It takes three to keep your local newspaper going

The times, they are a changin.’

Yeah, I know. Pretty original lead John — not. If you had a $1 for every story that used that as an intro to a discussion of changes, you’d be able to retire in comfort on an island in the Pacific — preferably not Gilligan’s Island.

But things are changing here at the Cheney Free Press. Those changes will be expounded upon in upcoming columns, but suffice it to say, without some financial concessions from employees, Cheney, Medical Lake, Airway Heights and the rest of the West Plains would be looking at the closure of its only local, independent news source.

And I mean the clock would be ticking down to the end likely with this issue. After 121-plus years, you would have to look elsewhere to get expanded, independent news about your city, school district, sports teams and other West Plains happenings.

How did this come to nearly transpire, and I use the word “nearly” only as an interim description because in making the concessions, we aren’t necessarily out of the woods. The answer is involved and complex, something not easily related in a 600–700 word column.

Depending on who you talk to, the blame for our challenges can be any number of things. But it really boils down to this — revenues aren’t keeping up with expenses. When revenues keep up with or exceed expenses, the expenses can be dealt with, even if they may be high.

When revenues don’t keep up, expenses become a burden and have to be chopped. That’s kind of our case.

Our expenses are like many businesses, no matter the size. Our revenues are a bit different.

Newspapers are essentially three-legged stools. In our case, those revenue legs are classified ads, display ads and legal ads. Those legs support subscriptions — readers — but while subscriptions don’t provide that much revenue, they are the bond that keeps those other legs together.

The seat of the stool, if you will.

In the past, those three legs served to balance and support our news stool. But, times change, and those changes have impacted the strength of our revenue legs.

One of those changes is technology — specifically the Internet. The most profound impact from the Internet has been on classified ad revenue, and it’s a change not just felt by the Cheney Free Press and our sister papers under Free Press Publishing, but also other publications, including dailies.

Leaf through hardbound archived editions of issues of any newspaper from the beginning of this century, and compare them with today’s publications and you will see the impact. That impact from the Internet is summed up in the word “free.”

If you run a classified through a print publication to sell a bedroom set or advertise a yard sale, you have to pay. With Internet sites such as Craigslist, and the currently popular Facebook Swap and Shops, just post the classified — no expenses required.

It’s tough to compete with free.

The free nature of Facebook has also impacted display advertising to a certain extent. Instead of buying an ad from us, some businesses use Facebook as a means of promotion, pointing customers to their page or website and asking them to share with their friends.

Impacts that weaken one or two revenue legs put pressure on the remaining legs to carry the weight. When they don’t or can’t, that’s when we run into what Free Press employees faced earlier this month with making concessions.

It’s a fact of life. But I will leave it there at this point, saving for future columns.

I will leave you with two points, one a question, the other a statement.

The question for you is: What do you value about news? Don’t answer immediately, this isn’t the Internet. Think about it.

The other is a statement posted on a cubicle wall here at the mighty CFP: “Saying I don’t need newspapers because I get my news from the Internet is like saying I don’t need farmers because I get my food from the supermarket.”

Good-bye, until next time.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.