Squeezing The Same Or Even More Into Less As Print’s New Business Model Has Some Pitfalls

Philip M. Stone July 16, 2008

As newspapers continue to come to terms with new business models to ensure their survival there’s a tendency to try and squeeze as much as the paper printed previously into the smaller news hole it now has. But there are some pitfalls.

The most obvious way to squeeze is by reducing type size. And therein lays a problem. For it is the older reader who is the most faithful newspaper subscriber and  editors shouldn’t forget that older age means also poorer eyesight – the last thing older readers need is for type to get smaller – if anything they want it bigger.

And that is one of the issues that Connie Coyne, reader advocate for the Salt Lake Tribune had to address. “I have written already about the readers who said they could no longer enjoy the bridge column because the type was too small. We corrected that starting last Monday,” she wrote. “But there are still dozens and dozens of readers who have called or written or e-mailed their complaint: Once they get out a magnifying glass they might be able to read the questions on Asimov's Super Quiz, but even with reading glasses and magnifying glasses, they cannot read the answers to the quiz.

‘“What the hell is going on down there?’ many readers ask.   Well, I can tell you The Tribune is not trying to drive readers nuts. It just seems that way sometimes.”

And she also talked about the specific disaster of trying to fit more onto shrunken comics pages.  “In an effort to ‘shrink’ the paper and save some newsprint, designers figured out a way to stuff more features on the same two pages. Unfortunately, the designers are all blessed with good eyesight - and they neglected to run the pages by people with ‘older’ eyes and reading glasses before they implemented the designs.  Once the pages appeared in the paper, the phones started ringing and the e-mails started piling up. We did manage to do something about the size of the type in the bridge column and explain where the readers' favorite comic strips were. We have not responded yet to the reader complaints about the type size in the Asimov Super Quiz. This is my formal communication to the designers: Increase the size of type in the Asimov Super Quiz. Subscribers cannot read it!”

ftm has pointed out many times that newspapers and editors are just plain asking for trouble if they mess with the comics, but at the Tribune editors thought they were being helpful by changing the order of the comics on the two pages to alphabetical placements.  As she pointed out, and it is a lesson for all newspapers that switch things around such as hiding what was a separate business section at the end of the A section and similar, that “In general, people hate change. When change comes, people will adapt more quickly if they are given ample warning.”

The specific lesson learned from alphabetizing the comic strips: “Editors need to convey that information - not once or twice but multiple times and in several different places, like A1 and the front of the section where the changes appear. This warning needs to happen in advance of the change and on the day of the change.”

Another newspaper that has been messing with a smaller news hole and is getting plenty of feedback from its subscribers is the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania. Executive Editor Bob Heisse explained that newsprint costs were at a 12-year high and coupled with dire economic conditions the newspaper now has 16 less pages each week. Share tables are gone other than for local companies and the television grid is banned, too, to the Internet. The paper has also eliminated one entire section, folding all local news instead into the remaining two sections daily.

“A few readers wondered whether they should get money back,” Heisse wrote. “In fact, there was no change in price three years ago when we added the On Centre section and went up in space, and there’s no change in the newsstand price now. We want to keep the paper as affordable as we can at time when prices for virtually everything are increasing.

“A few readers said they don’t want to go online for anything that they should get in the paper. In fact, until this recent change, we never asked readers to join the hundreds of thousands who visit CentreDaily.com in a month. Now, we do invite you to check stocks and daily television listings online.

“In many ways we’ve taken a step into the future with this format. It offers shorter stories and multiple entry points, but at the same time we have space for key in-depth stories on a daily basis…Is this kind of change difficult? Sure it is. But here’s how one reader put it, perhaps speaking for many: ‘It will take some time to get used to the new format, but we will give it a try.’”

In the meantime, newsstand price increases and even cutting back on the number of publication days still seems to be in vogue:

• A Gannett Blog poster says: "Twenty Gannett newspapers will go up in price. Some of the bigger ones are: Louisville, Indianapolis, Rochester, Brevard, Des Moines, Shreveport, Sioux Falls, just to name a few." Its Burlington Free Press in Vermont announced its newsstand price increase from 50 cents to 75 cents would be effective August 11.

• The 5,500-daily circulation Daily Telegram in Superior, Wisconsin, has announced the Internet will be its primary reporting tool and the print publication will be reduced from six days to two. "We see a lot of our readers migrating to the Web, we see that growing every month," said Ken Browall, publisher. "Economics is another piece of it. We have seen declining revenue; we are not immune to it." The paper has about 39 employees, with nine on the news staff, but no cutbacks were announced. "We looked at a lot of alternatives," Browall said. "Going tabloid, free distribution, and this was the best option."

• The Deseret News of Salt Lake City is closing its Washington, D.C. bureau and “will rely on reporters in Salt Lake City and wire copy to cover Utah’s congressional delegation and national politics.”

• With gasoline prices moving up, several newspapers are cutting back on sending a reporter out on assignment. A typical quote comes from Ed Kelley, editor of The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, “If we don’t have to send somebody out on assignment, we won’t do it.” He is putting more emphasis on coverage via telephone.

• Newspaper chains are coordinating much more their coverage of national news and sports events in order to save on travel and other costs. Robert Rivard, editor of the Hearst-owned San Antonio Express-News, says, “We tend not to duplicate as much, and we coordinate more on sports events.”