How Can Small-Market Newspapers Best Prepare for the Future?
The primary audience for this report is the local newspaper industry. Our intention, from the outset, was to produce insights, intelligence, and inspiration that might inform the work of local journalists, editors, and industry leaders.
With that in mind, based on our interviews and analysis, in this section we outline nine strategic priority areas for industry leaders, as local newspapers continue to respond to the ongoing challenges of digital disruption. The ability to address these challenges is dependent on a myriad of existing preconditions, including the working culture, ownership, structures, and business models found at different papers.
These considerations each play a role in the ability of a paper to pivot in a different direction. When assessing the health, vibrancy, and capacity for change of a small-market newspaper, it’s important to understand the structure of their business model. It is with business models, therefore, that this section begins. The structure of a business is often the foundation from which everything else flows. This context needs to be appreciated before passing judgement on the health and vitality of any newspaper.
Factors such as ownership models, frequency of publication, and geographic location will vary from paper to paper. The experience of rural titles, for example, is often very different than their more urban counterparts in terms of competition and news plurality,146 the size of the local ad market, and the penetration and availability of digital technologies.147