Blog
How to save community journalism
- By: ASNE staff
- On: 09/19/2014 12:23:03
- In: Convention
By Matt McKinney
Ball State University ASNE-APME Convention Coverage Team
Saving community journalism means preparing your readership for a time when they'll be no daily newspaper, panelists said Monday at the ASNE-APME conference.
Saving community journalism means preparing your readership for a time when they'll be no daily newspaper, panelists said Monday at the ASNE-APME conference.
“Print will continue to be a part of the mix, but adiminished part of the mix,” said panelist Penelope Muse Abernathy, Knight Chair of journalism at the University of North Carolina.
Abernathy had four questions for editors at Monday's session, "How to save community journalism and thrive doing it."
1. Do you know how loyal your current readers are?
2. Do you know who your emerging and potential audiences are?
3. How are you tracking the changes in people's habits?
4. Do you know what story your advertising sales people are telling about your readers?
Abernathy, author of “Saving Community Journalism," a book about connecting with citizens on local issues, suggested a key to success would mean engaging with the readers more often.
Bill Church, executive editor of the Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Fla., and APME board member, was moderator of the panel.
To an editor asking a question, Abernathy turned it around and asked him "What percentage of your audience is print and what is their average age?"
Abernathy said the average age for print-only audience was over 60.
Panelist Robyn Tomlin, chief digital officer for Pew Research Center, said her parents, both of whom are over the age of 70, view the news on their iPads.
"What are you doing to prepare your readers for the eventuality that there will be no daily newspaper?" asked Abernathy. Joe Hight, editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette, said his organization looks at many things to assign stories, one of which is web traffic.
Under Hight's leadership, the Colorado Spring Gazette won a Pulitzer Prize this year for its story on the lack benefits to post-war soldiers in the area.
Hight used the story, and many like it, as an example of local stories that can push the boundaries of national importance.
Abernathy also called for a full revamp of the way the advertising side of journalism looks at pricing rates.
Church said his opinion on advertising is on the responsibility of the editors. "We [as editors] are responsible for our revenue," Church said.
Abernathy said saving community journalism isn't about saving print. She said, "It goes beyond print."
Chris Cobler, editor of the Victoria Advocate, said when he was hired, the matriarch of the paper showed him around and introduced him to "everybody in the community."
"That's what a community paper should be," Cobler said. "It's part of the fabric of the community."