Saturday, April 26, 2008

Now there's a switch


At the same time newspapers are lamenting a decline in circulation and popularity, they are contributing to it by eliminating some of their most faithful customers.

In the years I covered Lapeer County I was constantly frustrated by the reality that the Flint Journal would not, for reasons of economy, deliver newspapers - even when people really wanted it - to rural areas in the county. Mind you, these were areas that we spent time covering news events.

The answer was it cost too much to give the paper to too few people. My suggestion was that the paper try and salt the route. In other words, if you had someone who wanted the paper at the end of Boon Dock Road, give away a few free papers along the way there and see if you could pick up a few more subscribers and make the route worthwhile.

Those suggestions were dismissed out of hand. In part, because a long time ago newspapers divested itself of ownership of its own routes and turned them over to private contractors. Those contractors sometimes, and understandably, balked at taking on expensive customers. It might have been different if newspapers had maintained control over their own routes. So we voluntarily collapsed our circulation with the resulting collapse in news coverage. It's a business model that I will never understand.
The same was true of the daily paper coin boxes which are likewise controlled by independent contractors. I don't know if this is still true, by the paper box at the front door of the Flint Journal belonged to an independent contractor and at times would be emptied early in the day. That led to the ridiculous situation where people couldn't buy a newspaper at the front door of the Flint Journal (they could, of course, come inside and purchase one at the counter, but why?) and the newspaper couldn't refill it, because it didn't belong to them.

If someone really wants your product, doesn't it make sense to find a way to get it to them?

Anyway, the Flint Journal is not alone, consider the following link:


2 comments:

Kevin McKague said...

"My suggestion was that the paper try and salt the route."

Huh?

"...they could, of course, come inside and purchase one at the counter, but why?"

Indeed...why?

Its a mediocre paper. Most people wouldn't get it unless they got a discount given to home subscribers, and could get it every day by only making a single call to subscribe. It simply isn't worth the effort of finding a stocked paperbox every day, especially when the Detroit Free Press delivers throughout Genesee County.

Anonymous said...

For all of its business savvy, I don't get the feeling that Newhouse ever did an honest business analysis of what investments would be required to make a big impact in Lapeer County -- or the southern 'burbs bordering Livingston County for that matter. The advertisers may or may not have been there, regardless of the coverage. But to the previous commenter's point, the Journal is a lackluster newspaper, and would be hard to sell anywhere in the current climate.

It's not just the newspaper industry that doesn't control how its products are distributed. At a time when the domestic car companies are hanging on to dear life despite producing some of the best cars in history, they depend largely on an old-school dealer body (protected by very tough franchise laws) that doesn't know how to sell without throwing money on the hood.