In addition to their story on the Post’s circulation issues, the current edition of American Journalism Review has an article about the explosion of mini-papers across the journalistic landscape:
Gone are the days when the assumption was that nonreaders would automatically start subscribing to a broadsheet around the time they started taking property taxes and schools more seriously than Billboard’s Top 100. Instead, an increasing number of papers are spinning versions of the news into bright, tight little packages doled out at subway stations and convenience stores, where thousands pick them up and consume them by commute’s end.
The article mentions some of the bigger players — Metro, RedEye, Express, and so on — and describes how they’re reaching advertisers that wouldn’t necessarily have bought space in larger papers, while carving out their own unique niche in content and tone. Some are even making money, or at least close to it.
“We didn’t budget a profit for several years, but we will probably, based on the current trend, get there a lot sooner than we anticipated,” predicts Arnie Applebaum, general manager of the Post’s Express, which does not release specific budget figures. “I’m not going to say that that means this year, but it will likely be a lot sooner than we thought. Revenues are significantly higher than budgeted as well, and we’ve brought in many hundreds of new advertisers that had not been previously with the Washington Post or washingtonpost.com.”
Good news for me!
Of course, not everybody is a fan. Arguments are made that these papers are contributing the the general erosion of hard news in traditional broadsheet papers, and that they’re more advertiser-driven than content-driven. And, of course, the real goal, bringing in new readers to offset the dropping circulation figures throughout the industry, remains a significant challenge. Not all of the papers are succeeding in this area. Still, there’s hope, says Express’s editor:
none[Dan] Caccavaro notes he’s hearing from readers who eschew making a choice in favor of reading both Post publications, using Express as a quick hit for the morning and then delving into the longer, more substantive Post stories in the evenings. “If there’s any risk that a free commuter paper is going to put the Post out of business, that would be a problem,” Caccavaro says of the mini-dailies’ rise. “These papers have found a place within the news industry where they can fit comfortably.”