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.

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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.