With newspapers going under left and right some people think that it is time to move away from newspapers and embrace the technically savvy generation. According to Scot Morrissey, publisher of the Athens Banner Herald, there is still a market for the newspaper, but there is a lot of opportunity to grow in other areas.
On a phone interview on Wednesday, Sept. 9, Morrissey explained to me that he now has two types of audiences, and there is money to be made in both. The first audience is the younger generation that 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.
The younger generation wants news and they want it right when it happens. “Newspapers need to get off their butt,” Morrissey said when explaining that you have to go where your audience is.
For years other companies have been advertising and changing with their audience. For some reason it was really hard for the newspaper business to realize that they needed to change. When newspapers are not afraid to embrace change they find that they have 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 seemed to really understand the concept that you have to cater to your 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 mother, and others for women.
College students at the University of Georgia still say that they get most of their news from the television. 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, explained why he looked for news only once a week. Another university student explained that she just did not like the tone of the news. Kenya Henderson, an exercise and sports management major, explained she would watch/read more if the “stuff was not negative.”
While students are not loyal to the newsprint media there are many who are still loyal. The older generations are used to having their newspaper on their steps in the morning. According to Morrissey the print audience has not lost ground. He still gets mad phone calls when people feel there was not a story covering something they thought was important.
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.
People who read the newspaper are very loyal compared to people who read online or watch television according to Morrissey. Newspaper readers pay for their subscriptions year after year. Online readers and those who watch television go to the website or different news channel, but if that website or channel does not hold their interest they move on to the next site. Who knows where people will get their news from in the years to come, but for now the newspapers are still thriving.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I enjoyed reading Priscilla's article. From talking with her, I learned that she had never really written an article before and was little bit anxious. She said she took a lot of notes but only used a small percentage of them. She used a lot of what she remembered from the interview rather than what she wrote down. I also learned she liked to write a good lead before she wrote the rest of the article.
ReplyDeleteI had a few suggestions for Priscilla to help her with her first article. I suggested she take out any mention of herself actually interviewing the person and references to the reader (you). I also recommended she make smaller paragraphs. For another source, I recommended she talk to more students about how they get news and focus on developing that section of the article some more. Overall, I thought Priscilla had a great start for her first article!