Community newspapers need to take more risks, cooperate with other news publishers, and call on people outside the industry for advice about digital adaptation, said speakers at a July 14 webinar sponsored by e-commerce platform Vendasta and the Local Media Association.
"Our industry has a history of avoiding risk, but now newspapers must be risk-takers, in a calculated way, community newspaper consultant John Newby said: "Risk is part of doing business. . . . If you're not risking, you're not trying. The greater risk is not taking the risks."
Risks must be calculated, Newby said, and Mike Blinder, owner of Editor & Publisher magazine, offered a guideline: "Fail fast, fail cheap."
Newby said the industry also has a poor record of bringing in help from the outside, and needs to reverse that, too, as it converts to primarily digital operations: "I'm not sure we have the leadership in our industry, to be honest with you, to make those transitions."
Blinder said there is no one leader to follow, but several good examples, including Hearst's strong sales of digital subscriptions in Connecticut, Adams Publishing Group's success with video, Pamplin Media Group's revenue from sponsored content, and Hometown News Media Group in Florida "figuring out the perfect way to make digital agencies profitable." He called in-house ad agencies "a creative force that solves the advertisers' problems."
Newby said traditional news media are "missing a lot of opportunity right now" by not creating their own advertising agencies. He said some local chambers of commerce have started advertising agencies because local newspapers are not meeting their needs of local businesses.
"If a chamber has to create an ad agency because a newspaper isn't fulfilling what their customers want, what does that tell us?" Newby asked. "Suck it up. You gotta have these products, you gotta have these things to offer."
Newspaper consultant Gordon Borrell has said he expects advertising to be 90 percent digital by 2032. Blinder said that doesn't mean print will disappear, nor should it.
Blinder said "digital is much more profitable for me than cutting down a tree and turning it into pulp and getting the Postal Service to mail it for me. But I'm never giving up that magazine, ever, because it's my differentiator. It makes me different."
Blinder added, "If you want to build your audience and polish up your brand so GenZs and Millennials don't think you're a dead-wood medium, get on podcasts and audio and video now. . . . It's been the most amazing way to build my audience." He said those media can be monetized "to the point that you won't lose money with it."
A better revenue source may be local events, which Blinder suggested may be even more valuable as branding devices or generators of leads for local advertisers to customers, who can then be reached by the digital agency.
Blinder also said, news publishers need to cooperate with each other to emphasize the value of local news, and how it differs from other types of information: "It would be an amazing thing if we could all finally say, 'Wait a second. Our competition is not each other Our competition is Google and Facebook,' and let's get into the game together." Some radio stations use local newspapers' reporting, giving them credit and advising listeners to get the full story from the paper.
The free webinar was the first of three scheduled by LMA and Vendasta. The second, focusing on sales and monetization, is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET Aug. 10; the third, on talent, is set for 12:30 p.m. ET Sept. 15. The webinar recordings are available only to registered participants.
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