Survey Reveals Local & Regional Newspapers in Recovery; Still Good Outlets for PR

More publishers believe the local and regional newspaper industry is recovering, thanks to new technologies and digital strategies.

According to the 2017 HubCiti Publishers’ Confidence & Technology Report, 42.2 percent of publishers surveyed believe that the newspaper industry is getting stronger – an 8.8 percent increase over last year.

Growth in Digital Services

Newspaper publishers place their faith in digital services: 68.1 percent believe implementing digital services could increase revenues – nearly a five percent increase over 2016. Almost half plan to implement digital services in the next six months. Consumers of news continue to access news through the Internet, but with an increase of more than 10 percent from last year. Mobile apps have now become the top method for digital news delivery.

“The new survey shows a definitive movement towards a more modern, digital strategy for news distribution among our local and regional publishers,” stated Roy Truitt, CEO of HubCiti, in a press release. “Implementing digital is now a must-have – compared to a competitive advantage. Training traditional sales staff to focus on digital and finding the right partners to implement new technology will determine how well publishers will meet market and consumer expectations.”

Still a Good Public Relations Option

Survey results indicate that the newspaper industry in general and local and regional newspapers in particular are far from finished, despite doomsday forecasts of their demise.

PR can win advantageous media placements that effectively promote their organizations by targeting local and regional publications. The strategy can be especially advantageous since placing press releases in local and regional publications may be easier than winning publicity in national publications.

The key is to find a local connection in the press release. It could be that someone on your staff or client’s staff has a local connection. It’s important to place the local connection in the headline and lead of the news announcement to gain the editor’s attention. It’s also important to understand what geographic areas newspapers cover. Some small city publications may cover outlying areas.

With the emphasis on digital and its virtually unlimited space, editors are more likely to favor stories that include interesting graphic elements including photographs, illustrations and infographics.

Other key HubCiti survey findings include:

• 90 percent of publishers rank print ads and classifieds as very important to revenue generation. Respondents ranked subscriptions and website as second and third, with 69 percent and 67 percent, about the same as last year.
• Implementing a mobile app marked the greatest increase in perceived revenue generation capability (13 percent) over the next 12 months.
• For those publishers that currently offer digital services, about half (49.2 percent) manage them with a combination of both third party and in-house teams. However, pure outsourced or third party management increased by20 percent over 2016.
• Respondents ranked their website, mobile app and video as the top focus for digital service strategy – with 26.7 percent, 26.1 percent and 20.6 percent respectively.
• Among those planning to implement new technology this year, 60 percent plan to hire a third party firm for those technology services compared to making full time in-house hires.

Newspapers Rebounding

Other research indicates that local and regional publications are rebounding or at least holding their own. According to a survey by the Reynolds Journalism Institute, about 67 percent of residents in small U.S. communities read local newspapers between one to seven days a week. Four out of ten residents (42%) selected “newspaper” and “newspaper’s website” as their primary source of information; 47% preferred to obtain information from newspapers and newspaper’s websites.

Bottom Line: Local and regional newspapers have greater confidence in their future. Digital services, especially online apps, improve their revenue outlooks. Savvy PR pros will include local and regional publications on their media lists to promote their organizations.

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William Comcowich

William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.