From the Bench
THE "NEWSLEADER" IS DEAD! BURY IT!!!
The charade of a local newspaper "covering southern Franklin County" (of which Royston is the centerpiece) has gone on long enough. It is time for Community Newspapers to pull up stakes, furl the masthead, and call it quits.
The final nail in the coffin, and the death knell, came at a Royston City Council meeting last Tuesday night. The Managing Editor of the Franklin County Citizen, Carolyn Risner, came to do battle with the Mayor of Royston and Council in response to letters and comments criticizing the lack of coverage in our area by the paper(s).
Mrs. Risner’s opening salvo, while essentially accurate, was a public relations nightmare. To paraphrase, "We are a business, and we, like you businessmen, are in business to make money."
Whatever happened to the role of a newspaper serving the public and being involved in the community? While it may be, in many instances, more image than fact, the image must be served. And in many other instances, especially in a small town, the relationships built between a newspaper and the community are an invaluable source of community strength and progress.
It is even possible to accomplish this without compromising the integrity of either, although it requires a delicate balance. Mrs. Risner’s ensuing comments accentuated this, for the lifeblood of a newspaper is not subscriptions, but ADVERTISING.
Mrs. Risner complained that the community does not support the paper(s), specifically with advertising. Her complaints included personal attacks on several of the elected officials present.
The editor concluded by saying that there would be nothing in the paper about her appearance before the council. This seemed odd, considering her earlier comments defending the paper for headlining a squabble between the City Manager and the DDA chairman. She stated that anything that happened in an open city council meeting would be reported, if the paper deemed it newsworthy.
Apparently the most newsworthy item at last week’s meeting concerned the sorry state of our city’s sidewalks.
The personality conflicts displayed by last week’s confrontation are merely the tip of the iceberg of the real problem, and that is the dilemma faced by small-town newspapers in a changing world. Mrs. Risner’s statement that a newspaper is a business is obvious, for a newspaper must make money to stay in business.
This has become increasingly challenging for newspapers, especially small ones. There are more competitors vying for the advertising dollar. Larger papers. Radio. Television. Magazines. Mailouts. And now, even the internet.
Concurrently, these entities are sources of information with which the small-town paper must compete.
The problem of the small-town paper is further exacerbated by the labor-intensive nature of a printed newspaper. Reporting, editing, layout, advertising, classifieds, legals, subscriptions, accounting, printing, distribution. This is only a partial list, and it involves people (translate money), whether the paper is small or large. And the smaller the paper, the heavier the burden on those who must produce.
Many publishers, like Community Newspapers (CNI), have attacked the problem by the synergies of size. They have acquired, through purchase or swaps, a number of papers within a prescribed geographic area. CNI now publishes most of the weeklies in Northeast Georgia, allowing them to centralize some functions such as printing and accounting.
This is what happened to "The Newsleader" several years ago. CNI, which already owned "The Citizen", acquired it through a "swapout". For whatever reason, "The Newsleader" slowly became less relevant until it was closed, and the only local remaining vestige was a small, one-room office with a clerk to take classifieds and subscriptions, and field inquiries or complaints. For all practical purposes, "The Newsleader" was dead.
What, then, to do? Why continue to put out a multi-page section containing a front page with a separate masthead and topography and a "jump" page, (the last page in the case of "The Newsleader") that purports to be a "unique"paper serving the southern section of the county?
The answer lies in Athens, at the desk of one, Mr. Dink Nesmith", President of CNI. What gives? Surely, you don’t fear competition for the Franklin County legals, without whose million a year you would sink. Taking you on would be a formidable business risk for the economic reasons stated earlier.
Is it PR that keeps "The Newsleader" door cracked? Forget it. That is dead.
But a question to ponder is this: Is the dream of a local paper, with local interest and involvement, dead? Perhaps. At least as a print medium.
But the world is changing. There is an internet out there, and it is growing. We have proven, with very limited resources and time, that the interest is there. It can be done. Should we dare dream?
Meanwhile, back to CNI. "The Newsleader" is dead. Burial would be easy. The hole is dug. What are you waiting for, Dinky boy?