Print Media Overview: Newspapers

Newspapers

History

Journalism in Early America

Characteristics of Early American Newspapers

. few newspapers existed
. most publishers were printers and postmasters
. news was not very timely
. colonial governments didn’t support the “free press” concept

Noteworthy colonial newspapers

. Publick Occurrences both Foreign and Domestick, first American newspaper,
Boston, 1690, Benjamin Harris, publisher

. upsets local Puritan officials with scandalous French political story
. published without authority
. lasts only one issue

. Boston News Letter, Boston, 1704, John Campbell, postmaster and publisher

. published with royal permission; eventually 300 subscribers
. bland, “safe” stories blamed for poor acceptance and lack of profits

. New England Courant, James Franklin, publisher

. pioneers idea that papers don’t need prior local government approval
. James jailed for publishing without government permission; continues
paper anyway by appointing brother Ben as publisher

. Pennsylvania Gazette, Ben Franklin, publisher

. proves advertising copy can sell merchandise
. shows journalism can be an honorable profession
. first editorial cartoon
. improves readability with better type, headlines, and cleaner layout



The Beginnings of Revolution

. the John Peter Zenger trial: “truth” wins out as a defense against libel
. the political or partisan press newspaper (papers that openly supported a
particular party, faction, or cause) and their role in the Revolutionary War
. the 1765 Stamp Act (taxation without representation)
. Mary Katherine Goddard’s Maryland Journal; publishes Declaration of
Independence in 1777 with signers’ names; one of 30 women printers and
publishers in the colonial press era

The Political Press: 1790-1833

. Federalists v anti-Federalists: rightful role and powers of federal government
. First Amendment; Bill of Rights, guarantees press freedom; ratified in 1791
. growth of early U.S. newspapers and their targeted audience
. papers grow rapidly; most cities have dailies, towns weeklies; read mostly by
the upper socioeconomic class. Papers cost six cents (pint of whiskey
goes for five cents); most news centers on business, political debates,
speeches, new laws, and official messages
. Anne Royall, first woman political journalist; her two Washington papers
center on political infighting and issues
. Freedom’s Journal, first of 40 black papers before 1860; John Russwurm,
publisher
. the Cherokee Phoenix (Georgia) and the Cherokee Advocate (Oklahoma);
published in both Cherokee and English


Birth of the Mass Newspaper: The Penny Press (1833-1860)

Prerequisites for mass newspapers

. quick, cost-efficient printing presses
. a critical mass of literate customers along with a mass audience

Significant contributors

. Benjamin Day, 22, starts the New York Sun; lowers newspaper price from six
cents to one penny. News centers on sex, crime, and human interest
. James Gordon Bennett, 1835, starts the New York Herald; introduces financial
and sports pages; aggressive editorial policy towards political reform
. Horace Greeley starts New York Tribune in 1841; appeals to reader intellect
rather than emotion; news and editorials center on crusades and causes
. Henry Raymond starts New York Times in 1851; introduces objective and
reasoned journalism




Legacy of the Penny Press: It changed the following:

. the basis of a newspaper’s economic support (from affluent subscribers to
advertising aimed at a mass audience)
. the pattern of distribution (from mail subscriptions to direct street sales)
. the way news was collected (advent of professional “beat” reporters)
. the definition of what news was (from the affairs of the commercial elite to
the social life of the rising middle class); news became a commodity
and began a consumer demand for “the fresher the news the better”

Newspapers Become Big Business

Social Background

• The Civil War and telegraphic dispatches bring changes to the way newspaper stories are written, most notably with the introduction of the lead and the inverted pyramid story format

• U.S. population doubles between 1870-1900; circulations show fivefold increases

Post Civil-War Newspaper Giants: Pulitzer, Scripps, and Hearst

. Joseph Pulitzer (St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World)

. aims paper at large NYC population, particularly new immigrants,
stressing simple writing and the generous use of pictures
. emphasizes reporting accuracy and introduces investigative reporting
. increases ad space and introduces ad rates based on circulation
. uses newspaper to promote itself with inflated circulation figures
. re-introduces penny press-like sensationalism into his news stories
. endorses idea that newspapers should be a social advocates for the public

. E.W. Scripps (Cleveland and Cincinnati working class newspapers)

. promotes concisely edited news, mostly for blue collar workers
. highlights human interest stories
. practices editorial independence and frequent crusades for working class
. pioneers the concept of chain newspapers (controls 13 at his peak)

. William Randolph Hearst (San Francisco Examiner and New York Journal,
and the real-life basis for Orson Welles’ famous film, Citizen Kane

. relies heavily on sensationalized stories dealing with death, dishonor,
and disaster (yellow journalism) to boost circulation
. promotes stories that appeal directly to reader emotion



Collective legacy of this era results in:

. professional writing, aggressive reporting, and investigative journalism
. brings enthusiasm, energy, and verve into American journalism
. birth of banner headlines, pictures, and color printing

The Early Twentieth Century (1900 – 1930)

Overall Trends

. circulation and profits up; number of daily papers and competing papers decline
. capital equipment and supply costs increase dramatically
. advertisers show preference for big circulation newspapers
. consolidation increases; chain newspapers grow

Jazz Journalism (1920s)

. tabloid sized and lavish use of photographs
. short, simple writing style

Impact of the Great Depression

. bleak economic conditions force many dailies out of business
. radio emerges as a serious competitor for national advertising dollars
. tabloid journalism rejected; news stories turn to interpretive reporting

Postwar Newspaper Trends

Major Postwar Trends:

. economics force continued trend toward consolidation; chain newspapers grow
. circulation falls behind population growth
. though number of national papers flattens out, big city dailies continue to fold
. cities with competing newspapers fall to about two percent by 1970
. labor and material costs rise; newspapers increasingly costly to produce
. television emerges as yet another serious advertising revenue competitor

Contemporary Developments:

. birth of USA Today and the influences it fostered
. splashy graphics and colors
. short, easy-to-read stories
. lots of graphs, charts, and tables
. factoids (a factoid is a list of boiled-down facts—much like this list)
. rebirth of investigative reporting (influenced by Watergate)
. advent of Public Journalism (holds that papers should try to help communities
solve problems and encourage active involvement in political process)
. late 1990s sees many newspapers produce parallel online editions
Newspapers in the Digital Age


In a rush not to be left behind in terms of advertising revenue or readership figures, many newspapers jumped into setting up their own websites. For the first few years, these web sites were merely unprofitable shadows of their traditional hard copy versions.

Portals and Partners

All that began to change in the late 1990s as papers gained experienced in web publishing. Many papers created their own portals (one of the first screens users see as they surf the Net).
Portals feature links to a variety of products, services, and information sources; the more people who begin their surfing at a portal, the more revenue the web publisher generates in the form of banner advertising.

Several papers have, like chain newspaper groups, partnered up in forming web portals and shared classified advertising databases.

E-Commerce

Newspapers have only begun experimenting with online retailing (e-commerce), providing services and merchandise through their portals such as banner ads (web links that take a user directly to a retailer or service provider’s website), online product delivery services, and, in some cases, direct retail sales of various merchandise on their own.

Handheld Media

Newspapers have also begun to explore new distribution avenues such as Internet-enabled cell phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants). As the number of consumers with wireless access to communication networks approaches the 100 million mark, their numbers represent a potentially lucrative distribution outlet for news, services, and advertising.

The Siphoning Dilemma

One serious adaptation problem facing newspapers is how to continue to provide attractive, useful—and free—websites that complements their print version rather than siphoning off their paying print subscribers. The answer will undoubtedly come through the same process of adaptation that newspapers underwent after the advent of radio, then television.

Defining Features of Newspapers

. diverse content (news, editorials, features, sports, comics, columns, ads, etc.)
. newspapers are conveniently packaged
. a newspaper is the only suitable medium to comprehensively cover local news and
advertising
. more than any other medium, newspapers serve as a major historical record
. newspapers perform a key role in the media’s “watch dog” function for society
. newspapers are timely
Organization of the Newspaper Industry

Dailies and Weeklies (as organized by publication frequency)

Print Dailies

. dailies continue a slow decline (1483, down 5 percent from 1996)
. circulation = subscription + newsstand sales; basis of advertising rate revenues
. national circulation totals (56 million) continue slide from 1965-1999
. with population increases, ratio of readers to population continues decline also

National Newspapers

. only a handful operating, such as USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New
York Times, and the Christian Science Monitor
. aimed at national audiences, but targeted to individual purposes (finance, news
summaries, in-depth news and analysis, and interpretive stories and features)
. satellites transmit publishing info to regional printing and distribution centers

Large Metropolitan Dailies

. huge circulation declines continue; though city populations up 30 percent, large
metro paper circulations are down 45 percent
. circulation drops are due largely to suburban migrations, increased production
costs, and increased competition from all electronic media
. a significant number of long-established large city papers continue to fold

Suburban Dailies

. 12 percent of newspapers published in cities with 100,000–500,000 populations,
but that accounts for 40 percent of the total national circulation
. they continue to enjoy steady circulation growths (up 1/3 from 1987-1999)
. profit growth parallels economic base of mall merchants and affluent populations
. big city dailies fighting back with “zoned” suburban editions; some suburban
dailies reciprocating by entering traditionally urban markets

Small Town Dailies (100,000 population or less)

. steady, but modest, circulation gains, often dependent upon town size
. continue to reflect the local orientation roots of the newspaper as a mass medium


Print Weeklies

. number of weeklies remains relatively stable (about 7,900) for last 20 years
. but circulation totals have more than doubled in the same period (74 million)
. slim profit margins make them particularly vulnerable to rising production costs

Recapturing Readers: Tactics and Trends

. eye appeal: increase use of color and graphics
. writing style: shorter stories; more use of summaries and sidebars
. story content: shorter hard news; more use of lifestyle and utilitarian feature stories
. continued emphasis on—and stories aimed at—attracting the under-35 market

Special-Service and Minority Newspapers

. African-American press declining; focus shifting to local news and upscale readers
. Spanish press growing rapidly; some mainline papers now offer Spanish editions
. college press now 1,500 strong; becoming big business with high readership scores


Newspapers Online

The essential difference between online newspapers and print newspapers revolves around distribution methods rather than information function.

Advantages of Online Papers over Traditional Newspapers

. no story-length or picture limits for online papers; compare with print’s “newshole”
. online papers can be updated continuously and with relative ease; no deadlines
. online papers are reader interactive with bulletin boards, chat rooms, and e-mail

Online Newspaper Profiles

. 1,100 papers online in the year 2000; of top150 papers, 148 offer their news online
. online staffs smaller, younger, and less tradition bound than traditional print staffs
. online papers vary widely in size, mission, and complexity
. the role, culture, and traditions of online newspapers continues to evolve


Newspaper Ownership

The two most significant facts about newspaper ownership are these:

. concentration of ownership is increasing as large group owners acquire more papers
. there has been a decrease in the number of cities with competing papers

The Growth of Newspaper Group Owners

. ownership concentration is increasing as is cross-media ownership
. 80 percent of all U.S. newspapers now controlled 130 group owners
. group owners now actively pursuing a strategy of regional consolidation which
allows geographically close papers to share printing plants and editorial staff
. regional groups can generate attractive ad rates to regional advertisers
The Decline of Competition

. number of competing newspapers continues decline. In 1923, 500 cities had two or
more independent opposing papers; by 2000 only 12 cities could say that.
. joint-operating agreements (JOAs) allow competing papers to merge departments,
except editorial staffs, to cut costs, increase profits, and remain competitive

Pros and Cons of Group Ownership

. group critics site cons of: less diversity of opinion, absentee ownership, lack of
local empathy, profits valued above quality, and a tendency to avoid controversy
. group defenders site pros of: large financial resources, can afford latest technology,
can provide elaborate training and public-service programs, less market pressures



Producing the Newspaper

Departments and Staff

Organization varies with newspaper size, but common functions similar

. publisher (in charge of entire operation; sets editorial policy)
. three main departments: business, production, and news-editorial
. managing editor (in charge of day-to-day news-editorial operations)
. wire editor (in charge of stories coming over the major news services)
. city editor (in charge of local news coverage; assigns reporters to local beats)
. copy editor (in charge of editing, headline writing, and overall paper mechanics)
. specialized departments: sports, business, family, real estate, and entertainment






Publishing the Newspaper

. the day’s news stems from two major sources: local reporting and wire services
. how much space is available for stories that day depends on the newshole, the size
of which depends on the expected ad volume; more ads = more space for news
. copy editor trims local and wire stories to fit newshole
. layout, graphics, stories to run, headlines, and local/wire story ratios then decided
. last, copy and ads sent to composing room and finally to the printing presses

. online paper approach differs without concern for limits on deadlines, space,
pressroom pressures, or graphics. In addition, an online paper can employ
multimedia links to relevant sound and video clips


Economics

Two major revenue sources for newspapers:

. advertising: about 80 percent
. circulation (subscription plus single-copy sales): 20 percent

The cost-cutting measures introduced in the late 1990s within newspapers (downsizing work forces, mergers, automation, reduced inventories, and equipment upgrades) have put the industry in good financial health with average pretax profits running around 20 percent (compared to 13 percent for other industries as a whole). Online papers, however, continue to be a revenue drain.

Potential Profit Problems

. national circulation figures still declining
. percentage of people who read papers in 25th straight year of decline
. national literacy rates decreasing
. local competition for ad dollars increasing from electronic media, direct mail
. newsprint prices unstable
. growing competition for classified ad dollars, mostly from online-based services

But overall, newspapers still remain the most cost-effective medium to reach consumers for local advertisers.


Advertising Revenue

Four major sources

. national advertising: 8 percent of revenue
. local advertising: 45 percent of revenue
. classified advertising: 40 percent of revenue
. preprinted inserts: 7 percent of revenue

Circulation Revenue

. receipts from both subscription and single-copy sales
. independent distributors typically skim off 25 percent of the newspaper cover price

General Expenses (divided by function)

. news and editorial costs
. expenses involved in generating advertising sales
. printing: newsprint (25 percent of all costs), ink, and pressroom operating costs
. circulation and distribution costs
. general administrative costs

Many of these costs vary in terms of a paper’s size; these costs also represent different proportions of a paper’s overall budget.


Feedback

The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) Formed in 1914

. purpose: to certify newspaper circulation figures as accurate for advertisers
. audits some three-fourths of all U.S. and Canadian newspapers (about 2600 papers)
Created in 1914 to stop claims of inflated circulation figures (important since advertisers are attracted to big circulations, and ad rates are tied to circulation numbers). Publishers submit detailed circulation figures twice yearly to the ABC; the ABC then conducts an annual audit to determine the accuracy of the figures submitted.


Newspaper Audiences

. total national newspaper circulation runs about 56 million copies delivered daily
. circulation totals sliding since 1970 even though population continues growing
. percent of adult readers declining: 80 percent in 1960s, but only 57 percent in 2000
. biggest declines in the 18-44 age group, non-college graduates, and urban audiences

Possible causes for circulation declines have been attributed to the increased mobility of Americans, the increase in single-person households, more expensive subscriptions and per-copy prices, general decline in reading ability among younger people, and competition from other media, particularly online information sources and all-news networks such as CNN.