The executive editor of the Pensacola News Journal, Dick Schneider, explains in today’s edition the paper’s plans to make further cuts in its coverage. As some had predicted, the daily will shrink to two sections on Mondays and Tuesdays – News and Life/Sports. This will start in January.
Why? Low single copy sales, no advertising. It’s sort of a “chicken or the egg” dilemma for the PNJ. If you have good content, you will eventually have readers. Cut content and you may never get the readers. No readers = no advertising.
The PNJ has tried several editorial gimmicks to build readers on Mondays and Tuesdays. A few years ago, they added a Technology section that focused on gadgets and other technological advances. It gradually went away. Early this fall, they were to go after young readers.
On September 7, Schneider wrote that the daily was adding a special single copy edition for Mondays that would be different than the home subscriptions:
From a newspaper standpoint, generations X and Y are very different from baby boomers. Some say the younger generations will not read newspapers, but in Pensacola that’s not necessarily true. We do, however, know they don’t read them the same way as boomers and the parents of boomers.
So we’re going to try something different. We know the largest group of single-copy buyers are younger. What we want to do is make the front page reflect that audience; yes, of that market. A bit of capitalism never hurt anyone.
Apparently that experiment didn’t work and capitalism forced the cutbacks. Schneider does credit his marketing and ad reps for selling enough ads so that the paper can have more sections on other days. He also says they will continue to focus on their Pelican weeklies and the monthly tabs.
Unfortunately Schneider does mention that the newsroom for a paper its size only has an average of 51 people. The current PNJ newsroom is “slightly less than 60.” That doesn’t sound good. When Schneider came the newsroom had 80 people.
Sadly our daily paper is becoming more of a small town paper than the paper for a major Florida market. Or is it just a reflection of this community in tough economic times?
BTW: The PNJ will also be shrinking its TV guide…no one is using it anyway. Too easy to use the guides on the cable or the Internet.