My wife, Patricia, and I recently attended the annual New Jersey Press Association meeting in North Jersey, and it gave me the opportunity to chat with my fellow newspaper people from around the state. One of the conversations I had was with a fellow I particularly like, and I always seek him out in the crowd. He publishes one of New Jersey’s largest papers, but yet is so down to earth, friendly and open.
He asked me how things were going down here in Cape May County, to which I replied, we have ever greater community engagement, but financially we have had our challenges with all of the news media; for the last several years, however, revenue has leveled out and started to climb. He said that he wished that he could say the same financially, that his sales have continued to fall. Macy’s and Sears had been some of his largest advertisers, but that revenue has now dried up for them.
Metro newspapers are a very different world from community papers, and the digital age has brought them significantly greater competition for readers and advertisers than for the smaller papers. Also, their readers can get their news from many sources. At the local level, it is different. In view of the importance of local news, another publisher said to me, how am I supposed to “out-local” the community newspapers in the area he serves?
For the last number of years, the newspaper professionals have lumped metro and community newspapers together as though we all provided an identical service for our respective readers and advertisers. Recognizing the fallacy of that thinking, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) just completed a nationwide survey of community newspapers and described the service they provide.
They describe smaller newspapers as community champions, which tend to be intensely local and foster community identity, reflecting a sense of place, an “us-ness,” and “extended family-ness” and an “interlocking connectedness.” On top of that, community newspapers “assist in voting decisions.”
Another issue which the CJR report touched on was the changing advertiser needs of local businesses. The day was when an ad in the local paper did the trick, but people now use different forms of media. The newspaper companies recognize this and are becoming subject matter experts in many forms of media, not just their own. Advertisers are prone to turn to their local papers for these services because the local newspaper is a trusted source. (In fact, the Herald offers these services via our sister company, Seawave Digital.)
As I read the CJR 32,000-word report, I thought, Cape May County is not unlike many other communities around the nation, and it is an honor and a joy to serve you and the rest of the people of our stunning county. It is our privilege to help guide the conversation in a way which hopefully enhances our collective lives on our incomparable peninsula, which sticks like a little finger into the sea, at the end of the forearm of New Jersey.
Moving forward, I ask you to participate even more in the community conversation and encourage others to do the same. Your ideas are invaluable. The more we think and converse, the more united we will become in making Cape May County an increasingly desirable place to be.
Thank you.