Running Lee Enterprises thread

"We don't think 180 miles of lake effect snow will impact us in the least."

 

The link includes the latest circulation figures for the 25 largest papers in the country. The Buffalo paper really hits above its weight. Circulation is about 55,000 in a metro area with a population of about 1.1 million. The Philadelphia Inquirer a circulation of about 61,000 and the Houston Chronicle has a circulation of about 67.000.

The Kansas City Star does not make the top 25 which requires a circulation of a little over 46,000. Kansas City metro is about twice the size of Buffalo metro. Kansas City has moved their printing to Des Moines, which is about 190 miles apart, as are Cleveland and Buffalo. I wonder how much of the difference can be attributed to Buffalo having been printed locally and having the ability to include sports scores from the previous night. That leads me to wonder how many subscribers the News loses when they are going to be unable to include sports scores from the night before.

 

Might also be looking at the demographics of the two metropolitan areas. I’d bet Buffalo skews a bit older than Kansas City.

I have a lot of friends who are between 50-55. Not one of them subscribes to the print edition of their local newspaper. A scattered few have digital subscriptions. What’s happening to local media companies was going to happen anyway without Gannett/Lee/McClatchy mismanaging them, but I can say that it’s certainly said to have seen the print edition descend into irrelevancy out of one side of my mouth while out of the other side of my mouth acknowledge that it’s a product for which I have no further use. (I last paid for a print subscription to a newspaper in 2011.)

 

Didn't Kansas City build a huge new printing press not that long ago? Like within the last 10-15 years?
I seem to remember seeing them tout a brand new building for it.

 

KC Star Sells Headquarters, Printing Plant For Combined $42 Million

Built the headquarters and plant for 200 million in 2006. Sold it in 2017. McClatchy as a company always bought high and then sold low. The Knight-Ridder acquisition was the largest such blunder but there were many more.

 

A mediocre metropolitan newspaper from 20 years ago would be one of the 10 best in America today. And it would probably be a breach of fiduciary duty to keep it at that level.

 

I think that is true.

If I was going to do a 10 best list today I would put the national papers at the top:

1. The New York Times
2. The Wall Street Journal
3. The Washington Post

The three following papers have avoided hedge fund ownership and seem to have suffered less as a result.

4. The Los Angeles Times (not what it once was but still good)
5. The Boston Globe (not what it once was but still good)
6. Maybe the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (which has held on to more customers than other papers in similar markets)

But could you put any ex-McClatchy, Alden or Gannett property on a top 10 list?

So who else goes on the list? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution? Is the Tampa Bay Times still worth a damn?

 

Fifty-seven of Lee's 77 imitation newspapers are going to three-days-a-week publication in less than a month. Just another swirl of the toilet water.
Report: Lee to reduce most print editions to 3 days a week

 

I think the effect of this move is to put many of the 57 affected papers in the hospice,

The issue smaller properties face is they can no longer create a "moat" around their audiences. In the good. old. pre-internet days printed newspapers would generally have circulation areas that were very hard for competing papers to profitably penetrate because of the costs of home delivery.

How many people are going to want to subscribe to the small market paper that has fired the local news staff? I think many electronic subscribers will switch to larger regional, metros. In locations where Lee dominates a wide area such as Montana and Nebraska the company can consolidate papers but I wonder how long the geographically papers have left.

 

You still need the physical plant, whether a newspaper is printed 3x or 5x or 7x per week. I don't see much cost savings from this move, unless somehow Lee is going to shutter some printing plants.

 

If the papers don’t all print on the same three days (as the QC Business Times story suggests), you can definitely consolidate and shutter a printing plant or two. Or have deadlines for one Wednesday paper at noon on Tuesday and another at 5 p.m. — especially when timeliness/quality is not really important here.

 

And here we go …

MISSOULA — Montana’s largest newspaper publisher, Lee Enterprises, announced over the weekend that the Missoulian will move to a three-day publication.
The announcement by Lee says it’s an effort to preserve and enhance local news coverage.
In the announcement, Lee Enterprises said the change reflects how more of the news-reading audience relies on digital formats.
But the publisher promises that fewer days of a print edition will mean more local coverage with more content, more sections and more pages.
Starting July 11, print editions of the paper will be available for readers to pick up on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
In addition, the newspaper will transition from being delivered by paper carriers to mail delivery by the U.S. Postal Service.
Online readers will still have access to a daily E-edition every morning, seven days a week.
Meanwhile, all print subscribers will continue to have digital access to the Missoulian.​

https://www.kpax.com/news/missoulian-moving-to-three-day-print-publication-schedule

I imagine it’s Saturday rather than Sunday due to the weekly Griz football preview, which runs on Saturday during the football season.