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.”