Walt Potter - The Potter Listening Tour, Parts I & II
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Walt Potter, retired community newspaper publisher, reported on two listening tours he took in the last year, discussing the new technology challenges that all community newspapers face as well as how different audiences may or may not require different responses. at the Walter B. Potter Sr. Conference held at the Reynolds Journalism Institute April 14-15, 2016. More information about the event: https://www.rjionline.org/events/potter16
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Walt Potter - The Potter Listening Tour, Parts I & II
- 1. This is the title of my presentation “Tales from the Potter Listening Tours” Or How an aging ex-newspaper publisher came to be driving around rural Missouri in the Spring of 2015 — and then came back for more the following year.
- 2. ⋙This is the main point about the photo above. The Walter B. Potter Sr. Conferences ⋙ First conference in 2011 proved need. ⋙ Subsequent conferences got good feedback but… ⋙ We wanted to get better.
- 3. ⋙ If we want to know what community publishers want, why not ask them? ⋙ See how papers are dealing with digital on the ground. ⋙ Randy Picht & RJI, Doug Crews & MPA gave essential support. We share a name, but goals of our tours are different from Hillary’s
- 4. ⋙ Papers began in the 19th century ⋙ Ownership multigenerational ⋙ Whole family involved. PLT 1.0 papers are classics — much like the ones depicted in Rockwell paintings 70 years ago
- 5. ⋙”Brad never says, ’We can't do that because we're a small paper.’ ” Editor Jeff McNiell ⋙“If people hear sirens, they expect us to have the story.” ⋙ Publisher Brad Gentry, Heading of a Text Page Houston Herald Houston, Mo.
- 6. ⋙ Five generations in the business ⋙ Disagree on what to do about the future. ⋙ Agree we should not give our content away! The Odessan Odessa, Mo.
- 7. ⋙ Applies technology to both print and digital ⋙ Print or be printed. ⋙ Push into all digital formats. ”If we don’t do it, somebody else will.” – Ad Director Jeanine York ⋙ In house advocates for Internet & social media help those products grow faster than print. Missourian Washington, Mo.
- 8. ⋙ Fearless Focus on Local News Defends Against Future Foes ⋙ Do not upgrade without a good reason. ⋙ FaceBook scoops us?! Unterrified Democrat Linn, Mo.
- 9. ⋙ Rumors of our demise are exaggerated. ⋙ Again, local focus is advantage “Our city cousins do not share.” — Publisher Dennis Warden ⋙ Twitter disappoints. Gasconade Republican Owensville, Mo.
- 10. ⋙ Printing for Pay News for Love. ⋙ Do it yourself digital exploration ⋙ Print and digital work together to capture classified. North Missourian Gallatin, Mo.
- 11. ⋙ Broadcast background makes this newspaper publisher platform agnostic ⋙ Developed own ISP ⋙ Daily Record reaches out to youth. ⋙ Don’t forget our duty to provide accurate , vetted content for our community. Lebanon Daily Record Lebanon, Mo.
- 12. ⋙ Parent company has 49 papers and invests in 17 radio stations. ⋙ Uses these resources to develop cornucopia of new revenue sources in both print and digital ⋙ Fiercely defends relationships with readers and advertisers: ∙— Digital offerings range from web site to Pinterest ∙— rustmedia is stand-alone ad agency to support customers’ digital advertising. Southeast Missourian Cape Girardeau, Mo.
- 13. ⋙ GOAL: Test what I found in the Norman Rockwell Missouri papers I toured last year ⋙ Do papers in other parts of the country have different problems? ⋙ Are the challenges of Hispanic or African American readers different? If so, how? Potter Listening Tour 2.0
- 14. ⋙ Trust is key to serving Hispanic Readers, many of whom, for example, avoid coupon ads. ⋙ Intense focus on local news again is defense against digital competition ⋙ Technology helps keep paper in tune with readers’ thriftiness. Nuevas Raices Harrisonburg, Va.
- 15. ⋙ Paper I grew up on changed little in 100 years, then boom! Challenge is to serve 1,000s of new citizens in traditional Southern community. ⋙ News on their mobile devices is what these new folks want as they commute to D.C. ⋙ Warren Buffett’s influence is apparent. Star-Exponent Culpeper, Va.
- 16. ⋙Competition is coming. Local citizens scoop us by posting to social media. ⋙ Despite revenue challenges, my hosts fiercely defend their relationships with readers and advertisers. ⋙Publishers trust their gut on local digital use, but worry about what their kids are doing. ⋙Tour stops have had web pages many years. Social media added more recently. ⋙Digital revenue may grow fast, but still often just add on. ⋙Print is the backbone. What I heard on the Tours: ⋙Many have pay walls, but I sense disappointment. ⋙Readers resent loss of freebies.
- 17. ⋙Time efficient ways to improve, e.g. way to keep up with what other papers are doing that works. ⋙Fix the business model. ⋙(Task for Mizzou?) ⋙Audience research that fits smaller markets and their pocketbooks. ⋙Employees and/or consultants to advocate the change to digital publishing. ⋙Turnkey solutions to specific new media problems, e.g. inexpensive quality video What my hosts want:
- 18. This is the title of my presentation http://rjionline.org/potterlisteningtour Like “Potter Conferences” on FaceBook Follow the Tour at #potterlisten
Editor's Notes
- • GOOD AFTERNOON — And — THANKS for coming. • I’m WALT POTTER — And — I want to tell you about a series of great ROAD TRIPS I had last year and am continuing this year. • The tours came DECADES after I was a COLLEGE STUDENT when, perhaps, such EXCURSIONS would have been EASIER for me to ENDURE than starting in the same year I enrolled in MEDICARE.
- • First Potter Conference showed Community Newspapers’ desire for help in dealing with Internet was there. • Subsequent conferences at state press associations and here at RJI reinforced that conviction. • But we wanted to get better, especially to have a clearer and more detailed idea of the challenges community journalists are facing and what help they want from the Potter Fund and RJI.
- • The guiding thought behind the tours was simple: “ If we want to know what community publishers want, WHY NOT ASK THEM” • Also, it had been a couple of decades since I’d been in a small town newsroom. I wanted to see what was HAPPENING ON THE SCENE. • Randy Picht and the folks at RJI offered their full support. / DOUG CREWS was essential in choosing the Missouri papers and securing invitations to visit them. • Since it sounded like Hilliary’s 1999 listening tour when she ran for Senate in NY, called it “the listening tour” and the name stuck.
- • Last Spring visited eight papers in Missouri • Folks much like the ones immortalized in NORMAN ROCKWELL paintings of the MONROE COUNTY APPEAL created 70 years ago next month. • Papers are family affairs: — date to prior century — same family owning — much of that family working on it.
- • Publisher Brad Gentry and his team aren’t shy about dedicating resources to digital innovation — newspaper tech nerds - at their 4,000-circulation weekly. But with only eight employees to serve 25,000-plus souls in Texas County, they’re spread thin. • Speaking of time constraints, I was particularly struck by their almost-broadcast approach to breaking news. MOTTO: “All the news All the Time.” They text and tweet moment-to-moment. EXAMPLE: Baseball Game. • I experienced for myself the culture change tweeting, etc. creates. - creating my own words almost simultaneous with recording my subject’s words. • Print owns features./ infinite news hole of Internet gets all the extra picture. • Developed nice social media audience, but wanted to drive it back to web site where they could count this audience for their advertisers.
- • Most generations of all my Tour Host. Grandmother Betty, owner of 3,500-circulation weekly in the Kansas City exurbia, slept on newsprint while her printer father worked. Her grandfather worked for Walter Williams. • Behind her are co-publisher sons, John ad manager, and Joe the production manager, and Joe’s wife Renee, office manager. Standing next to that big guy is Granddaughter Hannah, a 2013 Mizzou grad and news manager. • The generations debate the usefulness of new technology. Hannah wants to tweet when readers can pick up paper, but Joe proudly refuses to get a cell phone. Apple Watch. • Agree they shouldn’t give content away. Their web site only provides the first few paragraphs of each story and refers them back to print. • Betty brought all three members of the next generation to the initial Potter Conference. “We’ve got to keep up.”
- That’s Bill Miller Sr. doing a press check • Twice weekly on the Missouri River in St. Louis exurbia applies BEST OF BOTH WORLDS approach to using TECHNOLOGY. • Print or be printed — moving into areas other printers have left. • HEAVILY COMPUTERIZED presses build ability to compete on print. • On Internet side, pushed into nearly every new digital communication method — from a website to Twitter to Pinterest. • Combining digital and print audiences has helped the Missourian in print and digital reach 92 PERCENT of their market, which includes more than 100,000 souls in Franklin County, according to RJI survey.
- • That’s Publisher Jerrilyn S. Voss (seated) and Editor Neal A. Johnson • Two telephones on her desk - one rotary dial and one touchtone. Voss, in her late 60s, sees no reason to replace technology that’s working perfectly well until she needs to. • No surprise only Tour paper no Internet presence at all. • Focus on local news — “We cover what none of the other papers do” — the U.D. "saturates Osage County's 4,600 households." • BUT she first heard of a recent serious motorcycle accident from one of her own employees who had seen news of it in a Facebook post.
- • An advertiser recently asked Gasconade County Republican Publisher Dennis Warden (Shown above) how he was doing. The inquirer’s tone indicated, “He thought newspapers aren’t too long for this world,” Warden recalled. • We prosper by focusing on only local news of the less than 16,000 residents in Gasconade County. • As many of tour stops do, Town News web site. Makes a small but welcome profit on business directory type ads. • Do social media, because “If we don’t, somebody else will.” • Fourth generation Jacob, 25, digital specialist, disappointed in Twitter. 93 including dozen from cheerleading squad.
- • Darryl Wilkinson, latest MPA Hall of Fame guy, and wife Liz talk to me. • “It’s my farm,” says the publisher of The North Missourian, a 1,400-paid-circulation weekly they have run for more than three decades in Gallatin. • Early found out needed more than 8,300-population Daviess County could offer. Had to take a second job. Started tinkering with the web with a RadioShack buddy. • Result was GPCInk that distributes a web/print product for advertisers throughout northern Missouri and southern Iowa. Realtors can upload their listings to the Wilkinsons’ website, then choose which listings go into one or more targeted monthly free-distribution print products. • “To make money, we have to control the data,” and that works for advertising, observes Wilkinson, “but we don’t control the news online.” • FaceBook competition here in the form the GALLATIN GRAPEVINE.
- • Dalton Wright’s FAMILY was in RADIO in western MO. until Dad bought papers in Lebanon in the early 1950s, seeing COMBO as “MORE LETHAL“. • Then expanded from Daily Record — first daily on tour — to acquire a GROUP of BOTH papers & radio stations.. • OWNED own ISP for a while, training newspaper readers on dial up modems. • EFFORT to reach YOUTH - Conway Chronicles. Students do the writing for double truck on Tuesdays. • While never “GAVE A DAMN“ which platform carried content, very concerned about quality of content. “I do believe newspapers are the best model for vetted content where facts are checked, where we get it right. I think we’ll have a hard time doing that on radio or in a tweet.”
- • Use resources to offer CORNUCOPIA print products (shoppers to full-fledged books), digital offerings (niche websites to social media), and events. • On news side — web site to pinterest, but Rust adds LARGER papers CAN’T DUPLICATE our content. • On ad side: RUSTMEDIA - Guide advertisers on to digital. • EVENTS - SEMOBALL AWARDS semoball.com, draws sports content from five Rust Communications daily papers in Southeastern Missouri • YOUTH PUSH: partnership with SEMO to manage and publish students’ print and online efforts. Develop TALENT.
- • This year our aim is to build on the findings of PLT 1.0 • The thesis is that the first tour gave us a base line, where your classic community newspaper is at as digital competition approaches its town. • However, the papers of PLT 1.0 served audiences that uniformly were agricultural, Midwestern, and 95 percent or more white. • What happens if you change where that audience is located? • What are the challenges of serving Hispanics or African American audiencess in the digital age?
- • Nuevas Raices — means “New Roots” — has been around for 15 years. Founded in Harrisonburg in the northern Valley of Virginia where poultry plants draw Hispanic workers. • Latino entrepreneur had idea to seek out Latinos where they gather — markets, grocery stores, even churches — not just in Harrisonburg but in small cities and town across Virginia. • Latino audiences ARE different. — Lots of employment ads — Don’t’ trust institutions/only one coupon ad • Keeps costs low as his readers “make only 2-3 dollars an hour.” Has no physical location for his office. See coffee shop above. • All content is submitted elctronically. • Fernando also worried about digital competition, but intensely focuses on local news. Is zoning his papers.
- • Culpeper is like two communities now. — Norman Rockwell in town and bedroom community in the county, especially to the north nearer D.C.— that have different needs. • Traditional community likes print and wants nothing but local news. • Commuters not only have wider interests, but are very mobile (half of online content is via mobile). • Warren Buffett principles: — Focus on local news — “Sensible Internet Strategy” — Don’t give digital away (15 page views a month and then need to subscribe) • Still value in print. Bought state-of-art printing facility in nearby Fredericksburg to purse a strategy not unlike the Millers’ in Washington, Mo.