens] Banner-Herald is still profitable as a newspaper, but they have lost paid advertising and paid circulation,” said Cecil Bentley, former executive editor of the Athens Banner-Herald, and current Director of Career Services and Corporate Relations at Grady College at the University of Georgia.

Paid advertising has been falling for years along with paid circulation, according to Bentley.

Bentley didn’t think there had been much variation in total market coverage during his three years at the Athens Banner-Herald, but much of the audience had shifted towards the digital publication. However, the advertising revenue gained from the Banner-Herald’s Web site did not adequately compensate for the advertising revenue lost on the print side of the spectrum, according to Bentley.

Much of the losses in advertising revenue could also be attributed to the poor state of the automobile, real estate and help-wanted sectors who are all big contributors to classified advertisement revenue, Bentley said.

The future of the newsprint industry will largely depend on its ability to reconcile print with online publication in an efficient manner to create greater household penetration. Greater household penetration will bring in more money from the advertising industry, according to Fink.

Newsrooms may change, but will never disappear

Newsrooms may change, but will never disappear

By: Rachel Bunn
Edited by: Becky Taylor

The newsroom is changing with the addition of new practices, and most believe although the newsroom will never be obsolete journalists will have to develop more skills.


Most newspapers are now using new technology, Web sites and social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, to break news.

Traditional print media is being thrust into the 21st century, and the newsroom is changing the way it operates, one small step at a time.

“People are so impatient. They want the news and they want it right now, or 10 seconds ago,” said Al Summers, news editor at the Times-Courier, a weekly paper in Ellijay, Ga.

Summers said the integration of computers in the newsroom allows writers to generate more and better stories because they have access to more resources.

Writers now only have to type a single word into Google or another search engine to produce hundreds of Web sites containing millions of facts.

Pete McCommons, editor and publisher at Flagpole Magazine in Athens, Ga., disagrees with Summers.

He says computers are important and have aided in the general production of the paper, but do not have a significant impact on the development of news.

“Speed and ease of publication have increased. You still have to develop the idea,” said McCommons.

Computers are changing the types of jobs in newsrooms.

Emily Baldwin, former writer and editor for The Citizen Newspaper in Fayetteville, Ga., became the first web editor when The Citizen launched its Web site, www.thecitizennews.com, in 2005.

Although some jobs are being created, many traditional jobs are being let go. Baldwin was given the responsibilities of editor for the Life and Style section as well as being Web editor of The Citizen.

A recent Los Angeles Times article pointed to job reductions as the only way many papers are staying afloat.

As journalism students prepare to graduate in this changing environment, what lies ahead?

Marc McAfee, columnist for The Red and Black at the University of Georgia, believes students will no longer be defined to roles such as reporter, photographer or editor—journalists will have to be able to do everything.

“Everything is going into one narrow channel,” said McAfee.

Summers agrees that the more you are able to do, the better chance you have at getting a job.

“The more skills you have coming in, the more marketable you are,” he said.

With the rise of new media and “jack-of-all-trade” journalists, what will happen to newsrooms?

Baldwin believes that the community and the knowledge of peers is too valuable to abandon the newsroom. McCommons has a different take.

“It is entirely possible that publications will resort to the model of using mostly freelance writers, as Flagpole does now, but with those writers submitting their copy to an editor before it is published online,” said McCommons.

Summers and McAfee agree that publications need a cohesiveness that cannot be found without editors and newsrooms’ existence.

“Editors are still important,” said Summers.

The future of newspapers is less clear. Will they disappear in the physical form? Summers does not think so.

Summers believes that for local news, people will always want something they can hold or display.

Baldwin does not agree that physical papers will continue into the future, but believes that change will come gradually.

“It’s a slow evolution for papers.”

She says the baby boom generation still desire to have a physical newspaper, but dependence and love of the Internet by the younger generation will eventually drive papers out of print.

“You have to try to capture the next generation of people, what they want. At the end of the day, it’s a business.”

Newspapers aren't dead yet

By BECKY ATKINSON
Edited by PRISCILLA KATHE

The Grim Reaper hasn’t arrived.

The death of newspapers has been a topic of interest around the country recently, but the situation of newspapers isn’t as dire as it seems.

In fact, the print version of the Atlanta Journal Constitution reached 20 percent more people in the Atlanta area than the online version did in the Atlanta area in March 2009, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

The Audit Bureau of Circulation also reported that the print version of the Athens Banner-Herald reached 50 percent more people in the same area as the online version did in March 2009.

But what about all those people using Kindles, smartphones and the Internet to receive the news?

Maybe readers aren’t moving into the digital world as much as everyone thinks.

When the Atlanta Journal Constitution redesigned their paper, the AJC did an extensive study using focus groups of AJC readers to find out exactly what readers wanted. The focus groups said they wanted more of an old-style newspaper with lots of stories on the front page and small photos.

“For the past few years, we’ve given up the idea of gaining readership and have been trying to hold on to readers we have,” Sunday editor Charles Gay said.

This thinking inspired a new marketing campaign for the Sunday paper launched in early 2009 with the slogan “Unplug, It’s Sunday.”

The campaign emphasizes the Sunday paper as a distinct paper from the daily AJC and promotes print media instead of online media.

Hardly any of the Sunday paper content goes online in an effort to encourage readers to buy the paper.

“[With suggestions from our readers and our new marketing campaign], we’ve seen a surprising and gratifying pick up in single copy circulation,” Gay said.

The Athens Banner-Herald is also not too worried about a transition from print media to online media.

“I think [readership in Athens is] more affected right now because of the economic downturn rather than people switching from print to online, if they weren’t reading online before,” said Linda Howard, the director of circulation and marketing strategies for the Banner-Herald.

“There is a decline in circulation and readership because of the demographic area,” Howard said.

Though Howard said print readership is declining because people cannot afford to buy the paper and not because of the Internet’s popularity, the audience numbers online are still growing tremendously.

Despite the increase in readership online, Howard remains confident in the print version.
“We’re still promoting the print product and it’s as strong as it can be right now,” Howard said.

Even the Red & Black remains unconcerned about print readership despite an increase in online readership.

Hayley Peterson, managing editor for the Red & Black, has not noticed a significant decrease in print readership.

“We are a bit different because we are a free paper,” Peterson said. “But we have noticed a decline in advertising.”

The Red & Black has what editor-in-chief Carolyn Crist calls a “captive audience” because the paper is free and readers can pick up papers from bins on their way to class. Crist said she doesn’t see readership declining that much though readership varies a little from day to day.

“[Readership] depends sometimes on the news of the day and if headlines are big and catchy,” Crist said. “We try to make headlines bigger.”

Though newspapers in general have been experiencing declining readership and circulation, Bert Roughton,, Jr., managing editor for the AJC, said AJC readers still want a print version.

“There seems to be a smaller, yet persistent, audience for a high quality and deeply local newspaper,” Broughton said. “We are focusing on both the printed and digital platforms with quite a bit of energy.”

Younger readers wanted

Younger readers wanted
By PRISCILLA KATHE
Edited by BECKY ATKINSON

Newspapers are targeting a new audience, the younger generation.
“There is still a market for the newspaper, but there is a lot of opportunity to grow in other areas,” said Scot Morrissey publisher of the Athens Banner-Herald.

Morrissey said, in a phone interview, that he now has two types of audiences, and there is money to be made in both. The first audience is the younger generation who if they want news wants to be able to find their news on the computer or on their television. The other is the older generation who likes to get their news on their doorstep every morning.

“Newspapers need to get off their butt,” Morrissey said.

Morrissey believes newspapers must go where the audience is and make the changes that the audience wants.

For years other companies have been advertising and changing with their audience. The newspaper industry just took longer to realize they needed to make a transition.

When newspapers are not afraid to embrace change, they find an audience. When the Athens Banner-Herald started to embrace this, they found there was a huge audience. They now have around 6.3 million page views on their website.

Morrissey believes newspapers have to cater to the reader.

“If I don’t have a tool [to reach them], they don’t come across the bridge to me,” Morrissey said.
The Athens Banner-Herald now has added many additions to their paper along with internet updates and blog topics. They have added sections for entertainment in downtown Athens, Ga., a section for mothers, and others for women.

The Athens Banner Herald is doing a great job attracting more readers, but the younger college students might just be unreachable.

When asked what would make them read the newspaper more the answer was unanimous, it just is not interesting to them.

“If it was more applicable to college students,” Andrew Lacy, a 19-year-old marketing major said.

Kenya Henderson, an 18-year-old exercise and sports management major, said she would watch/read more if the “stuff was not negative.”

Morrissey also explained that the reason a lot of younger people do not read the paper is because they are not paying taxes and mortgages. When they start to have to pay for these things they will care about what is going on with their school district or the change in healthcare.

A college student’s life revolves around classes and grades. Newspapers cover city hall meeting and political affairs. It will just take age to make students interested in these things.
When the age of the students rose the answers changed.

“I get it [news] from my local paper and my world news online everyday,” said Allie Jackson, a 32-year-old magazine major.

Despite this lack of interest among younger students, the print audience has not lost ground, said Morrissey.

Economy creates vicious cycle for magazine industry

Ashley Carroll
Editor: Lauren Costley

Sifting through any number of magazines, readers trudge through pages upon pages of advertisements before even reaching an article. Although many find this task annoying, it is necessary for the survival of America’s magazine industry.

Without these ads, magazines would cease to exist.

With the economy at an all time low and companies cutting back on spending, the magazine world is finding it hard to thrive. It is not only the print industry that is suffering, but the business world as well. The closures of major magazines such as Blender and Vibe have caused consumers to question the longevity of the magazine industry.

“I feel like every time I hear about magazines or newspapers in the news it’s about one closing. When I hear this, I can’t help but think about how much longer magazines are going to be around,” said Emily Jackson, 19, a psychology major from Atlanta.

The public may believe the decline of the magazine industry is due to consumers and their readership. According to the Magazine Publishers of America, this is not the case. Circulation was down only by 0.4 percent in 2008 from the previous year.

The closing of magazines is “more closely aligned to the economy and advertiser demand than consumer demand,” said an article, “Misperceptions about Magazine Closings”, on MPA’s Web site.

The relation of the economy and the print industry are closely related. With consumers decreasing purchases, businesses must cut back spending as well. In turn, advertisements are axed causing magazines to lose profit and inevitably shut down. Even though the number of magazines closing has increased, the number of magazines being published has also increased. The total number of magazines being published rose by at least 1,000 from the previous year.

According to the MPA’s 2009 Handbook, more than four out of five adults in the United States read magazines. Although many magazines are closing, it is not due to the lack of readership, but due to the business side of the industry.

The total number of magazines is on the rise; the number of advertisements being bought has declined. A report released by the Publishers Information Bureau states the total revenue for advertisement spending in the first quarter of 2009, which is January to March, was down 20.2 percent from the previous year. With businesses and companies having to cut expenses, it would seem logical to cut advertisements first rather than lay off employees.

“If I were a business owner I would definitely try to cut my expenses else where, such as advertising and unnecessary expenses rather than fire my employees,” said Jeremy Paul, 21, from Columbia, Tenn., “there are other ways to save money.”

Small business owners are definitely crunching numbers to make ends meet. Advertisements are a necessary expense for owners, but some businesses are cutting back. Jen Edwards, owner of a small gift shop business in Buford, Ga., understands the cycle of the economy.

“I’ve noticed a significant decrease in customers,” she said. “I’ve had to cut back on everything to make up for it. Buying less stock for the store, advertising, and even freezing bonuses and pay increases for my employees. I don’t want to do it, but it’s necessary.”

Since businesses are tightening their budgets, in turn magazines are feeling the pinch of the economic situation.

Lisa Wagner, 24, a previous summer intern for At Home Tennessee Magazine from Alpharetta, Ga., noticed firsthand the hesitance from business owners to shell out money for ads.

“Businesses were very reluctant to pay for advertisements in the magazine,” she said. “To have a full page ad would cost anywhere from $ 2,800 to $ 3,400 for an ad on the cover.”

To pay such a price for small business owners is hard and in turn magazines suffer continuing the cycle.