On Sunday, Pensacola News Journal Executive Editor Lisa Nellessen Savage notified Escambia and Santa Rosa readers that they would no longer find the Pensacola News Journal on their doorstep or driveway in the mornings. Effective March 4, the United States Postal Service would deliver a modified print version.
Savage tried to soften the blow by stressing, “Our print newspaper is incredibly important to us.”
- She said the move would give subscribers “a more consistent delivery,” and the new print edition would focus on “local news with more impact and context, feel-good community features, sports analysis, and commentary ? the stories you can’t get anywhere else.” Their website would be where readers would find breaking news “round-the-clock.”
Why this matters: Thriving communities have robust, informative daily newspapers. The News Journal has been pulling out of that role for years. First, the newspaper dropped its columnists and experienced editors who knew our community. Later, it reduced its editorial board to two people: Savage and cartoonist Andy Marlette. The experiment failed, and the paper let Marlette resign and dropped daily editorials, replacing them with local viewpoints and Sunday editorials written by the Palm Beach Post.
- At that time, Savage told readers that the newspaper wanted more local voices and that they shouldn’t care about what the newspaper thought about local issues. The News Journal would focus more on reporting.
Adding to the downfall of the print edition has been Gannett shutting down its printing presses in Northwest Florida, laying off dozens of workers. The News Journal quit printing here as it moved out of its offices on Romana Street. Presses in Mobile, Panama City and now Jackson, Miss. do the work.
Each time the printing moved, the deadline for reporters also changed to earlier in the day. In 2004, the reporters had to turn in their articles by 10 p.m. The time moved from 6 p.m. to 3 p.m. and noon with each shift to a different printing press, which led to the print edition becoming less and less timely.
Dig Deeper: Gannett wants to believe this is a good thing. The company tells us that it has already successfully introduced the approach in dozens of markets nationwide and is expanding the initiative.
- I scanned the online Sunday editions of Gannett’s other daily newspaper in Northwest Florida. Their newspapers in Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, and Tallahassee did not have any announcement their print editions were moving to mail service—another sign that Pensacola is no longer a shining star in Gannett’s chain of more than 200 newspapers.
I left PNJ for a long time, came back last year because the total lack of local in-depth reporting was left to the 30sec burst on WEAR. Now PNJ has left me again. Rick I long for the days of a thought provoking editorial page. The politicians must be loving this….
The USPS will provide “a more consistent delivery?” Gotta be joking. But then we’ve been fortunate to have had excellent delivery service.
I predict:
– Subscription price will increase for those who think they still want a printed paper.
– When the above subscribers see what they get, they will drop part or all of their subscription. But then I may be too pessimistic in assuming the print edition will not actually contain the “local news with more impact and context.” I just don’t see Gannett being willing to pay for the caliber of journalistic talent that fulfilling such a promise would require.
– As print subscribers become fewer, the economics of printing will eat up corporate profits. A print edition will be no more.
Print cannot keep pace with digital. By the time hard copies get distributed, it’s not breaking news any more – just a recap.
Alabama Media Group newspapers stopped print versions about a year ago (Birmingham News, Huntsville Times, Mobile Press Register and Mississippi Press), and the company has focused on AL.com, which has 1M+ social media followers.
As for PNJ, they seem to only have a skeletal, subpar team that hasn’t cared that the supermajority of Santa Rosa County registered voters are Conservative and only 16% are Dem, so its left-leaning opinions/reporting aren’t palatable on this side of the Bay. Even in Escambia, nearly half of voters are registered Republican and only 1/3 are Dem.
The failure to seek out credible sources is also an issue. For example, in PNJ’s Feb. 10 story about the resignation of Milton City Manager Scott Collins, Reporter Tom McLaughlin quoted speculation from a city resident; however, the person he quoted hasn’t lived in the city for YEARS and after losing her bid to serve on the council she’s done her level best to attack duly elected city leaders and the municipality’s much-needed wastewater treatment plant project. To the best of my knowledge (as someone who doesn’t subscribe), PNJ has also failed to point out how the “Save Blackwater River” effort is disingenuous, considering the current plant discharges effluent directly into Blackwater River from an aging facility which sits within a flood zone. The new plant, which that “city resident” is trying to stop, would not discharge into the river but instead utilize rapid infiltration basins and spray fields.
Everyone who knows that woman moved out of the City four years ago after losing her bid for the council has now lost what respect they might have still retained for PNJ.
The fight against misinformation is very frustrating, especially when it’s coming from so-called journalists who don’t seem to bother seeking out credible sources and verifying information they publish.
Citizen journalists using social media are doing better jobs than reporters at major daily newspapers, so it’s no surprise print is dying…
I stopped reading it years ago when they became less local. It was a smaller paper every week. Sad because I was faithful reader for 35 years at the time.