The newspaper media may be divided into the "dailies" which accumulate and distribute daily news and "community papers" which collect a different kind of news that is less daily in focus. Dailies tend to have a broad focus, often encompassing state, national, and international events. Community papers are niche-oriented, focused on local events. Both types of newspaper collect news on a continuous basis, but community papers tend to have a long-term interest associated with them while dailies have a very topical and short-lived interest in their articles.
The Gulf Coast Newspaper group embodies eight papers with 55 Baldwin County employees. There have been no lay-offs during this current recession because of the community papers' focus on the local. "We would much rather talk about what is going on in our communities" than in the state or nation. Nationally, papers are going out of business. "The industry is shrinking." Revenue is insufficient to support the product, expenses outstripping advertisement dollars. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays are limited revenue days for the dailies. Because community papers can be read any day and are not daily focused, the advertising dollars do not negatively affect the news contained in those community papers.
This does not mean that community papers are not having difficulties. "The decrease in revenue started with real estate advertisement cut-backs. Now it is the auto ads," Williams noted. "Dollars for advertisement are coming in, but things are tight. Expenses are up dramatically, related to costs for paper, ink, film, plates, employees, insurance ...."
Community papers are not dramatically different during these hard economic times. "But dailies have been hit hard by people using the internet for news." Community papers have not seen the same drop in subscriptions and continue to see some little gains in circulation despite the downturn. "We have 17,000 subscribers in central Baldwin. The major daily, the Baldwin Register, is focused primarily on the Eastern Shore," Williams pointed out.
Community papers seek to develop community news. That focus makes subscriber erosion less marked in these times. "Community papers are holding their own nationally, and our numbers have bottomed out in the last three weeks." The Gulf Coast papers have added a new feature, "Baldwin People" and are working on an interactive website to augment their community focus. "We are a 'lean' company with a community focus. We are holding our own, but are not open to new positions with our company at this point," Williams noted.
