Afternoon Delights

By: Joe Strupp At its height, General Motors operations in Flint, Mich., employed more than 60,000 people spanning various early and late shifts. And it seemed like nearly all of them read The Flint Journal. The afternoon daily may seem like an anachronism today, but for most of those auto workers, the paper's p.m. publishing schedule was practically a necessity, locals say. When the Journal came out late in the day, thousands of auto workers either on their way in or out of the plant depended on the paper to get the latest news. "People became used to it," says Paul Keep, the newspaper's editor since 1999. "They could not conceive of a morning Flint Journal."

The story is similar in many other cities and towns in which afternoon and evening newspapers once flourished ? and where, in many cases, you may be surprised to learn they remain quite viable. For many, their pub time was originally tied to either a large manufacturing workforce that worked odd hours or to farmers who tended to get up and out to the barn before sunrise, leaving newspaper reading until later in the day.

"Afternoons worked," says John M. Jones, Jr., editor of The Greenville [Tenn.] Sun, which circulates in what was one of the leading cattle-ranching and dairy and tobacco farming areas in the nation years ago.

But in both Flint, where the GM labor pool is down to 16,000, and in Greenville, where tobacco and dairy farming have been cut back, mere tradition has not been enough to keep the afternoon readership strong. Leaders at both papers say they have had to rely on other market forces to retain the afternoon approach. In Flint, it was a growing commuter population that kept the p.m. edition going as many workers started spending as much as two hours commuting to work in the morning.

For Greenville, lost farming has been replaced with increased manufacturing among more than 70 companies in the area that still employ workers at off hours. Says editor Jones at the Sun, "We have done surveys, and they always indicate readers are more comfortable with the afternoons."

But while Flint and Greenville have kept the p.m. editions rolling, are enough people still reading an afternoon newspaper to offer them much of a future? From the look of recent statistics, you might not think so ? but you also might be mistaken.

Just Fine, Thank You

Between 1999 and 2004, the number of papers publishing after lunchtime plummeted from 760 to 653, while circulation among those dailies has dropped from 13.7 million to 9.3 million. Morning papers, meanwhile, have been glad to pick up the slack, growing from 736 to 813 during the same period, while their combined circulation has also increased, albeit mildly, from 47.1 million to 47.5 million. The a.m. growth occurred despite an overall newspaper circulation drop from 56.1 million in 1999 to 54.6 million today.

The real turn came in 2000 when the number of morning papers, then at 766, surpassed those in the afternoon, at 727, for the first time. And just this year, the afternoon club lost its last major market daily when The Detroit News switched to morning publication as part of its sale from Gannett Co. Inc. to MediaNews Group.

"I think you will see a continuation of fewer and fewer newspapers in the afternoon," predicts newspaper analyst John Morton of Morton Research Inc. in Silver Spring, Md. "Increasingly, a lot of them are converting to mornings to gain or hold readership."

But not everyone. In fact, most of the two dozen afternoon-newspaper editors and publishers who spoke with E&P say the p.m. edition is doing quite well, thank you. Although big-city dailies that once thrived on the evening sale through street hawkers have cut and run, numerous medium and small-sized market papers say the delayed publication offers them a special opportunity.

Even with the glut of 24-hour cable TV, news radio, and Internet information overkill flooding consumers with stories around the clock, afternoon papers have found and controlled their markets well, though many have shifted from late to early afternoon.

"The afternoon paper is a fixture in the community, and those people like to come home to their newspaper," explains Nancy L. Green, publisher of The Courier in Waterloo, Iowa, which has served the post-lunch crowd since 1858. "It provides dinner conversation, and they can take their time."

Even with their diminishing numbers, afternoon papers still make up 45% of daily publications, indicating they are a valuable commodity, supporters say. "It is a unique niche," claims John Kimball, chief marketing officer for the Newspaper Association of America. Kimball notes that 70% of his membership are papers with circulations of less than 45,000. "A lot of those are afternoon papers, and they are doing extremely well."

But p.m. news operators stress that the formula has to be right; afternoon papers cannot exist everywhere. Success stories tend to come from smaller papers with a long afternoon-publishing history and little or no competition. In fact, with the loss of the Detroit News, The Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press is the only remaining afternoon paper with a circulation of more than 100,000. Among the 651 other p.m. editions in America, only 20 have a circulation of 40,000 or more.

In nearly every case, those afternoon papers that succeed focus on two important elements: local news and late-breaking morning stories. "Our paper overwhelmingly emphasizes local coverage," says Mike Lloyd, the Press' editor for nearly three decades. "That gives us a clear ability to put a different product on the street in the afternoon."

Consider the Competition

For others it is the vast morning competition from sometimes larger papers, as well as broadcast news and Internet outlets, that drives the later publishing time.

"We've got two [morning] metro newspapers in our backyard, and a good percentage of our readers subscribe to one of them," says Tom Marquardt, executive editor of The Capital in Annapolis, Md., referring to the nearby Washington Post and The Sun of Baltimore. "They do not have time to read two morning papers. They want to subscribe to us to keep up with the local news, and they have a little more time in the evening."

He estimates that as many as 45% of Capital readers also regularly read The Sun or the Post. In Lowell, Mass., the scenario is similar, says Mark O'Neil, president and publisher of the Sun, which avoids morning competition with The Boston Globe and Boston Herald by delivering as late as 5 p.m. "That would mean three a.m. papers and we will never be as complete as the Globe on national and international news," he explains, adding that at least 30% of his readers also take a morning paper. "It does not seem to be a real win for our readers [to go morning] or our staff."

But the morning competition does not necessarily have to come from a mammoth daily. The Times News of Lehighton, Pa. (circulation 14,500), battles the nearby Morning Call of Allentown to the south and Standard-Speaker of Hazelton to the north, making morning publication a likely suicidal move. "We are pretty locked in here by morning papers," says Bob Parfitt, the Times News' editor and a 37-year veteran of the newspaper. "So we are the only afternoon paper."

In each case, however, those who cite morning competition as a reason to publish later stress that a different time slot is only part of the winning formula. All of those who spoke with E&P pointed to late-breaking news and local coverage as the key element. "We feel that with the late-breaking news, the meetings and other local news we can give readers a better take in the afternoon," Parfitt declares. "The morning papers can't get the gist of that."

Early Riser

In Waterloo, Iowa, getting up before dawn may not be that unusual if you're one of the area's farmers, milkmen, or cattle ranchers. Or in the case of Nancy Newhoff, if you're managing editor of The Courier, one of the many papers that now embrace p.m. deadlines in the morning.

As the top editor on the afternoon paper's early morning shift, the 48-year-old Newhoff is charged with cranking up the news operation each morning. "I'm the early bird," says Newhoff, who has been at the paper since 1979. "My life is built around it. I have a lot of energy in the morning ? and I come in excited."

Married to Courier Sports Editor Doug Newhoff for 22 years, Nancy Newhoff says they may not see each other at all during the day while sometimes working opposite shifts. "I usually get up before my alarm, its set for 4 a.m.," she says. "I fill my coffee cup really big at home and keep filling it up."

Steering her Chevy Malibu through the pre-dawn darkness, Newhoff's 12-minute drive to work takes her past darkened soybean and corn fields, with an occasional sighting of ranchers and farmers feeding cattle and pigs.

Once in the newsroom, she checks every Iowa daily paper's Web site, noting that some do not even have that day's edition up yet. Then she checks which stories have come in since she left the previous afternoon, along with whatever has transpired overnight ? from late sports stories to breaking wire news. "I need a good grasp of it so we know where to go," she says.

The first news meeting begins at 6 a.m. with the editor, photo editor, copy desk editor, and wire editor. A final lineup and layouts are formulated so top staffers can start editing and assigning late copy. The late deadline for stories is 9:30 a.m., with presses rolling at 10:45 a.m. The first single-copy editions hit the streets by 1 p.m.

"Some mornings we are pretty sluggish. Monday is the hardest," Newhoff says. "But when there is a news event happening, and we know about it, we are pretty bright-eyed and bushy-tailed." Like most successful afternoon papers, the Courier takes full advantage of its morning production times to get in every last news story possible. Newhoff recalls morning events ranging from the Sept. 11 attacks to the Oklahoma City bombing that the paper played up big in their same-day issues.

Then there was the 1994 gas explosion at nearby Buzz's Bar, which the Courier jumped on at around 10 a.m. one morning. Despite being past deadline, the paper pushed back its press run and scrambled to cover the tragedy that killed six people and drew national attention. "It was sad, but it was something we were able to get in that day's paper," she explains.

Her work day ends at mid-afternoon, giving Newhoff time to see her 16- and 19-year-old sons before going to sleep around 9 p.m. She laughs that during the summer, her older son was often coming home in the wee hours after a night of socializing as she was about to head out. "It is actually an ideal schedule if you have kids, because I am home in the afternoon," Newhoff says. "I would rather do this than work nights."

The Late-News 'Hustle'

Newhoff's unusual schedule mirrors that of hundreds of other afternoon newspaper staffers, from editors to police reporters who pull the unpopular shifts so that news can be ready to go in the mid-morning production times. Most, like Jon Losness, editor and publisher of the Rochester, Minn., Post- Bulletin, say staffers generally like it. "My copy editors can be home to have dinner with their families," he says, referring to what is often the hardest newspaper job to keep filled.

Nate Reens, one of three police reporters at the Grand Rapids Press who often pull overnight duty, says the morning deadline gives him a chance to flesh out late-night stories and often break overnight events. "We get a good 50 murders a year here," he says. "It is great to have that extra time, especially when you have something the cops are not too chatty about. But, we also have to do extra reporting to keep it relevant if it has already been reported."

One incident in which the paper's schedule worked to Reen's advantage came last November when a local business owner who had been accused of fraud got drunk at his house and called police threatening to kill himself. The incident began at midnight and did not end until 4 a.m., when the man took his life. On the scene from the beginning, Reen was able to file a story in time for the first deadline that included such details as the use of a robotic camera by police to get the first look at the dead body.

Other such stories abound nationwide, according to editors and publishers. In just the past few months, many cite July's London subway bombing as an example.

"News from Iraq plays to our printing cycle very, very well," says Andrew Oppmann, executive editor of The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wis. Sports is also a great friend to the afternoon edition as well, he adds, noting that p.m. papers have a monopoly (at least in print) on full box scores and west coast results, even today.

"We are always hustling to get that kind of thing in," Oppmann says as he watches the final holes of the PGA championship one morning in mid-August, hoping it would wrap up in time for that day's paper.

Obituaries are another daily news item that fit well with the morning deadline, editors say, pointing out that many people die in their sleep or at night. "If somebody dies overnight, the family often wants to get something in the paper that day to let people know," observes Greenville's Jones.

At The Capital in Annapolis, editor Marquardt says local officials, when asked, have even timed their press events and newsy announcements to coincide with the paper's morning deadlines. He notes the August release of the local teacher's union "report card" on the county schools superintendent, which went out at the unusual hour of 8 a.m. at the paper's request.

The inevitable question arises these days of how the Web affects afternoon papers. If readers can log on at any hour, why should they wait for a noontime single-copy grab or a home delivery that can run to dinnertime? Editors and publishers say it's a problem that hasn't been solved, although many at smaller papers admit they at least try to control what they can ? purposely keeping their own breaking stories off Web sites to make the print edition appear fresh.

"I think it hurts the paper," admits Lehighton, Pa., editor Parfitt when asked about breaking news on the Web instead of the print edition. Most of the small-towners say few of their readers, who are often older or lack computers, take advantage of the Web.

Lunchtime is the Right Time

Back in the day, afternoon papers usually didn't appear until mid- to late-afternoon, but now anything goes. While most morning papers roll the presses any time after midnight and seek a 5-to-6 a.m. home delivery, afternoon editions can maintain deadlines anywhere from 8 to 11 a.m. (with single copies out by noon in most cases), and home delivery between 1 and 5 p.m.

"We like it in the racks at noon, for the lunch crowd," says Jerry Steinley, editor of the 118-year old Public Opinion in Watertown, S.D., where the presses roll at 11 a.m. "Up to five years ago, we went to press as late as 2 p.m."

At The Sun in Lowell, Mass., presses crank up as early as 9 a.m., publisher O'Neil says, giving some home subscribers a noon delivery time, while others get it as late as 5 p.m. He says the wide range of delivery is due to the use of more than 500 youth carriers, something the paper emphasizes. "The relationship we have with those carriers and their families is important," he notes. "In some cases, they go back generations and there is a real loyalty. Many of those carriers are subscribers, and there is very little turnover

By and large the afternoon papers have many more youth carriers than their morning counterparts, who have all but abandoned delivery boys and girls. For them, adult carriers can better handle today's earlier delivery times of 5 and 6 a.m. in some places.

The Daily News of Wahpeton, N.D., which switched from morning to afternoon delivery in 1999, did so in part to allow youth carriers to continue working after some parents complained that morning delivery had gotten too early. "It gets very cold here in the morning ? and most parents did not want their children out in the morning when it is 30 below," says Managing Editor Karen Speidel.

Covering the Bases

There is also a growing number of afternoon papers that are also putting out a morning edition, usually to fewer readers and often just at newsstands. In most cases, the split approach is done to serve a fracturing readership. "We have had to think differently and be more responsive," says Appleton editor Oppmann, who drops off 6,000 to 8,000 copies on newsstands each morning, with the remaining 45,000 or so held back for afternoon distribution and home delivery. The Post-Crescent started printing additional morning papers in 2002, in response to reader requests for an earlier edition.

In Lowell, which started putting out some 3,500 morning copies around the same time, the change is seen as an enhancement, not a sign of morning conversion. "We have to constantly look at how we can put out a better product, and this is part of it, serving the reader," adds Lowell publisher O'Neil. "We have got stuff happening for both press runs."

The Marin Independent Journal of Novato, Calif., may have one of the most ambitious schedules, offering what amounts to two different papers each day. The morning edition, which circulates to about 25% of the paper's 40,245 daily circulation, has a midnight deadline and a 1:10 a.m. press run, with the few home-delivery copies reaching doorsteps by 6:30 a.m. The afternoon edition goes to press during the lunch hour, with deliveries completed by 3:30 p.m. "We have an older population, and a lot of hard-core folks who like the afternoon," says Fred Conner, the paper's director of operations. "But, there is a lot of competition, so how do we compete?" He notes that about 35% of the Independent Journal's readers take another newspaper

If the Market Needs, Then Bleed

What it really comes down to, however, is the local market need. Although most papers that switch go from afternoon to morning, a small percentage still go the other way if it fits their situation. One case was the Benton (Ark.) Courier, which had been an afternoon paper from 1896 to the early 1990s, according to Publisher Kenneth Jones. About 10 years ago, the paper went mornings because, as Jones puts it, "everyone else did, and some people liked it."

But after a while, the switch was deemed to be too much, too fast. "The overwhelming response was that it should be afternoon," he recalls. Jones points out that the area's large commuter population, many of whom travel early in the morning to Little Rock, liked the afternoon option.

Conversely, The Decatur (Ala.) Daily also found problems when it went morning last year after 92 years of publishing in the afternoon. Although single-copy sales increased by 12% initially, overall home delivery has since decreased, said General Manager Clint Shelton. He blames the fall-off on the paper's abrupt change at the same time that it began using a troublesome new computer system.

A decade after going from morning to afternoon, the State Gazette in Dyersburg, Tenn., remains unsure about its success, says co-publisher Sheila Kelly. She says single-copy sales have dropped, but residents have come to enjoy the paper as a newsstand lunchtime read. "Some people are resistant to change, but they seem satisfied as long as they get it by lunchtime, or at home in their box by 3 p.m."

Like everything in the future newspaper world, afternoon publications are likely to continue decreasing. But, not unlike their morning brethren, they are not dead yet ? and still a necessary element, say observers. "I don't see some mass exodus soon," says NAA's Kimball. Analyst Morton adds, "We will still have them 20 years from now, there probably just won't be as many."