Guests: Penny Muse Abernathy and Tim Franklin, the Medill Journalism School Local News Initiative at Northwestern University

“In this vast country, newspapers have historically been the prime, if not the sole source, for most small and mid-size independent communities. So, if you lose a newspaper, you’re losing the person who shows up to cover the school board meeting, the person who shows up to cover the county commissioner or even the zoning policy changes that can be quite controversial and affect the long-term quality of life of a community. The good news is I think there are a lot of things that are going on that can stem that, that range from policy solutions to new funding opportunities to new business development.“

– Penny Muse Abernathy, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University

“What comes behind a news desert? We know that Facebook Groups emerge in these communities. … But as we know even as well-intentioned as those good people can be, that’s not the same as vetted, reported local news and local journalism. As so what happens is you have the, in some cases, unintentional spread of misinformation in those communities, and especially at a time when our democracy is already facing challenges, and at a time when we’re coming out of a pandemic, we know the need for accurate, credible, reliable news and information.”

– Tim Franklin, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University

What is the state of local news today? What’s changed, where are there still concerns? What makes a community vulnerable to becoming a news desert? What does the future hold for the print newspaper? What are the most powerful opportunities for policy to help local news grow and thrive? What are some examples of positive outcomes and how can other news publishers emulate their success?

News/Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern talks with the authors of now well-known research throughout the industry on the phenomenon known as news deserts, Penny Muse Abernathy and Tim Franklin of the Medill School of Journalism’s Local News Initiative at Northwestern University. In this thought-provoking conversation, Abernathy and Franklin share the findings from their latest update to The State of Local News report, released this summer. The previous edition of the report by Abernathy, released by the University of North Carolina Hussman School of Journalism and Media in 2020, revealed startling trends on the prevalence of news deserts, finding one-quarter of U.S. newspapers have closed since 2005. But there are reasons to be optimistic, and Abernathy and Franklin provide their thoughts on how the trend could yet be reversed. The two journalists-turned-academicians discuss innovations in digital publishing, as well as the introduction of non-advertising focused revenue models, including subscriptions and membership models, nonprofit organization structures, and other revenue models, that they say could offer a path for publishers who are living in areas that are vulnerable to becoming a news desert, as well as those who want to start a newspaper in a news desert.

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Speaker bios

Penny Muse Abernathy is a visiting professor at the Medill School. While at Medill, Abernathy is collaborating with the school’s Local News Initiative and Spiegel Research Center on local news-related projects, research and teaching. Abernathy is a former senior business executive with The New York Times, Harvard Business Review and Wall Street Journal, and was the Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the University of North Carolina from 2008 to 2020. Her research focuses on the implications of the digital revolution for news organizations, the information needs of communities and the emergence of news deserts in the United States.

Tim Franklin is Senior Associate Dean, Professor and John M. Mutz Chair in Local News at the Medill School , where he is leading the Local News Initiative, a research-and-development project designed to bolster the sustainability of local news in America, and the Medill Metro Media Lab, a project funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation to strengthen the local news ecosystem and journalism education in the Chicago area. Franklin was appointed earlier this year by Governor J.B. Pritzker to serve on the Illinois Local Journalism Task Force, a bipartisan group studying the local news crisis in the state and recommending potential policy solutions. Before joining Medill in 2017, Franklin was President of The Poynter Institute, a leading international school for journalists and a media think tank.

Additional Resources

The State of Local News 2022 (Medill School of Journalism’s Local News Initiative, Northwestern University)

Watch the previous episode: The State of Advertising and Local News

Watch the next episode: Outsmarting Google and Facebook: Helping Publishers Grow Their Audience Outside the Dominant Platforms 

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Send your suggestions for future News Take guests to Alliance VP, Research & Insights Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org.

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The post News Take Episode 110: Update on News Deserts and Local News Trends with Penny Muse Abernathy and Tim Franklin appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Guest: Gordon Borrell, Borrell Associates

“If we don’t understand that the people who really support the newspaper are the advertisers, and they need to be able to use the newspaper company to help them sell things, to help them grow their business, if we fumble that, we don’t have a newspaper.”

– Gordon Borrell, Borrell Associates

In an environment with ever-increasing advertising options, what do local advertisers want today? As everything becomes more digital, what changes are happening across media, and what are the opportunities for local news publishers to stand out? What do marketers uniquely value about local news media and how can publishers capitalize on that? 

News/Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern dives into these questions and more in this episode of News Take with Gordon Borrell, founder of advertising tracking firm, Borrell Associates. In this candid conversation, Borrell shares his insights on the evolving world of local advertising and what advertisers are looking for specifically from local news publishers, as well as how publishers can be more valuable by serving as advisors to advertisers on how to tell their story.

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Speaker bios

Gordon Borrell founded Borrell Associates in 2001 and has become the local media industry’s leading analyst. He is ranked in the top 2 percent among Gerson Lehrman Group’s 150,000 consultants worldwide and is quoted in Ad Age, MediaPost, Editor & Publisher, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes and other publications. Prior to starting Borrell Associates, Gordon was vice president for new media for Landmark Communications, where he started his career 22 years earlier as a newspaper reporter. He is past chairman of the Local Media Association and of the Local Media Foundation. Gordon has five children and lives with his wife, a writer and book author, in Hampton Roads, Va.

Related viewing

Episode 39: Why Newspaper Advertisers Keep Buying

Watch the next episode: Update on News Deserts and Local News Trends

Watch the previous episode: Print, Logistics and Delivery in a Transitional Age

View all episodes

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Send your suggestions for future News Take guests to Alliance VP, Research & Insights Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org.

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The post News Take Episode 109: The State of Advertising and Local News appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Guests: Gregg Fernandes, The Washington Post and Dan Schaub, McClatchy

“Is there another product you can purchase that is literally updated throughout the day, 24/7 that you can read in multiple formats? Probably not.”

– Gregg Fernandes, The Washington Post

Regarding print or digital news consumption: “It’s not ‘or,’ it’s ‘and.’ Our mission is to enhance and improve the communities we serve and to bring to life free speech in each and every local community. And whichever platform that happens on, that’s great. Today’s digital reach is a multiple of 10x any reach we ever had when we just relied on a printed material to go to a home. We’re doing substantially better at taking our journalism to our markets because we’re using the “and” theory.

– Dan Schaub, McClatchy

What is the role of the print product in an age when people are increasingly consuming news digitally? What challenges are newspapers currently facing in satisfying the demand for the print product? What are the operational and/or cost pressures newspapers must contend with? How do newspapers find people to do the multiple hands-on pieces of production and delivery? How is consolidation in the print industry impacting business decision-making? What are the challenges for newspaper delivery, and what does it looks like in the not-too-distant future? How can newspapers’ delivery networks and distribution knowledge be valuable on a macro scale?

These questions and many more are the focus of this episode of News Take. News/Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern talks with The Washington Post’s Vice President for Distribution & Customer Care, Gregg Fernandes and McClatchy’s Vice President of Supply Chain Operations, Dan Schaub, about the role and value of the print newspaper product, as well as how they are innovating and evolving the product to continue to meet changing reader needs and demands. Fernandes and Schaub give their honest takes about resetting consumer expectations of the print product in a 24/7 news cycle, as well as how they have gotten creative with ways to produce and deliver the print newspaper more efficiently and cost-effectively. They also talk about how “the original gig economy” – newspaper delivery – is best positioned to capitalize on the growth of the sector as retailers and others get in on the game.

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Speaker bios

Gregg Fernandes is the Vice President for Distribution & Customer Care for The Washington Post Company. He has more than 30 years of experience in the newspaper industry and has worked in all capacities of Circulation and Marketing. Gregg is responsible for all aspects of The Washington Post’s relationship with its customers, including consumer marketing, delivery operations and customer service.

Dan Schaub currently serves as The McClatchy Company’s Vice President of Supply Chain Operations. This role was designed to provide the necessary leadership and focus as McClatchy works to serve its print readers and grow McClatchy’s digital subscription base while offering an array of distribution services to homes and retail outlets throughout the McClatchy’s markets.

Watch the next episode: The State of Advertising and Local News 

Watch the previous episode: Committing to Product Thinking in the News Industry: Putting Readers First

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Send your suggestions for future News Take guests to Alliance VP, Research & Insights Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org.

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The post News Take Episode 108: Print, Logistics and Delivery in a Transitional Age appeared first on News/Media Alliance.