Shoptalk: Goodbye AP and ABC

By: Joe Strupp When it comes to bucking trends, the Boca Raton (Fla.) News is clearly in a league of its own. Not only is the daily paper delivered by mail to its thousands of home subscribers instead of via carriers, but it hasn't reported numbers to the Audit Bureau of Circulations in six years, it dropped its Associated Press membership in August, and it does not publish on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

So it should come as no surprise that the newspaper would go against the grain yet again, with plans to convert from a tabloid

format to a broadsheet. "People tell us they want the Boca News the way it was," said Craig Swill, the owner and publisher who bought the paper from BRN Media in March 2005. "They perceive a broadsheet to have more journalistic integrity. It is perceived to be different than a tabloid."

The return to broadsheet is scheduled for Nov. 5. Swill said the switch to tabloid, which occurred about five years ago under a different owner, was initially done as part of the News' effort to win a major printing contract. But the change diminished the paper's image and revenue. "The major national sales ads dropped about 50% when they converted from broadsheet to tabloid," added Swill, a former financial consultant who once advised Lee Enterprises and owns several non-dailies. "That was also the time when the News had a significant decline."

Swill did not elaborate, but his paper has taken a greater interest in local news since his takeover. "I don't cover world and national news anymore," he said, referring to the AP drop two months ago that saved about $50,000 per year. His readers, he added, are "affluent, well-educated people, and they want a paper of their own."

Managing Editor John Johnston, who has been at the paper for two years, said the local focus helps differentiate the News from its two major competitors, The Palm Beach Post and South Florida Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale. "It was done to leave no doubt that we are a community news product," explained Johnston, who has just four local full-time reporters but uses many part-time stringers and columnists. "I am excited by the challenge of community journalism, where it ends and begins."

Swill said he's also not reluctant to avoid publication on Saturdays and Wednesdays entirely, noting, "We are not making money on those days." But he said a 7-day production schedule could be in the offing.

The return to broadsheet and a big boost in the Sunday press run are just the latest in a string of changes Swill has instituted since taking over 18 months ago. Shortly after he purchased the paper, Swill sold off the press equipment and began contracting out the daily printing work, saving about $300,000. He then dropped the paper's 35 independent adult carriers in October 2005 and began distributing through the mail, just prior to gasoline price hikes ? leading to some $200,000 savings, he claimed. "That was to our advantage," Swill said about not having to buy gas anymore, noting his carriers had driven a combined 2,000 miles per day with deliveries. Despite the mail delivery, he added, "We are still a morning paper, and will continue to be."

Other cuts have included a 20% staff reduction in the last six months, which the owner said helped bring the paper up to about a 5% profit margin ? which he hopes to increase to 16% by 2008. He added that the paper had been losing nearly $1 million per year when he bought it.

The lack of ABC auditing predates Swill's ownership, he said, adding that he is uncertain why former owner Michael B. Martin ended the practice. The last ABC audit, published in March 2000, had the paper at 14,030 weekdays, 14,840 on Sundays. Swill plans to bring back ABC audits, but said, "We do not want to do it until our house is in order."

But he contends that using the Audit Bureau is not a requirement for success. "ABC is only relevant for major national advertising," he said, noting that overall ad revenue has increased by 8% since he took over. "A big part of it is that the Boca Raton community has a wealthy, highly educated readership and advertisers want that." The publisher is even toying with becoming a free paper or being audited instead by the Circulation Verification Council, which monitors circulation for most free papers.

In March, the News launched an electronic version that is e-mailed to about 10,000 readers daily via a computerized file. "It is the exact newspaper that is printed, with every story and every ad," Swill explained. "We have found that ad people can better sell the print ads; they can't sell the [online] banner ads."

Swill is the News' fifth owner in the past 10 years. In 1997, Knight Ridder sold the paper after it failed to attract younger readers, handing it off to Community Newspaper Holdings Inc, which sold it to Martin in 1998. He transferred it to BRN Media in 2001, which sold to Swill. "We are looking outside of the box in terms of what local papers are doing," Swill added. "We are a small, privately owned company, but I believe you can do a lot more with less."