|
|
|
Last of the Independents
Wedged between two chain-newspaper giants, Meriden Record-Journal publisher
Eliot White looks for ways to keep things all in the family
|
Business New Haven
7/3/1995
By: BNH
|
With the Journal Register Co.'s acquisition of the Shoreline Newspaper Group and the New Britain Herald, Connecticut veers ever closer to becoming a two-newspaper state, with that company and the Times-Mirror-owned Hartford Courant battling for supremacy. One of the few remaining holdouts is the Meriden Record-Journal, a seven-day, 31,000-circulation newspaper serving Meriden, Wallingford, Cheshire and Southington. Eliot C. White represents the fourth generation of his family to head the paper that traces its roots to 1867.
What are the trends that have contributed to the monopolization of newspapers and leading to the extinction of independents?
Part of it is the dynamics of a family business. Nationally, about one out of every five [family] businesses makes it to the second generation. So by the fourth generation, you're going to have less than one percent of [businesses owned by] the original family. [Then there are] all the dynamics involved - the financial, the personal, and the problems of running a business. Business is more complicated than it used to be - particularly in something that's changing rapidly, which the newspaper industry has, particularly in the last decade. Then you have the other challenges: Newsprint price increases over the last couple of years have been dramatic. Margins become narrower for newspapers, as they have in recent years, and real strong companies like Knight-Ridder and Times-Mirror only turn a five percent return or something.
Does that make it harder for papers to stay close to their communities?
There are good newspapers that are owned by chains, and there are good newspapers that are independent. And there are also bad newspapers that are owned by chains, and poor newspapers that are family-owned. I think in general a community newspaper, a small daily, is going to serve the community better if it is family-owned, because the family knows the community better. They care about the community, and they have roots there. They make decisions less likely to be based solely on financial considerations.
What are other consequences of newspaper ownership becoming concentrated in fewer hands?
There's always the danger with fewer independent voices that the opinions they express are going to be blended with or made by people who are not necessarily journalists - or that's not the most important reason they're in business - which can dilute the strength of the independent voice. There's also the danger of a chain owning so many papers that it could control the voice of government, the balance of power. That's why you see weekly papers showing strength, papers like yours that are starting out. There's always going to be a niche market for smaller publications. Electronic publishing is going to allow that to be done more frequently and less expensively.
Who's your biggest competitor?
The Courant. They're a formidable competitor. They have a number of zones. We compete most heavily with the Courant in Southington, where the Courant has a little over 5,000 [circulation] daily, we have a little over 4,000 and the New Britain Herald has about 3,000.
How do you compete against bigger papers like the Courant?
We're built on the strength of our local news. We have to do that better than anybody else. We have the roots, we have the history, we commit the space, we commit the number of employees: By industry standards we have far more people in our newsroom than the average paper our size. The rule of thumb in the newspaper industry is one full-time employee for each 1,000 circulation; we have approximately 55 full-time people in our newsroom with 31,000 circulation. Also, the space: The amount of newsprint we use compared to other newspapers our size is 20 percent higher.
Can your readers ever get enough local news?
The most common complaint is not enough local news. But everybody has a different definition: It could be sports; it could be a school play; it could be a fire engine they heard go down the street but never read about in the paper. People say they're tired of bad news in Meriden, particularly in the last few years where we've had a gang shooting, a flood, a couple of shootings downtown. People blame the newspaper. We're the one stable voice to make sure things aren't swept under the rug, but the flip side of that is that we're not the most popular. We try to write positive news. There's more positive news than negative news. Unfortunately, people remember the negative news.
What's the impact of Meriden's economy on the paper? Do you have to be more suburban to survive?
Meriden is a small city with city problems. Just about exactly half our circulation is in Meriden; the other half is in [Wallingford, Cheshire and Southington]. Over the last ten years, basically our circulation is pretty even. We've lost some circulation in Meriden and gained corresponding circulation in the other three towns.
Is that demographics?
Yes. Two demographic situations in Meriden. One is that the inner city has grown. And also Meriden has a high Hispanic population. We tried to address that by starting a Spanish paper [Tiempo] which was circulated weekly to approximately 8,000. There are stories that are in the Record-Journal that are translated, and there's original news release-type information. And it's gained good advertising support. It's almost three years old, and it's finally about to break even. We did a marketing survey and it is accepted as a way to get information for the Hispanic community.
A lot of newspapers have problems in their relationships with minority communities. Has having an Hispanic paper gotten the staff to be more sensitive or knowledgeable?
Before we started this, we invited some of the Spanish leaders to talk about what they might like to see. Most recently we've also started several minority intern programs for the daily paper to try to understand Hispanic issues better through our own reporting. A newspaper our size has difficulty going to minority job fairs and hiring because anybody who is well-qualified is hired by the big newspapers. So we had to start our own farm program. Three years ago we started a minority intern scholarship program that included four years of financial aid and a summer internship at the newspaper. Also, one city reporter spot we decided to make a minority position. We hired a local woman who had never reported, and we dedicated a year to training her. She's here one year later. We also established a minority beat.
What's the biggest challenge for newspapers like yours: technology, competitors, the marketplace?
Late last year we had a strategic planning session, and we identified several things. Number one, we established that we definitely wanted to stay privately owned. We tried to broaden the definition of ourselves as a primary provider of information, news and advertising to our four-town area as opposed to a daily newspaper. We see our mission in providing information, news and advertising in whatever form and delivered by whatever means people want it. We have to be flexible and adaptable enough to do that.
Will advances in electronic publishing favor bigger organizations that can afford technology sooner, or smaller players because information gathering and delivery is becoming less expensive?
I think it's going to be a long time before electronic publishing replaces the newspaper, if it ever does, but I think it won't be long before it's necessary to be able to provide information that way.
Newspapers traditionally offer a lot of value-added information, whereas information-providers think in terms of raw data.
What we sell, besides local news, is the professionalism and ability to discern what is important and what isn't and put it in presentable and readable manner. I think even people who spend a lot of time on the computer still want someone who can discern for them what is important, organize it and save them time. It becomes more and more important for newspapers to save people time.
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
