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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
WSJ: How small newspapers are surviving
Allen Murabayashi, Photographer
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Grant Blankenship, Photographer
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Macon | GA | USA | Posted: 5:00 PM on 09.28.09 |
| ->> Hyper local. The only way to thrive. The "where else can you get this?" news. |
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Jeff Brehm, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Charlotte | NC | USA | Posted: 6:44 PM on 09.28.09 |
->> Except most papers today take "hyper local" to mean "cover the most meaningless crap we can find as long as it's local." Hence the umpteenth story on six kids in the new reading program at the children's library.
I once was the editor and GM of a weekly paper that grew from 900 to 3,200 circulation in a year with no free subscriptions. We just covered every village council, school board and township trustees meeting -- where the important decisions are made in communities -- plus all the high school sports and the fairs and festivals.
It's not just covering local stuff. It's covering the local stuff people want to read about. |
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Nic Coury, Photographer
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Monterey | CA | | Posted: 6:49 PM on 09.28.09 |
->> Ahem to both of those comments Grant and Jeff.
I'm the photog at a Weekly paper in Monterey. There's a lot going on here and we gotta cover it... |
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Grant Blankenship, Photographer
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Macon | GA | USA | Posted: 8:28 AM on 09.29.09 |
| ->> I completely agree that local has to equal interesting. No doubt. |
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Bill Gaither, Photographer, Assistant
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Galesburg | IL | United States | Posted: 8:52 AM on 09.29.09 |
| ->> I'm at a small daily as well, and when you get hyper-local you also begin to get the Bill Murray "Groundhog Day" syndrome when the annual event coverage tends to feel like yesterday. I'm doing multimedia and trying to make some of this coverage different than from before. What are some of you folks doing or what advice would you have for me. Parades, council meetings, festivals, etc...any feedback is helpful...thanks! |
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Paul Cunningham, Photo Editor, Student/Intern
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Glen Rock | NJ | US | Posted: 10:40 AM on 09.29.09 |
->> Let's not forget that all local news is meaningful to somebody. I guarantee you that even the most mundane story is read, multiple times, by those that appear in it. This kind of coverage creates a loyal following by the entire community. It's personal and it engenders the idea that we can all get our Warholian 15 minutes of (local) fame.
I covered my daughter's travel softball team for our local paper this summer (with questionable journalistic ethics :-) and each week the entire team, coaches, and parents couldn't wait for the paper to arrive so that they could read about themselves. Multiply this response by an entire community and you have a viable business that employs real photographers and reporters. |
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Sean D. Elliot, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Norwich | CT | USA | Posted: 1:16 PM on 09.29.09 |
| ->> It used to be called Community Journalism, and many smaller papers have been doing it for years. It can be done without dumbing-down the content. It has become much harder to do as the staff shrinks of late. The model at the really small papers, the sub-10k circ. does indeed go hyper-local, covering things that really don't qualify as news outside of some very small groups. Practicing hyper-local just to stay in business and continue to make profits for someone sure isn't a strong endorsement of the practice. There has to be a balance, where the newspaper is indeed providing a true public service and not just pandering to every small interest group. |
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Jeff Stanton, Photographer
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Princeton | IN | USA | Posted: 2:11 PM on 09.29.09 |
| ->> Paul is correct. Even the most mundane story carries weight with many readers. Having a variety of stories, not just crime, goes a long way in reader satisfaction. We also have to be careful we don't pander (as Sean said) to the same special interest groups and I am here to tell you, there are plenty of them around here. The one down side to it all is you tend to bump shoulders with the same people all the time and that can be dangerous especially if one person you talk to ends up on the arrest blotter. |
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