Journalism’s Wish List for 2015

By: Nu Yang

When it comes to the fate of the newspaper industry, publishers don’t operate with a crystal ball. It’s more like with a Magic 8 Ball. When the men and women leading newsrooms across the country ask questions about advertising and circulation, they may receive answers like “Without a doubt” and “You may rely on it,” or they can see “Reply hazy, try again” or “Outlook not so good.”  It shows nothing is certain.

Yet, 2014 was a year of many accomplishments for publishers. Newspapers continued to work on their digital growth and they continued to find innovation with their storytelling. The industry’s future may not be crystal clear, but if you ask journalism’s Magic 8 Ball if the new year will be filled with excitement and change, you bet the answer will be a resounding “Yes.”

E&P asked some of these publishers creating excitement and change what they learned from the past year and what they’re expecting in 2015.

Sara Johnson Borton, The State (Columbia, S.C.)

Even though Sara Johnson Borton was recently named publisher of The State, she also serves as president and publisher of two neighboring newspapers, The (Hilton Head) Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette. Adding one more paper to her plate was just another welcomed challenge.

When she thinks back to 2014, Borton said digital played a big part in the newsroom and with advertisers.

“We learned to engage with our partners by creating complete marketing plans,” she said. “It was like a full-fledge agency, and we saw good success with it.”

Borton also increased the amount of field training with her sales representatives, where now one out of three reps enters the field with a team leader. “It’s very intense,” she said.

And it’s paying off. Borton is now experimenting with new market rate cards so that each client is offered a unique and exclusive package. Each one will include print and digital options. The focus will be on the local retailer and pricing out the market in order to bring back former clients.

“We’re learning less is more,” she said. “It’s a new world and we’re playing in a different league where we can target things specifically.”

 The paper also launched “Go Columbia,” a new entertainment section in print and online. “We’re also focused on our marketing revenue, aligning ourselves with publications that make more sense and focusing on creating more supplements,” Borton said.

Working with different rates and different platforms opens up the marketplace, she added. “It allows us to drive business in different ways,” she said.

Although print still plays a big part, mobile accounted for 50 percent of the paper’s website traffic. Borton said these changes are best for the market and with how they reach readers and advertisers.

“We may not have a map,” she said. “But we draw the map as we go.”

 

My wish list for 2015: Grow our audience in print and digital. Provide more innovative and targeted solutions for our advertisers. Be smart with our resources, so we can become the paper of 2020.

 Ray Farris, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Mo.)

One of the biggest news stories from last year took place in the backyard of Ray Farris, St. Louis Post-Dispatch publisher. The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. captured the nation’s—and the world’s—attention, and the Post-Dispatch was there to document the situation on every platform.

“The shooting, the protests and the unrest that followed created a challenging work and economic environment for the company,” Farris said. “This was a huge national story, and our newsroom showed tremendous courage, passion, and determination to bring it home.”

Looking ahead, Farris said he’s excited to see St. Louis move forward in a constructive way from Ferguson. “The Post-Dispatch will play an important role in hosting and encouraging that conversation of our next steps as a community, a state, a nation. Never is a daily newspaper more needed than in a time of crisis, and St. Louis needs the Post-Dispatch right now.”

On the business side, the Post-Dispatch launched stlEXTRA!, the paper’s digital subscription service, in April.

“stlEXTRA! has been very successful in helping us unlock the value of a paid online reader base without eroding our huge digital audience,” Farris said. “In fact, in 2014, we achieved eight out of our 10 highest digital traffic days ever after launching stlEXTRA!”

The Post-Dispatch also plans to expand in other digital areas. “We will also focus heavily on digital advertising fueled by growth in mobile revenue and page views, and by solid growth from Amplified Digital, our digital advertising agency,” Farris said.

The paper also launched food magazine Feast across the state of Missouri. In partnership with PBS, Feast TV airs weekly and has won Midwest Emmys two years in a row for outstanding magazine program. Farris said he is currently working on a plan to brand Feast as a food content component in newspapers across Lee Enterprises, the paper’s parent company.

“In advertising and the newsroom, we see a vibrant future with video, mobile, search marketing, social media, native advertising, special events and other creative content ideas all coming into their own,” he said. “Things are moving forward at an incredible pace, and to me, that pace of change and innovation is something I really love about this business.”

 

My wish list for 2015: I’m excited to see all our initiatives take flight. Our digital agency, event sponsorships, Feast expansion and especially stlEXTRA! are all still in their infancy, and like a proud father, I am eager to watch them all develop to their full potential.

 

 

Andrew Olsen, Times/Review Media Group (Mattituck, N.Y.)

As the publisher of three weekly newspapers (Suffolk Times, Riverhead News-Review and Shelter Island Reporter) and a suite of magazines, Andrew Olsen described 2014 as a year full of improvements.

The company upgraded its Web servers along with software throughout the newsrooms. As a result, Olsen said Web traffic rose 20 percent last year, and website traffic broke 1.1 million page views in a monthly period. He noted that 40 percent of that traffic came from mobile devices. Due to the high percentage of mobile traffic, the company also launched a responsive design template for its websites.

“It’s made us much more effective,” Olsen said, adding the new design also allowed them to offer more advertising packages.

Located 90 miles from New York City, Olsen said tourism offers a huge opportunity for them. “Many residents buy their second homes here, so home and leisure is big here.” The company is able to target that audience with publications like The Long Island Wine Press, a group of Northforker niche magazines, and digitally at northforker.com.

One of Olsen’s biggest challenges was figuring out how to operate from a multiplatform standpoint, not only in the newsroom, but with advertisers. Educating his staff on the Web space was a priority.

“We’re constantly training,” he said. “We’re leading the entire company and mobilizing them especially the sales team.”

In 2014, the Times/Review’s trio of newspapers became the first weeklies invited to participate in Newseum’s online display of front pages. Previously, the Newseum website only displayed front pages from newspapers with a daily circulation, but that changed when about 130 weekly newspapers banded together last spring and sent in their front pages as a protest to the policy. Now, any general interest newspaper can participate.

Olsen credited executive editor Grant Parpan for that accomplishment. “It lifted everybody here,” he said. “Being the first weekly featured shows the impact of community journalism.”

As he prepares for 2015, Olsen said his biggest opportunity will be in the Web space. “The inventory is available especially with the magazine portion of the business. We want to offer higher production values and step up our content.” Olsen added there was also potential to offer digital agency services to clients.

Transforming into a multiplatform company is a trend he sees the entire industry going through right now. “It’s a game changer. We have to be comfortable publishing and selling on a variety of platforms.”

 

My wish list for 2015: Create engagement with each of our products, whether it’s with digital or with our magazines.

 

 

Jon Wolman, Detroit News (Detroit, Mich.)

The city of Detroit is never short of stories. Just ask Detroit News publisher Jon Wolman. As he reflected on the biggest stories from 2014, Wolman said a couple came to mind: covering Detroit’s bankruptcy and the city’s elected officials, the demanding stories of the auto industry and its recalls, professional and college sports, and Motown returning to Motown.

With so many news stories to cover, it only makes sense that the paper decided to upgrade its systems last year. “We relaunched our digital platforms this fall with a new CMS and we spent a lot of time training our employees,” Wolman said. “I fully expect these upgrades to blossom in 2015. We’re taking advantage of this new workflow, which will enhance our digital presentation as a result.”

An example is the annual North American International Auto Show that takes place every January. Thanks to the upgrades, Wolman said the News is able to present stories in new visual ways, including video and photo galleries.

Not only did the internal workflow get an upgrade, but so did the physical outdoor building. In October, the paper left its home of 97 years in downtown Detroit (it was designed by Albert Kahn in 1917 and initially served as a printing plant) and moved to a more modern location five blocks away.  Under a Joint Operating Agreement, it’s also a new home for the Detroit Free Press.

“It was a poignant move,” Wolman said, but necessary as both papers evolve into a digital workplace.

As Digital First Media, the paper’s owner, contemplate its next move (the company announced in September, it would “evaluate and consider strategic alternatives” with its media properties), Wolman said it’s business as usual at the News.

He expects a big, ambitious year in 2015. “We’ll continue to look after the public interest and serve as the watchdog. We’re keeping a close eye on the city’s bankruptcy, the auto industry and athletics. There’ll be more culture coverage.”

Over the past 10 years, he has seen the industry make more of an effort to shift from print to digital especially with multimedia storytelling. “An important part of our operation is working hard creatively for our newspaper readership…it’s about finding the right balance between print and digital. As an industry, we’re making progress with that line.”

 

My wish list for 2015: Take advantage of our new technology. Make the efforts to put the right resources into the right stories in order to expand our audience engagement.

 

 

Alexandra Villoch, Miami Herald (Miami, Fla.)

When Alexandra Villoch, president and publisher of the Miami Herald Media Co., reflects on 2014, she is reminded of the newsroom’s successful stories.

“We started off the year with the powerful Innocents Lost series, an investigation of the deaths of more than 477 children in the state of Florida and the systemic failure that led to this tragedy. We also uncovered the grisly mistreatment of prisoners in the state prison system. Both investigations have led to legislative and policy change,” she said.

The paper also redesigned and expanded existing sections. At the Miami Herald, Tropical Life expanded food and dining content; a revamped Business Monday and standalone Business section were launched in September, and the Neighbors section expanded weekly features. The company’s Spanish-language daily newspaper, el Nuevo Herald, also launched a new section titled Galería 305.

The paper also continued to see success with new products that capture and increase audience and readership. “Two years ago we launched Indulge, a luxury magazine distributed to key demographics and free-racked at high end hotels and restaurants/spas across South Florida. We have utilized our unique distribution capabilities to deliver Indulge to the exact targets.

“We have also continued to expand Yes! (Your Essential Shopper), a weekly shopper delivered to more than 120,000 households in South Florida, in order to meet the demands of both shoppers and advertisers.  Additionally, we launched a weekly Spanish tabloid delivered to households in areas where Spanish is the preferred language.”

As Villoch plans for 2015, she hopes to accomplish many goals throughout the company. In the newsroom, there’s the expansion of editorial videos. “We will continue to cross train and provide our newsroom team the necessary tools and support our efforts across all content platforms.”

This past year, the company introduced Impress Local, providing digital solutions for advertising clients and allowing them to control and track their online presence and reputation.

“We are in the process of revamping our entire advertising division structure to better reflect the needs of our clients, providing fully integrated account management,” Villoch said.

After moving to a new facility in 2013, Villoch said the company invested in presses and streamlining its operations. This past year, the operations team added additional color capacity to the presses and changed over to new plates.

“We transitioned to a new brighter higher quality newsprint and changed over our ink as well,” Villoch said. “Lots of changes—all targeted at improving the quality of our printed products, while at the same time gaining financial efficiencies. It’s a win-win.”

 

My wish list for 2015:  Continue to serve our community and be the voice of those who have no voice. Continue to grow through diverse and innovative products and solutions, resulting in increased revenue.