by AMANDA KNOWLES

Newsroom cutbacks, declining readership and the increased popularity of online news reporting have caused journalists nationwide to fear the uncertain future of the newspaper. But some see changes in the media landscape as a chance to settle into a niche that many believe will secure their future in print news. Community newspaper editors are banking on one thing: local coverage.

As papers across the country worry about the future — or lack thereof — of print media, community papers are coming into their own. Here’s a look at how some small newsrooms are moving toward the future:

Photo provided by the Meadville Tribune.
Small papers, like the Meadville Tribune, have responded to the growing popularity of online news sites by transforming their coverage to a hyperlocal model, emphasizing community news and in many cases decreasing the volume of wire copy.

The Meadville Tribune

City: Meadville, Pa. / Crawford County
Population: 13,500 / 89,500
Circulation: 15,000

The Meadville Tribune, established in 1884, serves the city of Meadville and parts of Crawford County in western Pennsylvania and is published seven days a week. According to Ed Mailliard, assistant editor, the Tribune’s primary print competition is the Erie Times-News, published in Erie, Pa., 41 miles to the north. The Times-News has a circulation of 61,000 and produces a zoned edition for Crawford County.

Mailliard has worked in the Tribune newsroom for 35 years. He is not concerned about the growing online news market. Over the years, the newsroom staff has been cut from 25 to 19 full-time employees. But Mailliard doesn’t attribute that to reorganization in the midst of an increasingly digital world. Rather, he sees it as an economic problem because of increasing competition for advertising revenue across all forms of media.

“You just can’t pay a big staff in every department in any paper with a declining revenue,” Mailliard said. “We’ve cut back in the number of people who are trying to produce the same product that we’ve become known for and it’s a little more difficult. Essentially the mass media focus has forced a decline in newspaper revenues, and that’s been something we’ve had to deal with.”

How the advent of online media has affected small newspapers, according to Mailliard, is that it requires new and old journalists alike to become versed in a variety of new skills, and to begin multitasking during the reporting and editing processes.

“You’ve got to constantly be thinking ‘is this one for the Web site?’ ” he said, noting that writing for the Web means altering the language to account for the immediacy of the Internet. But he said reworking a story for the online audience is minor compared to the work it takes to build the story in the first place. The Tribune newsroom also works with local radio station Cool 101.7, which means they have learned to work with “sound bytes, boiling a 19-inch story down to three sentences that make sense.”

“I think it’s been interesting,” Mailliard said. “But I’m not sure it’s been hard.”

The effect of the changing media landscape has been the same across the board, whether you’re a large or small paper, Mailliard said.

“I think we’re all feeling pretty much the same pinch,” he said, noting that cutbacks seem worse at a larger paper with a larger staff, but it’s all relative. “A person can only work 40 or 50 hours a week, no matter what newsroom they’re in, before they see that adjustments are needed. That’s what it amounts to: adjustments.

“There’s a little bit more work for everybody, but I’m not sure anybody is caving in yet,” he continued. “It’s part of the process. It’s still fun. We’ll roll with a few more punches.”

The Weatherford Daily News

City: Weatherford, Okla.
Population: 10,000
Circulation: 5,000

The Weatherford Daily News, established in 1898, serves the community of Weatherford, 70 miles west of Oklahoma City. The Daily News is published Monday through Saturday. According to Larry Gittings, managing editor, the Daily News has no real print competition; the Oklahoman, published in Oklahoma City, serves as a state newspaper, but Gittings said most of Oklahoma’s print media are smaller, community papers.

Gittings has worked at the Daily news for five years, with more than 35 years experience in the newspaper business. From what he can tell, the changes taking place in the media world have had little effect on his newsroom.

“We’re kind of ignoring it,” Gittings said, adding that that mentality goes for radio, television and online competition.

The Daily News does not even maintain an online edition of their paper, which Gittings said he jokes is a weekly paper that’s published on a daily basis. The paper’s Web site serves as a face for the company, offering contact and advertising information. The sole feature of the print edition found online is a listing of obituaries.

The only change Gittings has observed in the newsroom process is the way a reporter writes a story. It used to be, he said, that a reporter would cover a story, come back to the newsroom, and write it for deadline.

“Now there is no such thing as a deadline,” Gittings said. “You have to get it out immediately, and you need photos, video or audio. It’s changed how you get a story and you can no longer write it at your leisure. It’s all about immediacy.”

What Gittings sees as the most imminent effect of the changing media landscape is an increased emphasis on hyperlocal coverage. The Daily News discontinued its AP subscription two years ago, and though they’ve replaced it with the McClatchy service, the paper features very little national and world news, Gittings said. As online news sites have grown in popularity, he has observed similar changes in hometown papers across the state, and that is what he sees as the future of small-market news.

“Once upon a time, the front page would be full of AP copy,” Gittings said. “You rarely see that anymore. That’s not what people want. They want local news, at least from their community papers.”

The Union Daily Times

City: Union, S.C.
Population: 8,250
Circulation: 6,800

The Union Daily Times, established in 1850, serves the community of Union in northwestern South Carolina. The Daily Times is published Monday through Saturday. According to Graham Williams, managing editor, the Daily Times’ primary print competition is the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, published in Spartanburg, S.C., 26 miles to the north. The Herald-Journal has a circulation of 47,500.

Williams has worked in the Daily Times newsroom for 23 years. In that time, he’s observed the incorporation of several new technologies, especially in the last five to 10 years. Like the Weatherford Daily News, Williams noted that not much has really changed in the newsroom following the advent of online news sites. Their Web site, which does feature news content, is contracted out. Therefore, newsroom staff has not been forced to take on added responsibility or learn new skills to be compatible with the online media world.

For Williams, the key to surviving changes in media structure is finding a niche and sticking with it. For the Daily Times, like other small papers, that means sticking to local news.

“That’s our bread and butter,” he said.

While the paper does feature some wire copy, Williams said he tries to stick to state news because consumers go elsewhere for information about the nation and world. People want their news fast, and the Internet is the place for quick information, he said.

Even so, Williams does not worry that online news sites will mean the end of the newspaper, at least not in small towns.

“The larger papers are the ones feeling the pinch,” he said. “But there will always be a place for [small papers]. We’re the ones who report on the things that happen in our local communities.”

The Daily World

City: Aberdeen, Wash. / Grays Harbor and Pacific counties
Population: 16,500 / 90,000
Circulation: 13,000

The Daily World, established in 1889, serves the city of Aberdeen and the counties of Grays Harbor and Pacific on the coast of Washington state and is published seven days a week. According to John C. Hughes, editor and publisher, the Daily World has no real print competition; its readers are looking for local news and the Daily World is the primary source.

Hughes has worked for the Daily World for 40 years. In the past 10 years he has noticed changes in newsroom strategies in response to online news sites as well as television news, sports reporting in particular. Hughes said the newspaper has responded to both: The staff updates the Web site more frequently, taking a compartmentalized approach to stories, and working to augment the print product by including supporting documentation or offering different points of entry; in response to the proliferation of coverage like ESPN sports highlights, the Daily World has taken a more feature-oriented approach to sports writing, and focusing on hard-hitting topics such as frequency of injuries, and drug abuse.

In his tenure at the newspaper, Hughes said the newsroom staff has shrunk only by three people, from 18 to 15. To accommodate the work added by the need to maintain a Web site, they have teamed the information technology manager with an assistant city editor with existing computer expertise. In the next year, however, the newspaper is looking to expand on multimedia offerings, and is contemplating new positions to fulfill that goal. He also noted that reporters are increasingly becoming “backpack journalists,” capturing multimedia aspects of stories they go out to cover.

As with the Weatherford Daily News and Union Daily Times, Hughes said the most important thing for small newspapers to do amidst the ongoing changes within the media is to focus on their strengths.

“You have to be aware of what’s out there,” he said of the competition. “The franchise that the Daily Worlds of the world have is on local news. We’re the most essential game in town.”

Online news media doesn’t scare Hughes, who said New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said it best: “It gets to the issue of how comfortable are we training a generation of readers to get quality information for free.”

And larger newspapers don’t concern him, either. In fact, he said he thinks the hometown newspaper is in better shape.

“The larger newspapers are a lot more of a threatened species than us,” Hughes said regarding the future of print journalism in an increasingly digital world. “And I don’t think that’s wishful thinking, it’s the facts of life. If we’re aggressive and stay on top of our franchises … they’ll come to us.”

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So while newspapers across the country scramble to keep their footing as the media landscape continues to evolve, small hometown papers appear to be doing all right. Everyone can agree that in order to survive, print journalism will need to adapt and create new strategies for news delivery and profitability; those strategies, however, will likely be different across the spectrum. Where large papers might focus on increased multimedia offerings, up-to-the-minute Web reporting and newsroom convergence, small papers will increasingly emphasize local coverage, giving their consumers a product they can’t find in the large papers or major online news sites.

Still, as the Meadville Tribune’s Mailliard noted, the changing media landscape forces some adjustments, no matter what kind of newsroom you’re a part of. There will be some cutbacks, whether because of online media or the economy of advertising, and newsrooms will undergo some reorganization to incorporate multimedia.

“Everybody is wearing multiple hats,” said Francie Smith, online editor at the Lovely County Citizen, a weekly newspaper in Lovely County, Ark.
But editors are confident that print journalism isn’t going anywhere.

And, as the Daily Times’ Williams noted, there will always be people who prefer news they can hold in their hands. “Sure you can get your news on a laptop,” he said, “but you can’t take it to the bathroom with you.”