Connecticut Local Politics

I’m pretty fond of the Hartford Courant. It’s been my hometown paper all my life. It’s a Connecticut institution, love it or hate it.

That’s why it bugs me to much to see the latest round of really bad news for Connecticut’s paper of record.

CEO Sam Zell also said the newspapers could eliminate a nationwide total of about 500 pages a week of news as they aim toward a 50-50 ratio of news to advertising, not including ad inserts and classified advertising. Currently the space devoted to news is about two-thirds of the total at The Courant. (Courant staff)

All reductions will be done by the end of September, according to the article. The Hartford Business Journal has more ominous words from CEO Zell:

Listening carefully to the words of Zell and his chief operating officer, Randy Michaels, it�s clear that the name of the game is generating cash to service massive debt at a time when Tribune newspaper ad revenues are sagging (down 15 percent in the first quarter). There�s not even time for lip service to Hartford�s long tradition of journalism as a public service.

Michaels told the analysts there�s big money to be saved by cutting the news/advertising ratio at papers to 1-to-1 (it�s 2-to-1 at The Courant) and by cutting reporters. �You can eliminate a fair � number of people while eliminating not very much content,� Michaels said, according to a transcript of the call posted on SeekingAlpha.com. �This is going to happen quickly.�

Zell chimed in, saying, �I promise you he�s underestimating the level of aggressiveness with which we are attacking this whole challenge.� (HBJ)

There’s even more at Editor & Publisher, the publishing indistry’s trade magazine. None of it is good for the Courant.

I know circulation is down. Revenues are down. And print newspapers, excellent though they often are (or have been), are starting to circle the drain faster and faster. News gets sacrificed as revenues fall. The percentage of the paper that’s ads increases. At some point I have to ask what this reader did in Karen Hunter’s column Sunday:

Why on Earth would I pay $269.88 per year for a glorified advertising supplement?

Why, indeed? And the more people come to that realization, the less money the paper pulls in, and the more space needs to be devoted to ads. Where’s it end?

News on the Web

Is there a solution for local and regional news outlets? I don’t know. Short of going entirely online, shutting down the printing press for good and closing the office to have reporters telecommute…? I’m not sure there is, unless more money can be pulled from web ads and an actual balance can be struck between ads and revenue, and circulation stops dropping like a rock.

Maybe the regional news service of the future will be exactly like I’ve described above: paperless, building-less and mobile. There are already some great news outlets on the web. CT News Junkie and the New Haven Independent are the best, and there are others, like Westport Now. Is that model (maybe larger) the future? If newspapers like the Courant really do start fading into oblivion… would people actually be willing to pay for news online?

It’s impossible to say. But I have a feeling we’ll find out sooner than we think.

Sources:
Hunter, Karen. “Tough Times, Tough Choices.” Hartford Courant 15 June, 2008.

Courant staff. “Tribune Co. Plans Cuts At The Courant.” Hartford Courant 6 June, 2008.