During his talk, Mike admitted to having a strong bias toward local news. I share that bias, and frankly wonder who exactly goes to the GT as a source for anything but local news. One could assume, that even if someone does look to the GT for national/international info, are they likely the demographic (probably over age 65) that the GT really wants to reach out to long term? Do the majority of their advertisers want to reach out to that crowd? Seems to me that the large majority of readers read the GT for local news and info, and then go to their google reader, yahoo news, the huffington post, salon.com , wsj.com or other online venues for their regional, national or international news.
I read the GT online to scan for people I know and local interesting stories. Unfortunately, despite Mike's bias toward local material, over half the paper appears to be supplied by the Associated Press. In fact, today's local business section didn't contain a single local story? Is there not enough going on in Corvallis to fill 5 or 6 pages? Is there not enough staff to manage the different beats for daily stories?
I'm not sure why local papers like ours continue to fill their pages with AP material, but it seems to me going to an all local model would be hugely profitable and generate a great amount of loyalty. Why not allow local people to contribute stories? Why not source local blogs? How much do the AP fees run, and could that instead be used to fund another local reporter?
A great example of this intense local focus working in a small town newspaper comes from the book "Made to Stick". Here's an excerpt.
Dunn, North Caroline, is a small town about 40 miles south of Raleigh. It has 14,000 residents and its workforce is primarily blue-collar. The local diner is packed in the morning with people eating big breakfasts and drinking coffee. Waitresses call you "hon." All in all, Dunn is a pretty normal place, except for one fact: Almost everyone in Dunn reads the local paper, the Daily Record. As a matter of fact, more than everyone in Dunn reads the paper. The Daily Record's penetration in the Dunn community is 112 percent, which is the highest penetration of any newspaper in the country. What explains this remarkable success?
The Dunn Daily Record was founded in 1950 by Hoover Adams. Throughout his tenure as publisher, Adams has believed newspapers need to be relentlessly local in their coverage. In fact, asked why the Daily Record has been so successful, Adams replies: "It's because of three things: Names, names, and names." In 1978, frustrated by what he felt was an insufficient focus on local issues in the paper, he wrote a memo to his staff, explaining his views. "A local newspaper can never get enough local names. I'd happily hire two more typesetters and add two more pages in every edition if we had the names to fill them up."
Look at how Adams communicates his core message. He says he'd hire more typesetters if the reporters could generate enough names. This is forced prioritization: Local focus is more important than minimizing costs! He also speaks in clear, tangible language. Is there a staffer who won't understand what Adams means by "names"? Adams can't possibly be involved in the vast majority of decisions at the paper. But his employees don't suffer from decision paralysis, because Adams is clear: "names, names, and names." Do we run the inspiring human interest story from the wire service, or the boring city council meeting with public testimony on the roadway bond issue? The boring city council story. It has more names, so it wins.
If the GT would head in this direction, I'd be a hardcopy subscriber, daily reader, and more consistent advertiser. Who wouldn't? Hoover Adams was right- people like to read about people and businesses they know. Names, names, names please.
