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As a former daily newspaper employee for 23 years, I left the nation’s 15th largest newspaper, in 1995, to learn and grow in another direction. After all that time I came to the realization that it just wasn't going to happen there. The culture that existed fought changes every step of the way. The egos were out of control and the editorial was winging it left off of the charts.
Based on the fact that the nation’s largest newspaper stocks are trading at an all time low, I would do what I can to salvage the brand and move forward with major changes before its too late. The way things are now, some major newspapers will be filing for bankruptcy in the near future.
So here is my Top 10 List of Things I Would Do If I Owned a Newspaper Today. This, of course, would have to be done after some careful planning to be sure the timing is right. If you own a newspaper or a group now and think nothing is going to happen to you, it's time to wake up.
1. As soon as my margins started heading South, I would go into reserve funds to pay off creditors to get current and file for reorganization. There are law firms to take care of those issues. The trick is to not bruise the brand within the community while you’re restructuring the whole business. Even if readers and advertisers agree or disagree, it's important for them to understand what you are doing and why.
2. I would notify employees thru town hall formatted meetings where employees can give feedback work through the emotions of the changes that are about to occur. Then, before the meetings end, it's important that a general overview of the changes that are about to take place are explained in simple terms and that they walk out of that room understanding that the whole organization is going to be effected. Painful in the short term, but very positive for the new organization in the long term. Your employees are an extension of you. You need their buy in to make this happen and to save your brand in the community.
3. On the same day as the filing, I would write a letter to readers on the front page that would be up front about how the world of newspapers are changing and as an owner we have to make changes that not only makes us more cost efficient while giving readers and advertisers more up to date, fair and balanced information about the world around us as well as the community we serve. That means that the print edition of the local newspaper will be phased out over time, (Nothing new here! It's already happening! We are just admitting it and are telling the world we are moving forward to get ahead of it) and that online and differently formatted printed pages will replace the traditional newspaper format for delivery.
4. Within the same day, I would notify advertisers with a phone call to set up a personal call....No letters! Personal Calls to let them know of the changes. Some will call when they start hearing rumors. Make sure everyone answers their phone with a 3 or 4 point bulleted explanation that will get them through the phone call with an appointment set to visit the advertiser with a truthful explanation of how they will benefit from the new relationship when you become their agency of record.
5. Begin the process of changing the format of the newspaper to more evenly match what will eventually be delivered online, via fax, cell phone, a printer hooked to cable television or even snail mail if it had to be.
6. Make your content more fair and balanced on the editorial side. This is one place where some journalists are probably going to have to leave. Editors of traditional newspapers will struggle. The days of influencing the community are over. Readers are smart people and are leaving now....Get over it! You are trying to organize and publish information that people value. Debating both sides of an issue in the same Information Distribution Network (IDN) is healthy. Then the reader can decide which opinion they value and interact with you by blogging & interacting on your site. You will learn more about your reader, which is valuable information for your advertisers.
7. Approach all of your competitors and ad agencies and make them partners. They are your new sales force to be integrated with yours. Ask to do business with them as the agency of record, with your current advertisers permission. Make sure you start with the advertisers that are not with your competitors now. The goal would be to move some of your competitor’s clients into your network through and vice versa to share revenue. If you have a history of beating up or bad mouthing your competitor in the old business model, this will be tough to overcome. Some trust has to be built and you will question whether you are crazy but you see, as a traditional newspaper, you were on your way out of business anyway. What you're trying to leverage is your strong brand into a new IDN. You will not cannibalize yourself by selling each other’s brand. In today’s world you will grow to where your brand takes you so continue focus on brand recognition in your marketplace.
You should have a group of strong sales people that you incent for integrating their sales skills with new partners. In the world of online and thinner margins, it doesn't make sense to have people falling over each other out there for the same dollar. Most programs can be set up using consultative selling models where everyone wins, including your customer. Again, all the parties will have to buy in. If they can't, they have to move on.
8. Start charging appropriately for how your information is delivered. Home delivery of a newspaper should cost much more than receiving it on the Internet. Over time, the circulation for the printed product will go down as the price goes up. (It is already!) Then it's time for you to have other options available for readers to access information. It could be online or for some of the older subscribers that don't access the Internet, buy them a scanner/printer that will automatically print color pages of information that they want in their home through the cable box. You can charge them for the hardware through their subscription of services like the cable company. The pages can have sponsors that are traditional advertisers.
9. Start taking the old company apart. If you are in a big building with presses, sell the presses and work out an agreement with the buyer to print your product. If you are a union newspaper, work the selling process out as a liquidation of assets in your filing. If you have a building and own it, lease to other companies. In the online world, most employees and stringers don't need to be centralized under a supervisors thumb. It may be appropriate to keep some groups together, but for the most part if you can have people work out of their homes or out where the readers and advertisers are, it will be more efficient. I know that's hard to buy into, but believe me it works.
10. You need to have strong leaders that will tell the truth, involve employees, achieve buy in, integrate new talent towards new goals and deal firmly with the ones who won't follow.
The list of 10 items above is pretty simplistic, but I view this laundry list as a starting point of a massive effort to make the transition to a new IDN with the same mission as in the past.
"Organizing Editorial and Advertising Information that Readers and Advertisers Value for Distribution in a Cost Effective Way."
