Are Newspapers Really Dying? Not In Small Town America!
By Thomas D. Segel
April 23, 2009
Page 2 of 3
Far greater minds than mine have lamented the fall of daily newspapers and attempted to rationalize why they are no longer in vogue. Most of the reasons have a solid base in fact. For example, younger people do not read newspapers. They tend to get their information from television or the Internet. Surveys have shown that the vast majority of readers are 50 years of age and older. If statistics are correct, that advanced age group totals less than 20% of the population.
But, the story of newspaper decline does not touch many small town publications. In point of fact, these local market oriented newspapers seem to be increasing across the country. There are no hard figures on the growth of small town weekly publications. However, it can be reported that in 1989 it was estimated there were about 6,500 of these newspapers serving their various communities. Today that estimated publication number has grown to more than 8,000 weekly newspapers with an average circulation of about 6,000.
One print publication where my copy still appears is the Wilson County News. For more than 25 years the WCN has published in Floresville, Texas not far from San Antonio. What started out as a Mom and Pop operation with that national average 6,000-issue circulation has grown to a newspaper that serves all of South Texas with a full time staff of 23 people and with paid subscribers in excess of 11,000. It prints important local and regional news along with a heroes section, school honor rolls, legal and public notices, classified advertising, upcoming meetings, notices of sales and business openings, and news about who just got married and who passed away. It even has a spot for bloggers. To compliment its print edition, the WCN also boasts a very extensive website.
Publisher Elaine Kolodziej says, "We choose not to participate in the ups and downs of this economic recession or global meltdown or whatever it is called. The economy seems to be much like the global warming issue -- hot one day and cold the next. We are going about our business and our lives to plan for a bright future for us in this, the greatest country in the world."
She continues saying, "Rather than laying off employees, we have just hired two additional part-timers. While we cannot know precisely what the future holds, we can and will maintain a positive attitude and do the best we can for our friends, neighbors and business associates."
Two friends of mine, Donald and Mary Beth Wright have published the La Feria News for a number of years. They felt the newspaper was doing so good that thy added a second publication in Los Fresnos, Texas and in recent months started a third newspaper in the city of Rio Hondo, Texas.
Writing for the La Feria News, Bill Keltner says about weekly newspapers, "For the most part they are doing very well for a number of reasons. It has to do with the type of news they cover.... Unlike dailies, whose editorials and news coverage includes things like the discovery of rings around an invisible star billions of light years away, or a flood in India affecting the rice crop and, of course the funnies...all of passing interest, but of no immediate consequence." Those items of importance to the community do make it into print in the small town weeklies.
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