Comments on: Small papers best positioned to survive recession, changing news business

By: Best of WordCount: Oregon edition « WordCount – Freelancing in the Digital Age

Sat, 16 May 2009 13:03:11 +0000

[...] The Smalltown News – Small newspapers are in a better shape than big ones to survive the recession and changing news business, according to this story I did for Oregon Business magazine. [...]

By: nonfiction dad

nonfiction dad — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:45:34 +0000

-signed post for your editor-

Michelle,
This post is near and dear to my heart. I grew up in LaGrande and read the Observer my whole life. I think we can learn a lesson from this article in general that we need to rethink our definition of “efficiency” and “profit.” Sometimes smaller and more direct is better than bigger and more leveraged, and a never ending pursuit of higher and higher profits can in and of itself be a destructive affair.

The lady in Burns’ comment about the yuppie owner sums it up perfectly. The people that run these papers and make the decisions are intimately involved with the people and the community they cover, and thats who they have to answer to. Not Wall Street. Its more genuine and honest in that sense.

Plus, these papers can get by with 5% profit margins and still pay the bills. If the conglomerates had that low of a margin, they would be crying bankruptcy, and asking for a bailout.

For another angle on this check out townsync.com, part of their promise is to franchise their hyperlocal site to individual communities, and specifically the people behind newspapers in those communities.

Sincerely,
Gabe Barber
http://www.readinglocal.com

By: nonfiction dad

nonfiction dad — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:43:45 +0000

Plus, these papers can get by with 5% profit margins and still pay the bills. If the conglomerates had that low of a margin, they would be crying bankruptcy, and asking for a bailout.

By: Walter L. Johnson II

Walter L. Johnson II — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:20:05 +0000

Nice article, Michelle. I’ve written for a local community newspaper in Georgia for almost the last four years, and I agree that it’s been a tremendous learning experience for me so far. The newspapers (and other media outlets) that do manage to stick around in the years to come must have a local (or at least a hyper-local or even regional) focus. It’ll be interesting to see how things will turn out.

By: Michelle Rafter

Michelle Rafter — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:08:56 +0000

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.

Michelle R.

By: Michelle Rafter

Michelle Rafter — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:07:35 +0000

Larger newspapers had been used to operating on much larger profit margins – double digit margins weren’t unusual even just a few years ago – from display and classified advertisers who didn’t have many other options for getting their information in front of their audiences. Higher profit margins meant they had the luxury of funding a large news team. Also, many large newspapers have gone from being privately held or family run to publicly traded stocks that have to answer to public shareholders and Wall Street, which demand quarterly profits.

By: Bobby J. Jone

Bobby J. Jone — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:42:55 +0000

Michelle,
How do you see the economics of large newspapers are different from smaller newspaper publisher?

By: Find Niches

Find Niches — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 02:42:24 +0000

Excellent content here and a nice writing style too – keep up the great work!

By: Michelle Rafter

Michelle Rafter — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:54:16 +0000

Thanks Laurel – I appreciate the note, especially since right now WordPress.com’s analytics are broken so I have no way of telling whether visitors can click through to the blog. But based on this I know now they can and are.

Michelle Rafter

By: Laurel Delaney

Laurel Delaney — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:47:49 +0000

Hi, Michelle, found you through Technorati while checking EFCA rankings! Thanks for featuring us on your blog. You are an amazing writer! Keep it up. Best wishes to you … Laurel (Chicago), the official originator of the Escape From Corporate America blog.