{"id":28763,"date":"2018-06-12T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T13:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=28763"},"modified":"2018-06-12T09:00:33","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T13:00:33","slug":"letter-from-the-editor-tough-times-in-the-media-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=28763","title":{"rendered":"Letter From The Editor: Tough times in the media world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Readers,<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I probably don\u2019t have to tell you what a challenging time it is for us in the small-time, local media.<\/span><\/p>\n

The old advertising model is broken, a new one hasn\u2019t really replaced it and readers like you increasingly don\u2019t want to have to pay for content.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s that vise that has seen our readership hold steady, yet revenue decline for three straight years.<\/span><\/p>\n

This past week, I had to let our staff know that we were cutting editorial expense in half \u2014 not something I wanted to do, but something driven by losing advertisers. I\u2019ll note these advertisers weren\u2019t picking on us \u2014 they were pulling out of all local media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the last few years, I\u2019ve had to cut back on coverage and content for these sites as revenue dropped \u2014 the bottom line is, well, the bottom line: if the money doesn\u2019t come in, it can\u2019t go out to pay writers and reporters. Forget about paying me \u2013 that\u2019s been off the table since last summer.<\/span><\/p>\n

If it was just us, I\u2019d say I\u2019m a lousy businessman (which is true to some extent \u2014 I\u2019m a journalist by training and experience, not a finance or sales whiz). But it\u2019s not just us. Everyone in this space is struggling.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two big issues have hamstrung those of us trying to make it in the digital domain: Google and Facebook.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two companies have about 80% of the digital ad marketing share \u2014 some say it\u2019s even higher \u2014 and have driven pricing down, arguably to corner the market and drive out competition. National Web ad networks that thrived a decade ago are either gone \u2014 or have been bought up by one of the two.<\/span><\/p>\n

Google hurts local publishers by offering targeted ads \u2014 which increasingly have become a privacy concern, and local search \u2014 if they decide to, they can severely cut page views by limiting how we search. They are also able to excerpt our content without any revenue sharing. Worse for local advertisers, your ads can appear anywhere \u2014 even on unseemly sites or \u201cfake news\u201d sites that continue to propagate, a number of which are funded and supported by hostile foreign governments. Let\u2019s not forget that those ads, even ones on wholesome sites, can be \u2014 and are \u2014 blocked by a lot of users; a couple of new Web browsers do it automatically. <\/span><\/p>\n

Our ads don\u2019t track readers \u2014 ever \u2014 and run 24\/7 and cannot be blocked. But most local businesses are too busy running their business to ever get down into the weeds of such things and find Google and Facebook the easiest solution, which I completely understand.<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook used to be a reasonable partner and helped spark much of our growth between 2010 and 2016. Then \u201cFake News\u201d happened and the company panicked. Unable \u2014 or unwilling \u2014 to employ enough people to help sort the good sites \u2014 local news sites reporting on new paving projects or new education plans in our local schools \u2014 from the bad sites, those spreading false rumors about dark conspiracies \u2014 they basically just shut everyone down from non-major media outlets. Think about what you see \u2014 and don’t see \u2014\u00a0 in your newsfeed these days.<\/span><\/p>\n

On a major news story, we used to be able to get nearly 10,000 Facebook views and shares \u2014 and the resulting page view boost (not to mention first time readers who came and saw a useful site and kept coming back). Now, we\u2019re lucky to get a few hundred.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s the world we live in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Understand, I\u2019m not whining or complaining \u2014 I chose to do this. But I did want you, the readers, to understand why in the future I might choose not to do this any longer. <\/span><\/p>\n

With my kids growing up \u2014 they start their senior year in high school this fall \u2014 I\u2019m contemplating returning to writing for wider audiences (maybe back in the consumer tech area, maybe not) about subjects that could require far-flung and frequent travel. Additionally, we have a nicely growing real estate rental\/marketing business on the Texas coast. Plus, like every other writer I know, I have a novel in the works \u2014 not surprisingly set in a certain county in southeast Pennsylvania.<\/span><\/p>\n

That means I need to see if The Times<\/em>, as currently published, makes sense for me any more. <\/span><\/p>\n

With revenue dropping and coverage being shrunk, I\u2019m not happy with the product we\u2019re able to put out, nor the amount of time spent and grief it generates. Increasingly, it is getting all but impossible to find people willing to sit through three-hour public meetings and generate stories for what I can afford to pay \u2014 and I don\u2019t blame them, having done so myself for many years. It is a thankless, often tedious job.<\/span><\/p>\n

Going forward, I see three options as of January, 2019, starting with the least likely:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. If there is a spike in revenue, we will restore coverage and continue on.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    2.\u00a0 <\/span>The Times converts to a \u201cshopper\u201d style, running only submitted content, columns and such, maintained by a minimal amount of advertising. No hard news, no crime, no politics, but no controversy, nothing edgy.<\/span><\/p>\n

    3.\u00a0 <\/span>We cover the heck out of local news, the 2018 election and high school football throughout this fall, offer a toast to the future and our great readers and head off into the sunset on Jan. 1, 2019, either by closure or sale of assets.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I don\u2019t do this to threaten \u2014 that would be both foolish and disrespectful \u2014 but just to share my thinking. As folks who have supported this site for nearly eight years, I think you deserve to know what the future holds.<\/span><\/p>\n

    As for this summer \u2014 we\u2019re cooling it (many of you are away, anyhow) and easing off local news and politics (I think all of us could use a break on the latter until Labor Day).<\/span><\/p>\n

    Also, I think this needs to be part of a bigger conversation. Even if we don\u2019t survive, it is crucial for local media to exist. Without independent coverage, you allow local governments and school districts to spin whatever story they wish to tell, with no check on their actions. Without a media watchdog, you will see local, school and county taxes rise \u2014 when no one watches the fox in the henhouse, you know what happens.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Maybe it is fashionable to beat up on the media right now. And while I understand the temptation \u2014 parts of the national media certainly warrants some degree of scorn \u2014 most local media are dedicated, underpaid, overworked people who keep doing it because of a deep desire to inform and educate their fellow citizens. <\/span><\/p>\n

    It is a calling, one that the fewer and fewer are willing to embrace.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Without a way to support those dedicated individuals, we will live in a poorer, less informed world. Your suggestions and ideas on how to help will be appreciated.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Thanks for your support and readership,<\/p>\n

    Mike<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Dear Readers, I probably don\u2019t have to tell you what a challenging time it is for us in the small-time, local media. The old advertising model is broken, a new one hasn\u2019t really replaced it and readers like you increasingly don\u2019t want to have to pay for content. It\u2019s that vise that has seen our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10337,302,6518,3066,203,3986,9697],"class_list":["post-28763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-ads","tag-facebook","tag-featured","tag-google","tag-media","tag-revenue","tag-the-future"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28764,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28763\/revisions\/28764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}