Jackson Free Press

Despite the big effort to transform itself into an "information center" rather than a newspaper, the Gannett Corp.'s revenue is still dropping, according to information the corporation has reported about its fourth-quarter earnings. Guess that's why The Clarion-Ledger stopped giving employees free coffee.

From MediaDailyNews:

OCTOBER REVENUE REPORTS FROM TWO of the nation's largest newspaper publishers suggest that the newspaper business is in for a dismal fourth quarter. Although only a few companies have posted October figures, McClatchy and Gannett are large and diverse enough in their holdings to serve as bellwethers for the industry overall. [...]

Gannett's October results are similarly grim, with a 6.8% decline in overall revenues compared to October 2006. Newspaper ad revenues in particular fell 5.3%--due in part to a 9.7% drop in classified revenues, which saw real estate fall 13.5%. Gannett's local community newspapers suffered the most, with classifieds down 15.6% and real estate specifically falling 23.6%. Gannett's local and national advertising both dropped 2.3% in October.

Previous Comments

ID

115859

Comment

You know, you'd think they'd be savvy enough to look at how they've bastardized news coverage and sacrificed quality for McNews and realize what's happening here. But, no. Moral of the story: If you can't do one publication well, you can't fool people by splitting your efforts into lots of little ones and then littering people's yards with them. And the answer sure as hell ain't trying to muscle locally owned publications out of their distribution spots. One word, Ledge & Co: Report. Do it the old-fashioned way. Everything else is icing on that well-made cake. Regardless of the medium, *nothing* replaces shoe-leather and thinking. Not even lazy e-mail interviews and posting press releases online without calling them press releases. I have a copy of the so-called "X Manual" that Gannett Corp. published in 2001. It look hundreds of pages to say what you could sum up in two words: Be. Relevant. (The fact that Gannett was trying in 2001 to figure out how to reach "Generation X" provides a major hint of the bigger problem, eh?) That'll be $10,000 in consulting fees, please, Ledge. Address it to the JFP.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-11-26T15:16:31-06:00

ID

115860

Comment

Oh, and for God's sake, lose the passive voice and write real stories.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-11-26T15:23:59-06:00

ID

115861

Comment

Last I heard Ledger was SELLING at .50-1.00 per copy. Jackson Free Press was FREE. Go figure.

Author

MSLEDger

Date

2007-11-26T17:34:08-06:00

ID

115862

Comment

Exactly. If you know anything about the media industry, then you know that charging for newspapers is a very bad business decision in today's world. It's an old-fashioned model that is being dropped across the country. Why? Because people in the 21st century do not pay nickels and dimes every time they want to read news anymore. That had started before the Internet got so popular, and as the alternative newspaper industry grew and dailies shrunk. But with the Web, it is ever more apparent. Also, please note that the publications that The Clarion-Ledger is launching to try to make up for shrinking revenue and circulation are FREE. You know, like those litter Ledgers in your front yard or that clutter of free publication boxes they put in front of local gas stations (and then turn around and complain about the "clutter" when they try to elbow the rest of us out). Todd and I told the Mississippi Press Association board that its members (including The Clarion-Ledger and the Northside Sun) are competing with us with free publications, so the "free" cannot ethically fly. Of course, the Ledger clearly controls that organization.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-11-26T17:45:45-06:00

ID

115863

Comment

Well, the web version of the Ledgar is free, and while I prefer the writing of the JFP, the CL has brouder coverage. I suppose paper newspapers will continue a few more years but that dinosaur will die off, hopefully by that time the JFP will grow a bit more :)

Author

GLewis

Date

2007-11-26T18:53:03-06:00

ID

115864

Comment

We're working on that growth in leaps and bounds. A survey commissioned this year by The Clarion-Ledger found that our readership is 64,332. But this isn't really about our competition with them. The bigger issue is what has happened to so-called local journalism as corporates have swallowed up daily newpapers—and the effect of that mess on the community these monopoly dailies serve. We can stipulate that the Ledger's local coverage sucks, so let's look at their "broader" coverage. If they are statewide, where are all the great stories about what's going on around the state in their paid daily? Where are all the events happening in Winona or Tupelo in their events calendars? You can see the identity crisis they face: They are statewide, so they supposedly are "broader," but it just means that they do surface coverage in Jackson, where they based, and give lip service in the rest of the state. Oh, and charge advertising rates for people in Jackson (or elsewhere) based on a statewide circulation that doesn't help most people. Meantime, people such as you (and I) read the Ledger for free online when we read it. Their problem is apparent. If they try to do better quality, they need to hire better editors and put more resources into real reporting. That affects their profit margin at a time when they're in trouble (by corporate conglomerate standards). If they start to focus just on the Jackson metro, then their circulation drops (and thus the price they can charge for ads), and it's not like they're very popular in these parts, regardless of your viewpoint. People can disagree on politics, but everyone expects a certain level of basic competency in the newsroom. If they make their daily paper free (which they'll probably have to do to survive as a daily paper), then it's like admitting defeat for a paper that's already in the dumps and has ruined its own reputation with moves like MIPA and endorsing Melton even as he was lying under oath about leaking them a faulty document about an Air Force colonel. If they put enough resources into the Web site to make it decent, then their print version suffers even more. And there are mediocre editors who seem to have grown roots into the floor who need to be shuffled. Meantime, morale sucks all around. And they don't even get free coffee anymore.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-11-26T19:10:12-06:00

ID

115865

Comment

They charge way too much to be in the classifieds. I'm sure the housing slump has a small effect; but, the real estate folks are smart enough to know it is cheaper for them just to put out their own 4 color magazines for the cost it takes to advertise in a crappy paper. Lack of good reporting trumps it all.

Author

pikersam

Date

2007-11-26T21:41:05-06:00

ID

115866

Comment

If you haven't already, be sure to read Todd's publisher's note this week about the Ledger and its problems. And note this part: The Clarion-Ledger reported that its Jackson circulation was 22,000, compared to an overall circulation of around 100,000. By their own numbers, nearly 80 percent of the Ledger’s readers are outside the city limits. And bear in mind that the Ledger's *own* commissioned survey found that 64,332 people read the JFP, and most of those are in and around Jackson. Now, just think about the resources they are wasting to reach such a small number of people.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-11-27T14:12:11-06:00

ID

115867

Comment

Their shoe leather still looks brand new. The seats of their pants, however, are a little worn from sitting on their rear ends...

Author

Lady Havoc

Date

2007-11-27T18:39:44-06:00

ID

115868

Comment

A three-pointer for the Lady. ;-)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2007-11-27T18:50:24-06:00