By Jennifer L. Johnson
The circulations of daily newspapers in Georgia are continuing to fall as the industry changes. The following data was taken from the Audit Bureau of Circulations:
Figures:
Rome News-Tribune:
November 2008 circulation: 17,500
March 2009 circulation: 16,777
Percentage change: -4 percent
Athens Banner-Herald
November 2008 circulation: 27,672
March 2009 circulation: 24,696
Percentage change: -10.75
Atlanta Journal Constitution:
November 2007 circulation: 359,633
March 2008 circulation: 326,907
Percentage change between November 2007 and March 2008: -9.1
September 2008 circulation: 274,999
Percentage change between March 2008 and September 2008: -15.87
March 2009 circulation: 261,828
Percentage change between September 2008 and March 2009: -4.78
Showing posts with label Athens Banner-Herald. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Athens Banner-Herald. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Georgia newspapers claim few effects from loss of AJC
Georgia newspapers claim few effects from loss of AJC
By: Becky Taylor
Editor: Kate Parham
“Covers Dixie Like the Dew,” was the slogan of the Atlanta Journal.
That would 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 loss of the AJC affected several papers in the state in various ways.
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. On the north side of the state line, the latter sold under the title The Georgia Times-Union.
“We’ve continued on what we were doing,” said Sandy Sanders, publisher of the Daily Times.
He said they have attempted to cover the local area better.
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.”
Situated in the middle of the state, The Macon Telegraph lost its access to the print AJC in 2009.
George McCanless, publisher of the paper, said they have experienced one direct effect of the loss of the printed Journal-Constitution from the area.
The Telegraph received business from the AJC 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. Its circulation is currently 50,000 daily and 65,000 on Sundays.
To the west is Columbus, Ga., and its daily, The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
It is smaller than the Macon Telegraph in circulation figures. 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.
Another city that lost the printed AJC is Athens, Ga.
The local Athens Banner-Herald is being proactive in its approach to life without the Journal-Constitution.
Melissa Hanna, executive editor, said the paper had asked readers for feedback about what they would like to see in the Banner-Herald.
She said it now includes a crossword puzzle and the paper also made some changes in comic strips. The crossword was added as one had been a daily part of the AJC.
Hanna said while the paper is currently circulated in five counties, there had been talks of increasing the distribution zone.
Overall, though, the changes are minor, Hanna said.
“We’re not doing anything we haven’t already done.”
By: Becky Taylor
Editor: Kate Parham
“Covers Dixie Like the Dew,” was the slogan of the Atlanta Journal.
That would 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 loss of the AJC affected several papers in the state in various ways.
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. On the north side of the state line, the latter sold under the title The Georgia Times-Union.
“We’ve continued on what we were doing,” said Sandy Sanders, publisher of the Daily Times.
He said they have attempted to cover the local area better.
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.”
Situated in the middle of the state, The Macon Telegraph lost its access to the print AJC in 2009.
George McCanless, publisher of the paper, said they have experienced one direct effect of the loss of the printed Journal-Constitution from the area.
The Telegraph received business from the AJC 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. Its circulation is currently 50,000 daily and 65,000 on Sundays.
To the west is Columbus, Ga., and its daily, The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
It is smaller than the Macon Telegraph in circulation figures. 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.
Another city that lost the printed AJC is Athens, Ga.
The local Athens Banner-Herald is being proactive in its approach to life without the Journal-Constitution.
Melissa Hanna, executive editor, said the paper had asked readers for feedback about what they would like to see in the Banner-Herald.
She said it now includes a crossword puzzle and the paper also made some changes in comic strips. The crossword was added as one had been a daily part of the AJC.
Hanna said while the paper is currently circulated in five counties, there had been talks of increasing the distribution zone.
Overall, though, the changes are minor, Hanna said.
“We’re not doing anything we haven’t already done.”
Effect of Video on Print Readership
Anna-Grace Veal, a sophomore education major, looks at the Imperial Sugar factory explosion video on the Savannah Morning News website between classes in Tate Center.
by C. Sutherland
Editor: Pricilla Kathe
When 14 people die in an explosion, words just don’t do it justice. Video does.
The Savannah Morning News video explaining how the February 2008 explosion at the Imperial Sugar plant happened was one of the paper’s most viewed videos, said Susan Catron, Executive Editor. “It explains very well how 14 people died,” she said. “I don’t know if we could’ve told that story in a better way.”
Like the Savannah Morning News, many other newspapers have been increasing their use of video to engage their readers. 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.”
Loren Omoto, Director of Content for Tampa Bay Online, the online version of the Tampa Tribune, said, “I don't know how you'd tell that, unless you were doing promos to video [in print versions].” Tampa Bay Online gets about 10,000 views a week but does not keep page view information on specific videos.
Catron 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.”
Catron 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.
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. Video page views are only a small amount of the millions of page views the Observer gets daily, Enna said. In spite of this, they continue to see video as a plus.
Enna said videos are good for certain types of content. The Observer 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 the Savannah Morning News 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. “We get 1000 page views a day from it,” Enna said.
###
The Observer, the Savannah Morning News and the Banner-Herald all rely heavily on video for sports coverage. At the Charlotte Observer, two videos are produced each week to cover sports. Sometimes the Observer embeds YouTube videos and provides streamlined, live video, Enna said.
The Savannah Morning News also does Web casts for local football in addition to Web casts for movie reviews and music reviews. Catron said they plan to add Podcasts this year to further vary their news delivery methods. “You have to throw [ideas] at the wall and see what makes them stick.”
###
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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.”
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.
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.
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