VITAMEDIAS
Fewer Buyers Reading Papers: Americans are willing to pay for news and information but increasingly not from daily newspapers, according to a study released yesterday that provoked debate among executives gathered to discuss the industry's future.
The research, based on government data of consumer spending, found the average U.S. family spent $56.81 for newspapers in 2001, or just over half the $90.33 spent for Internet services such as America Online. Spending on papers declined 5 percent from 2000, and fell among all age groups, most notably people 35 to 44.
"If I was a newspaper publisher today, I would be very scared because of these ominous trends," said Peter Francese, founder and former editor of American Demographics magazine. "Are you listening to the customer? The message they are delivering is not one I would want to be hearing if I was in your business"[...]
William Dean Singleton, chief executive of MediaNews Group Inc., owner of the Denver Post and 49 other dailies, added that recent history had proved wrong earlier predictions that the Internet would serve as the death knell of print journalism. In fact, some papers' online divisions are profitable, he said.
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"Newspapers should continue to push forward the paradigm of what news is," says Kathy Yates, president and chief operating officer at CBS.MarketWatch.com in San Francisco. A founder and former executive of Knight Ridder Digital, Yates says most publishers still think of themselves as print newspapers first and Web sites second. It's time to change that, she suggests.
"Newspapers should look at their online sites as one-stop-shop information and community sites that extend the paper's brand," says Gary Kebbel, news director at America Online. "News is a key part of why people come to the site, but it's just one of the many lures that get readers and customers through the virtual door."
Once they come inside, readers should find a real community. "A local newspaper has the ability to bring together people who want to talk about the latest scandal involving the mayor or whether to close a middle school or the fact that the Lions Club needs volunteers for its next project," Kebbel adds.
To attract readers, papers need to improve cross-promotion of print and online, advises Tolman Geffs, CEO of Internet Broadcasting Systems Inc., a New York-based provider of Web sites for local TV affiliates in 50 markets. "TV is very good at promoting itself to its viewers, our TV-based Web sites thrive on promotion on the TV stations, and we spend a lot of [effort] on the sites driving viewers back to our TV stations' programming," he says. "In contrast, I still keep a copy of The New York Times from the morning after Election Day 2000. The biggest political news story since Watergate was hanging in the balance, the paper went to press while the midnight Bush/Gore election call was still swinging, and the front page of the paper basically says, 'Hey, last night, we didn't know what was going on.'" In such cases, print papers should be prominently pushing readers online for the latest updates, Geffs says.