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Editor Casmira Harrison
If you are a subscriber, I’m sure you’ve noticed some changes here at the Palatka Daily News. Several folks have called and emailed to tell us what they think about the shift to three days a week and I’m 100-percent certain I’ll be on the receiving end of more such calls and emails.
Here’s a statement of fact: We here at the PDN are just as displeased with the shift as you likely are. But to help answer one of the most common questions I’ve received thus far: No, we cannot “change our minds” about going to a 3-day-a-week print schedule.
The question assumes we had a choice in the matter and therefore have a choice to undo it. Unfortunately, we do not. We do, however, have control over the content we provide to our readers and are navigating adjustments to this based on the changes we must make. Our overarching guideline for this: less of what one can find ubiquitously on the internet, more of what one cannot.
Here’s another question we’ve also heard a few people ask: Why?
Like Publisher Jennifer Moates shared with readers in the last two articles about the change, the reasons are based on economics. While the cost of ink, paper, manpower and even puzzles and comics, possible through contracts we have with syndicated content distributors, have hiked dramatically over the years, the price of a newspaper has simply not adjusted to match. Granted, there are people who say they are willing to pay more for their newspaper, but most readers cringe with each subscription increase – just like we all do when the electric bill or water bill goes up.
Most don’t have a legitimate choice as to whether or not to pay their water bill. We certainly don’t. But our readers have a choice regarding their subscription. Our advertisers have a choice regarding their advertising. Our parent company’s choice was whether to impose those significant costs on readers and advertisers, or lessen the costs we all must share. They chose the latter based on research and the possibility that a price hike would not be as palatable. I respect their choice because community journalism is important to this area, as well as our parent company, and this newspaper will do whatever we can to make sure information is provided.
I’d like to share a bit more Q&A, but first, a couple of short stories.
A little while back I read an article in the Los Angeles Times. The subject was a bit of a recent history lesson on the Salinas Californian, a 152-year-old community newspaper just south of San Jose off the coast of California.
Back in 1999, according to the LA Times, the newsroom there “buzzed with about 35 journalists,” including sports, features and opinion. Prior to the Great Recession, the Californian employed about 120 people, taking into account advertising, editorial and production operations.
In December, the Californian’s final full-time journalist resigned.
“It took years of layoffs and dispirited resignations for the Salinas Californian staff to finally tick down to zero,” the article states. “The only original content from Salinas comes in the form of paid obituaries, making death virtually the only sign of life at an institution once considered a must-read by many Salinans.”
So, while the paper, owned by media conglomerate Gannett, is still published and still boasts the town’s name across its front page, it is what we in the industry refer to as a “zombie” newspaper. The lifeblood of that newspaper and what made it so vital to the community – its people – are all gone.
I’ve been through this type of chipping away in the past. When I first arrived at the last paper where I was employed, there were at least 18 people working with me just on the copy desk, alone. The copy desk, where I began there in 2006, was made up of people who designed the pages and quadruple-checked the final copy of articles prior to publication. We even had one copy editor who went through every word of the final product with the help of a magnifying glass. I’m not exaggerating. That entire desk had dwindled to zero by 2015, and by the time I left the newspaper in late 2020, the newsroom itself had slimmed to about the size of that 18-person editing desk.
The paper was bought and sold several times and I lost count of the number of layoffs I managed to survive. That newspaper, like the Californian, is owned by Gannett, which also owns roughly one-fifth of the community papers across the U.S. According to a February article by Poynter, a nonprofit media institute and news outlet which tracks changes in the newspaper industry, Gannett owns roughly 200 local daily newspapers. The company website boasts ownership of about 1,000 local weeklies.
And, like the Californian, some of those papers are local in name only. The content is written miles away, far from the people who rely on those papers for information about their own community, but no longer get it.
Community Newspapers, Inc. is not even remotely that size. It remains a smaller, family-run operation of 23 papers based out of Athens, Georgia. Most of its Florida, Georgia and North Carolina newspapers are weeklies and twice-weeklies. This move brings us at the PDN and another sister paper in line with the rest of the organization’s timetables.
Last year, according to Poynter, Gannett showed roughly 400 employees the door in two sets of layoffs and instituted mandatory furloughs for remaining staff (ie: pay cuts).
Our staffing here, though, remains solid. The same people who have brought you the news are continuing to do so throughout the changes. Several of the people here have been at this paper for decades. Joyce Guthrie, our economics guru in accounting, is about to celebrate 50 years at this news outlet, and every last one of the PDN’s employees are passionate about local journalism. We are all working to make sure the community gets their voices heard and local stories are told. We continue to sit through hours-long government meetings. We schedule as much sports coverage as feasibly possible with the two-man sports team of Sports Editor Mark Blumenthal and Sports Reporter Corey Davis and we share notices of local events coming up that we believe the community will be interested in. Features Editor Trisha Murphy shares the stories of our residents and the events that unite us. News Editor Brandon Oliver has hiked his byline presence on our front page despite having to also design and edit our main news section. Reporter Sarah Cavacini navigates the sometimes confounding intricacies of several local governments and is on a one-man mission to dramatically increase our social media presence.
In the advertising department, Mary Kaye Wells and her excellent sales and graphics team have helped our advertisers navigate the changes, too. This is vital, as our loyal advertisers are the major economic force behind a newspaper. While subscription numbers play a strong part in keeping our newspaper afloat, our advertisers make sure all the bills are paid.
There is, I like to say, an “iron curtain” between advertising and editorial here at the paper – meaning that editorial decisions are editorial decisions and advertising decisions are their own. But the relationship between advertising and editorial is symbiotic. By advertising in our paper, our local businesses get more eyes on their services and readers are more likely to use their local business rather than Amazon. Also, the number of pages and space allotted for news articles directly relates to how much advertising is in that day’s paper. In turn, we can provide more content that readers want or need, our employees can afford to shop at a local business and so, the entire process is cyclical.
Our business doesn’t work without all of these people, businesses, community and employees – so many more than those I’ve just mentioned – working together.
We’ve got a small staff, but we spread ourselves pretty thin and will continue to do so.
Rumors of layoffs at the paper are unsubstantiated, but not really surprising. They are the predictable outcome of what occurs when a community guesses and relies on social media or the good old-fashioned grapevine for information.
That’s what the folks in Salinas are decrying right now – the complete and total loss of their local community voice, their newspaper. They rely on tweets and social media posts and, only now, seem to be coming to terms with that reality.
That city – the county seat of Monterey County, California – contains about 163,000 people, far more than the more than 74,000 in Putnam County, let alone the 10,500 in the county seat of Palatka. And yet, Putnam still has its own newspaper whereas Salinas does not.
You’ve got a local newspaper that you can hold accountable for accurate information. Do we sometimes get things wrong? Yeah, we do. But we tell you when that happens – and even if it was not our error, we take responsibility for it.
The time for the people of Salinas to rally support around their newspaper was way before the final reporter took their leave. That tells me that the time for Putnam County to rally for the PDN is today.
Newspapers are evolving with changing times and shifting dynamics, as all industries must. Nonprofit outfits and other types of media have had limited success in helping the evolution of new media, but those trials tend to base themselves in populous cities. I’m making an educated guess that ProPublica won’t be volunteering time to cover a Crescent City Commission meeting anytime soon, but we will.
As promised, here are some answers to other questions:
Q: Won’t there just be “old news” in the paper?
A: No.
I’ve been exchanging emails with one of our subscribers recently who was concerned and disheartened by the shift to three days a week.
Among her biggest concerns were that there would be, as she put it, “old news” in the paper, since there are several days between Saturday and Wednesday’s print editions.
Our reporters generally work a Monday through Friday workweek. That means that sometimes, news that happens on a weekend gets missed. But it also means, unlike many other newspapers, our reporters get some semblance of quality of life.
It’s important to us that our employees have time to wind down. Putting out a newspaper is stressful and here at the PDN, our reporters also need to juggle articles for our occasional magazines and special sections, like the recently published Splash magazine and Destination Putnam, or the upcoming Agricultural section and Explore magazine.
When a reporter here writes about a recent event, they’re looking for information that you haven’t already found elsewhere, so to me, “old news” is a funny term. It really depends on your perspective.
I’m a huge consumer of news of all types. To me, news becomes old about an hour after I’ve read it – whether I’ve read it on an online news site or in print. I consume a ton of news online. What stands out as news to me is information I have not received yet – regardless of whether or not the headline was similar to something I read elsewhere.
For instance, I may have read a story online that contained about three paragraphs about some criminal activity that occurred over the weekend. That news outlet rushed the few tidbits of info they had into a story – the who, what, when and where.
If I want to know more about the why and the how, well, the next article that contains that added information is also news to me. And I’m loyal to the outlet that can consistently provide me with the most comprehensive article. That is almost always a newspaper.
Old news is only old if you are not getting anything new out of it.
Q: Why did you choose Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday for your print days?
A: This was based partly on consistent advertising, as well as concern for our press staff.
The Palatka Daily News houses a newspaper press. If you’ve never seen it, it is truly a fascinating beast. The press takes up a good portion of our St. Johns Avenue building and, when it runs, you can feel the ground rumble. A lot of newspapers in the state of Florida and across the nation have dismantled their presses. We have not. Press Manager Keith Williams and his crew have kept it rumbling along. But they don’t just print the Daily News. They also print the Lake City Reporter for Columbia County, the Nassau County Record and the Fernandina Beach News-Leader.
Like a ballet, each publication, from their print deadlines to the insertion of advertisements and delivery, must be carefully choreographed. The days chosen were based in large part on this.
Plus, having a Saturday paper allows us to include local Friday night sports – and we really wanted to make sure our athletes are well represented.
Q: Why did you stop publishing the national sports T.V. schedule?
A: Because of our overarching guideline stated above: less of what one can find ubiquitously on the internet, more of what one cannot.
A longtime subscriber today asked this question, but seemed to be understanding when I told him that with the changes, we have decided to focus a little harder on the local stuff.
I appreciate his kindness and understanding greatly. I’ve also found that most folks we speak with about the shift have shared that understanding.
Q: What if I have more questions?
A: Bring ‘em on.
If you have more questions about the changes, or just generally want to understand better how this newspaper works, or how journalism has been impacted by our shifting times, reach out to us. Ask us your questions. Providing answers is what a community newspaper is all about.
In my view, the industry as a whole has been deficient in sharing the intricacies of our business. But we need to. Our collective communities depend on the health of their newspapers – their voice.
Casmira Harrison is the editor of the Palatka Daily News.
Reach out to her at charrison@palatkadailynews.com.