Refrigerator Journalism The Key To Local Coverage

Philip M. Stone July 9, 2008

As we take our weekly look at what newspapers are doing to fit into the new business models pressed upon them by publishers, a new term has popped up – refrigerator journalism – that reminds editors that a newspaper can never be too local.

John Robinson, editor of the News & Record in Greensboro, North Carolina, carries a perfect description on his blog of what refrigerator journalism is all about. “Refrigerator journalism refers to the things that parents clip and hang onto the refrigerator. Intensely personal. Hyper-micro-local. So micro-local that it may interest only one family. That's why we devoted an entire page a few days ago to listings of community swim meet results. I didn't read any of it, but you bet I did when my children were on a swim team years ago. And it is safely nestled in one of those manila folders.”

He acknowledges those listings took up precious space and with tightening news holes it is legitimate to ask whether that’s the best use of space? But he asks, “If we moved the lists online only -- they are online as well as in the paper now -- would they have the same emotional meaning as being in the paper? Would parents print out the online swim results to post on their refrigerators? I'm doubtful.”

And he’s probably right -- sticking a newspaper clipping on the refrigerator rather than a printout from the web just has a different more authentic feel to it. And the trick these days is to get people wanting to buy the print newspaper, no matter for what reason, for that’s where the big advertising bucks continue to reside as opposed to the web site.

So what are other newspapers up to these days, besides mass firings, to fit into tighter new business models?

• The Baltimore Sun (Tribune) is killing its standalone business section beginning July 25. Business news now will get just two pages, most of it local coverage. The page reduction means some business staff – reporters and editors – will be reassigned.  

• The South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Tribune) is cutting its delivery cost structure by agreeing to distribute competing newspapers. The latest deal is with Palm Beach Newspapers that will now use the Sun Sentinel to distribute the Palm Beach Post and related publications in southern Palm Beach County, starting in August. The Sun-Sentinel back in February struck a deal with the Miami Herald (McClatchy) to deliver one another’s publications.

• The Times-Picayune (New Orleans) is cutting back on most of its circulation in Mississippi. The newspaper never really recovered lost Mississippi distribution after Hurricane Katrina and it now says it is not economically viable to continue serving those Mississippi readers it has remaining.

• Many US newspapers say they are cutting back on staffing for the Beijing Olympics as compared to their staffing of the Athens Olympics four years ago.  Major exceptions are the New York Times and the Washington Post. The Times says this is a “franchise” event, so it will be interesting to see what the Wall Street Journal does. Publisher Les Hinton said recently the editorial philosophy behind the new WSJ is that one doesn’t need to buy another newspaper to get all the national and international coverage that readers crave. Does that extend to the Olympics?

• Several newspapers in Europe are experimenting by doing away with sub-editors (copy editors). Apparently cost is affecting the “two pair of eyes” philosophy that has tried to ensure accuracy, and not always. What will one pair of eyes bring us?

• McClatchy and Tribune, both wanting to raise cash to pay down debt, have sold their holdings in ShopLocal to Gannett. McClatchy got $7.9 million for its 15% stake, but in addition it will record a cash tax savings of $5.6 million in Q4. Tribune got about $22.3 million for its 42.5% stake. Gannett, now owning 100% of ShopLocal plans to link it into PointRoll, its online ad media service. ShopLocal connects consumers and advertisers online and in the store.

• This one comes from a vendor, not a newspaper, but it seems so applicable for newspapers wanting their web sites to stand out from other media that it deserves a mention. Although editors hate to admit it one of the most popular and most read sections in the newspaper is the comics. And ask any editor who has ever tried to mess with the structure of comics, perhaps switch one out to add a new one, and you’ll be told it is not an action to be undertaken lightly. Nothing seems to get readers more mad than messing with their comics. So with comics so popular it just made perfect sense for Universal Press Syndicate to announce a deal with Deviant Films to offer newspaper web sites daily animated comic shorts. Surely that will also bring in the younger reader, too?

And remembering that the US is the land of litigation we have to take note of a class action suit filed in Raleigh, North Carolina, by an attorney none too happy with announced cutbacks by his local newspaper. So he‘s suing, claiming that the newspaper after the layoffs are completed will not be of the same quality as the newspaper he subscribed to before the layoffs. That, he says, is a breach of contract, he wants an injunction stopping the News & Observer (McClatchy) in Raleigh, North Carolina from completing the layoff, and he wants damages. What case law that would make!

Only in America.