Newspapers Put Forth 'Extra' Effort

By: Joel Davis Newspapers across the United States responded to the recent terror attacks by pumping out extras, increasing news holes, boosting press runs, and generally doing whatever it takes to get the story -- and get it right.

While advertising is mostly down and the bottom line is a pervasive concern, leaders of both newspapers and newspaper companies told E&P that they are more worried about coverage right now.

"This is a story that demands excellence in coverage, and you're going to give your journalists what they need to do it," said Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., chairman of the New York Times Co. and publisher of The New York Times. He acknowledged advertising cancellations this month alone will likely cost his flagship paper millions of dollars. "It's made a dreadful financial year more dreadful. But who cares?"

Knight Ridder Chairman and CEO Tony Ridder issued a memo that calls for quality journalism. "Please leave no stone unturned in pursuing this story. Do the right thing by readers," Ridder wrote to the executives of his company's papers.

Knight Ridder spokeswoman Lee Ann Schlatter said there are no financial constraints on the chain's papers in covering the tragedy, a sentiment echoed by Robert Hall, publisher of Knight Ridder's Philadelphia Inquirer. "Since we are newspapers first, the focus has been on the news," Hall said. "I think the business side has taken a back seat, at least during this tragedy, because that's what we're all about."

Gannett Co. Inc. has issued no edicts on editorial spending, spokeswoman Tara Connell said. "We don't order the local papers to do one thing or another. ... Gannett really does give its newspapers autonomy."

Many papers with expanded press runs found single-copy sales went through the roof. On a typical weekday afternoon, for example, Cox Newspapers Inc.'s Atlanta Journal has single-copy sales of 22,000. On Sept. 11, it sold an extra 60,000. The following day was even bigger for both the morning Atlanta Constitution and the afternoon Journal, said Publisher Roger Kintzel. "Wednesday [Sept. 12], we had a 24-page special section with no advertising except for a half-page sympathy ad from Kroger," Kintzel said. The Constitution had 130,000 additional single-copy sales and the Journal had 95,000, for a one-day net circulation increase of 225,000. And no returns. By Friday of the same week, the total of extra street sales had fallen to 61,000.

When it was suggested that it would be great to have those numbers on a normal day, Kintzel replied, "To me, it says people know where the information will be and have confidence that they can turn to us."

Thomas Curley, president and publisher of USA Today, said his paper has already received notice of ad cancellations for this month totaling as much as $4 million, but Gannett's Connell cautioned that even though Curley did "indeed say that, he was giving a very preliminary, early look at things."

The combination of expanded front sections, extra editions, and lost advertising is costing many newspapers untold millions that are not being covered by increased single-copy revenue or "patriotic" ads.

"It's not even coming close," said Scott McKibben, president and publisher of ANG Newspapers, part of MediaNews Group Inc. and parent of The Oakland (Calif.) Tribune. "Toys 'R' Us told us to shred their insert [for last week] because it had video games that may have sent" the wrong message.

Not all papers are taking big financial hits. Steven M. Weaver, president and publisher of The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune, said that while advertising took "a dip," Tampa's economy is "vibrant" and advertising late last week was returning "more or less back to normal." Weaver added that, in expanding its news hole, the Media General Inc. paper took advantage of pages normally used for stock-market listings after Wall Street shut down in the days following the tragedy.

Lee Enterprises Inc.'s La Crosse (Wis.) Tribune took a somewhat similar tack. The daily eliminated a family/lifestyles section and used the space for coverage of the attacks. Circulation Director Nicholas Nicks said the Tribune had "minimal" loss of advertising, and was largely back to normal by the weekend after the tragedy.

As far as pumping out the printed product, it would be hard to top The Post-Standard, the morning paper in Syracuse, N.Y., and its sibling, the evening Syracuse Herald-Journal, both owned by Advance Publications. In the 37 hours following the attacks, one newsroom put out six separate newspapers. Stan Linhorst, senior managing editor for the two papers, echoed a common sentiment in newsrooms across the country when he said newspapers are proving to be the most reliable sources of information and the voices of reason in their communities.