(Stephanie Angel, executive editor of the Lansing State Journal declined to comment for this article.) Undoubtedly, its professional, dedicated journalists are covering local news every day, but they are subject to Gannett’s corporate decisions, which are mostly based on the bottom line and stockholders’ interests. If Gannett cuts too much too fast in its newsrooms, although they are trying to preserve them, and don’t transition efficiently from print to digital, then the risk is people will stop subscribing or not subscribe because they don’t see the value for them.”įor Gannett’s smaller properties, such as the Lansing State Journal, the Catch-22 has an even tighter grip. “You’re trying to convince news consumers to plunk down their credit card every month to pay for a digital subscription for unique, original, local content. Mutz Chair in Local News at Northwestern University/Medill and head of the Medill Local News Initiative. “Cutting employees and costs at the same time Gannett is trying to grow digital subscriptions and digital revenue is a challenging combination,” said Tim Franklin, senior associate dean, professor and John M. As newspaper subscriptions and ad revenues decrease, it’s more difficult to service the debt - and Gannett is trying to transition from a print to a digital model, which requires large investments. It has all the hallmarks of a classic Catch-22 situation. Pursuing that strategy while servicing such a large debt load is an especially challenging situation for Gannett. This is certainly the strategy of almost all newspaper companies of all sizes however, few of them carry a comparative amount of Gannett’s reported $1.3 billion in debt (as of fall 2022). Gannett’s strategy, which applies to all its newspaper properties, including the Lansing State Journal, is to accelerate a transition from printed and delivered newspapers to digital news platforms. Print circulation and advertising and digital advertising didn’t generate expected revenues and labor costs and operational expenses increased significantly, including a 31% increase in the cost of newsprint within a year. The company reported a total loss of $54 million during its fiscal second quarter of 2022 against $749 million in total revenues. Those difficulties have also been negatively consistent since then. It has experienced financial and operational difficulties since its acquisition by GateHouse Media in August 2019. The most obvious source of the Lansing State Journal and other newspapers’ circulation problem is they are owned by Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the United States. The circulation numbers tell the basic story, but the causes are varied and complicated. Many signs point to an increasing decline. I fear for the Lansing community and people’s ability to obtain important news. “We were a presence in the wider community, but that presence is disappearing. We reported important stories from the township suburbs,” said Mark Nixon, former editorial page editor at the Journal from 1993 to 2006. “Whatever the reason for the downsizing of the Lansing State Journal, it leaves me sad because I remember our robust coverage of Lansing City Hall as well as East Lansing City Hall. Two decades ago, the daily and Saturday papers circulated close to 80,000 copies and nearly 100,000 of the Sunday edition. Sunday circulation declined 16.1% from a year ago to a total of 14,675 (print 12,646 and digital replica 2,029). Subscribers can only read the replica edition on Saturdays after the LSJ eliminated its print edition last year. That’s an 18.2% decrease from September 2021. A spokesperson said those numbers have not yet been audited. As of September 2022, the average Monday–Saturday circulation was 8,994, including both print (6,631) and the digital replica edition (2,363), according to the Alliance for Audited Media, an independent nonprofit organization upon which many newspapers and other media have relied for decades for accurate reporting of circulation. The paper’s circulation started declining in 2005 and hasn’t stopped. The Lansing State Journal, however, is experiencing an unwelcomed type of consistency: continued loss of daily and Sunday circulation and likely advertising revenue. Consistency is typically considered a positive attribute for individuals and companies to achieve their goals.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |