Abstract
Smaller news organizations might be the answer to saving journalism, and it is important that they survive in the digital revolution. Community newspapers, “the basis of the newspaper ecosystem” (p. 196) and “vitamin supplements for their communities” (p. 224), are community treasures that need to have a game plan to address today’s issues. That is the overall theme strewn throughout Abernathy’s new book.
Abernathy, a former executive with the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, is Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Using industry-based and academic research, she discusses the risks and opportunities community newspapers face as they work to reinvent themselves and identify new revenue streams. To start this discussion, the context of community journalism requires an examination. Abernathy begins by tackling a definition for community journalism, because the traditional parameters of the term are out of date due to the digital age. Traditionally, papers with a circulation of less than fifteen thousand are classified as community newspapers (p. 2).
However, online technology has changed community newspapers: But in a digital age, when print circulation for almost all newspapers is dropping yearly—and an increasing number of readers are accessing a paper’s digital edition only—that definition seems limiting and out-of-date. Many daily newspapers in small and midsized markets, for example—especially those with a circulation of less than 100,000—also position themselves as “community newspapers.” (p. 2)
Consequently, her definition of community journalism is based on a publication’s mission and the characteristics of the markets it relies on for revenue. Under this framework, eight thousand newspapers in the United States would qualify as community newspapers (p. 21).
The book is divided into three sections, and the chapters contained within each section act as points of strategy for community newspapers to follow as part of a five-year plan to revamp themselves in the digital era. Several case studies and numerous experiences at a wide variety of community newspapers are offered as rich references in every section. The first is titled “Creating a New Strategy.” In this section, Abernathy explores why newspapers need to survive, why newspapers must change, and how they must change. The vitality of community newspapers is rooted in the watchdog role of democracy and the agenda-setting function for the public, and without this strong foundation, democracy would suffer. “Without their vigilance, such concerns might well be overlooked and ignored, and these stories would never be told” (p. 17).
The second section, “Implementing a New Strategy,” focuses on leadership. The chapters guide publishers and editors to put together “a guiding coalition” of people within the news organization to help them grow “a new strand of DNA” (p. 81). This requires news organizations to work and motivate people, monitor progress, make modifications, and call tough decisions. Specific chapters explore how to cut printing and distribution costs. Abernathy also discusses shedding “legacy costs”—processes, systems, buildings, and people involved with producing the print edition—to help transition community newspapers from print only to a digital platform. “Unless newspapers have an aggressive plan for doing it, they will not be able to free up funds to invest in following their customers into the digital realm” (p. 101). She further explains these reductions: In order to keep pace with the significant changes that are currently occurring in the industry, community newspapers need to have a long-term goal of shedding costs at an average rate of 6 percent. This translates into a 30 percent reduction of costs by the fifth year—no small feat. (p. 101)
The third section is “The New World Order,” in which Abernathy considers the implications other institutions—metro newspapers, press organizations, nonprofit foundations, and universities—also experience in this newspaper ecosystem during digital times. “The mission and service that each of the networked members provides will most likely be very different from what they delivered previously, but their contributions will be essential to sustaining ‘good’ journalism at all levels” (p. 199). She pulls from her experiences as a journalist, business executive, and educator to offer readers concluding thoughts of this changing landscape in the twenty-first century: Like most reporters and editors in the predigital era, I was blissfully ignorant of the “business” of journalism. I realized that newspapers were supported by two streams of revenue: readers and advertisers. But I did not realize that the vast majority came from advertisers who wanted to reach certain readers and entice them to buy their goods and services. (p. 218)
Recognizing this, Abernathy advises community newspapers “to commit to a goal of aggressively revamping their cost and revenue structures and reinventing their business models” that satisfy “the changing preferences of readers and advertisers” (p. 220).
Although newspaper publishers and editors are the primary audiences, college and university journalism educators might find Saving Community Journalism as a strong resource for their courses, primarily those on an upper undergraduate level, such as advanced reporting or media economics, or on a graduate track. An instructional website (http://businessofnews.unc.edu) accompanies the book. The website includes a summary of the main points of the book and video interviews with many of the publishers and editors featured in the case studies and examples.