of news from communities to add readers
Beacon Journal staff report
Local, local, local.
That will be the Akron Beacon Journal's focus in the new year, Publisher Ed Moss told the Akron Press Club on Friday.
The newspaper will roll out its ``Neighborhood Express'' initiative in January, which includes a full page devoted to bites of news from as many communities as will fit.
The new community-news page will appear on Page B3 five times a week, Moss said, with the editorial and op-ed pages returning to the newspaper's A section. There will be related advertising and circulation efforts as well.
``It's a block-by-block, neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach to growing our readership and growing our advertisers,'' he said.
Moss said he'll work internally to ``break down the walls between departments'' so that all staffers are focused on providing ``hyper local'' news coverage and ``outstanding customer service.''
Moss acknowledged that the Beacon Journal has been through difficult times. Profit has fallen 60 percent in six years, he said, and to align the company with that new reality, the staff was cut from 715 to 630.
But he disagreed with one questioner who suggested that cutting the newsroom staff by a fourth hurts the quality of coverage.
``We still have 130 people in our news operation. One hundred and thirty people,'' Moss said. ``I will tell you there are newspapers all over the country with that kind of staffing level that put out outstanding quality newspapers... and I believe we're doing it today.''
He added that he is less interested in winning state or national awards for journalism than in adding circulation, which is a more important ``win'' for the Beacon because it indicates reader satisfaction.
Just as reporting beats had to be redesigned and redistributed among the newspaper's remaining reporters after the staff reductions, the Beacon must rethink every aspect of the business, Moss said. ``We need to evaluate each and every thing we do and ask ourselves, `Is there a better way?' '' he said.
The paper's recent partnership with Monster.com is an example of something that would never have happened a year ago, he said. The mega job-search Web site, once seen as a major drain on newspaper classified advertising revenue, has been turned into a ``win-win'' situation for the Beacon, Moss said, as it combines the Beacon's local resources with Monster's national reach.
Meanwhile, Ohio.com, the Beacon's Internet site, will be reinvented over the next year to make it a ``true destination point'' for all of Ohio, Moss said.
Ohio.com's success will be key to the Beacon's future, he said. In 2006, it generated more than $10 million in advertising revenue and is growing at 38 percent a year.
Moss wouldn't define a specific profit goal sought by the Beacon's new owner, David Black, but he said that clearly the decline of recent years needs to be reversed so the company will be around to serve the community for years to come.
He said more layoffs ``are not in the plans at this point.''
Moss said he's optimistic about the industry and the Beacon Journal, despite the ``gloom and doom'' coming from Wall Street.
He also emphasized that although circulation has declined in recent years, the Beacon still reaches 44 percent of homes in its readership area daily, and 56 percent on Sundays. That's a solid market to build on, he said.
``We are committed to being at the forefront of innovation and change in our industry,'' he said. ``We believe the key is to understand what our customers need and want, and to be the best at providing information and solutions that meet or exceed their expectations.''
[Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, OH, Saturday, December 16, page D1 business front]
Blogger Note: There was no byline. Click on the headline to see story on Ohio.com
1 comment:
Sounds like some good ideas for the paper
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