General state of the industry thread.

I imagine we aren't too far away from when "sponsored content" becomes the only content left on a paper's website. And by that - I mean the kind of junk you see like "you'll never believe what this star looks like today."

 

Right now, I'm not even sure you'd get that from the Telegram. I looked on its website today to see what they covered locally Friday night. But they didn't post any local sports stories at all.

 

I hate those posts so much. 95.5 percent of the time I resist the urge to click on one. Frankly I'm afraid they'll lock up my computer. I've never heard of most of the outlets.

 

What I see happening is most newspaper websites being managed by an outside group - someone at the paper will load in the local content once a day and the paper will be able to "take the controls" in case of an urgent breaking story.
You wouldn't imagine a lot of the stuff five years ago that is SOP today - but every little adjustment and compromise makes the next one that much easier.

 

Details?

 

Marketing is a completely different skillset than PR and writing/editing. Some marketing started to creep into my job and I had no idea what I was doing. Thankfully, we're hiring a business development person who will be specifically tasked with marketing and fundraising, so I don't have to deal with that.

 

Yet another troubling sign for print: Grocery stores are pulling newspaper and magazine racks, because they're using valuable space that could go to, oh, Twinkees or something people actually want:

Supermarkets are ditching their newspaper and magazine racks (and publishers aren’t happy)

 

Every fall I go looking for those Fall TV issues - it's fun to look back years later and forget about a show and wonder "Did anyone really think that would work?" or "They were in THAT?" It gets harder every year to find them - but the racks are stocked with evergreen titles for guns, home decorating, hunting, brides and the like. I understand it - Entertainment Weekly isn't even weekly anymore.

 

If supermarkets even have newspaper racks anymore, they're beyond the registers, which means customers have already made their purchases by the time they see them. Who's going to stop, grab one and get back in line?

 

What about newspaper racks? Does anybody really buy newspapers out of those? Who is carrying around a minimum of six quarters, probably more? Plus they seem rusty and dirty. I wonder if any boomers even are bending down to try to use one of those before entering a coffee shop. As far as stores, the two chains I shop at had newspapers available but like you said they are past the check out counter

 

I believe you're talking about newspaper boxes, where you put in the coins and (on your honor) take one paper out.

Earlier this year at our shop, we were told about a rash of newspaper boxes being stolen. Some idiots and/or tweakers were driving around at night, cutting the cheap-ass bicycle chains that kept the boxes in place, and hauling off the whole thing for a few dollars worth of change.

The depressing part: When we went around with replacements to the various stores and businesses who lost them, several owners said don't bother. No one was buying the papers out of the news boxes.

 

I asked this question once when I passed a newspaper rack for a publication that charges $1.50 for its Sunday edition. Then I thought about it further and realized that I don't know very many people who carry bills any more, much less have change. It's all about debit cards and newspaper racks don't accept them. I can buy a Coke from a soda machine with a card reader but I can't buy a newspaper from a rack without cash.