Some grim thoughts about who reads community newspapers like the ones I write for
I am spending the next 1.5 days in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, with my mom. My mom's friend natasha-kob has been playing host and showing us around. Quite how I got there and how this whole thing came about deserves a separate post (though those of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook may at least have a general idea). But what I do want to write about is how, when we arrived late into the night, I notice that our hosts had a newspaper that, at a casual glance, seemed like a local free weekly community newspaper similar to Niles Bugle.
The newspaper in question
And it kind of was. It is a weekly newspaper that's part of a large Metroland Media newspaper chain, which is owned by Torstar, the company best known as the owners of Toronto Star, one of Canada's biggest newspapers. It had more advertising than a lot of free community weeklies in Chicago area - both in terms of inserts and what's on the actual pages. It had some decent community coverage and more columns that you could count on two hands (including columns by local officials from all levels of government). There were two reporters listed on staff (though I have no way of knowing whether they split their time between Kanata Kourier-Standard and other Metroland newspapers). Not a bad product, all things considering.
When I asked our host about it, she seemed almost surprised tat the paper was even there.
"Oh, we haven't read it in years," she said. "It's just something that gets delivered by kids. Sometimes, we pick up inserts and coupons."
(I'm kind of paraphrasing, but that's the basic gist of it)
She did mentioned that, two decades ago, they put up an ad for a babysitter, and it got results, so at least it was good for that.
Thing is... It's one of those situations where I wonder whether anybody actually reads what I write. I know there are community newspapers that definitely get read - Park Ridge Herald-Advocate, Oak Park's Wednesday Journal, Evanston Roundtable. I know my Niles Bugle article about Niles library taking money from the Friends of the Niles Library got some traction, but that's about it. Every once in a while, an article in Austin Weekly News gets some traction online, and I sometimes see people reading the paper, but when I see West Siders read any paper, it's usually our competitor, Austin Voice. I have no idea whether anyone reads the Chicago Gazette. With Cook County Chronicle, sometimes, stuff gets traction, but most people don't know the newspaper even exists.
I can't tell you how many times I've attended meetings and hear people complaining about how they didn't hear about such-and-such thing, and I want to scream "Well, if you've read an article I wrote so-and-so weeks ago, you'd know about it."
I don't want to blame the readers. Niles Bugle is less than a shadow - it's a wisp of its former self. At least back when I was on staff, I felt like it had some substance, in terms of content and scope, but it's been cut back so badly that it can barely cover Niles, let alone the nearby suburbs it's also, in theory, supposed to be covering. The big issue with Cook County Chronicle is that, again, there's zero brand awareness. DNAinfo has more of a brand awareness and it hasn't been around that much longer.
But there is also Austin Weekly News, which people do know about, which, in spite of the cuts, still has heft and substance. I take pride in the fact that we cover the West Side of Chicago, catching details literally no one else, print or digital, does. But when I talk to people living in Austin, they usually talk about reading Austin Voice - which, admittedly, has some nice pictures and interesting columns, but which doesn't do the kind of investigative reporting we do. Or much of any kind of reporting period.
Kanata Kourier-Standard reporters obviously put some effort into it. But I suspect that, out of all the households that get the paper, a pretty good chunk of them treat it the same way as our hosts do. And thinking about it is, well, kind of disheartening.
The newspaper in question
And it kind of was. It is a weekly newspaper that's part of a large Metroland Media newspaper chain, which is owned by Torstar, the company best known as the owners of Toronto Star, one of Canada's biggest newspapers. It had more advertising than a lot of free community weeklies in Chicago area - both in terms of inserts and what's on the actual pages. It had some decent community coverage and more columns that you could count on two hands (including columns by local officials from all levels of government). There were two reporters listed on staff (though I have no way of knowing whether they split their time between Kanata Kourier-Standard and other Metroland newspapers). Not a bad product, all things considering.
When I asked our host about it, she seemed almost surprised tat the paper was even there.
"Oh, we haven't read it in years," she said. "It's just something that gets delivered by kids. Sometimes, we pick up inserts and coupons."
(I'm kind of paraphrasing, but that's the basic gist of it)
She did mentioned that, two decades ago, they put up an ad for a babysitter, and it got results, so at least it was good for that.
Thing is... It's one of those situations where I wonder whether anybody actually reads what I write. I know there are community newspapers that definitely get read - Park Ridge Herald-Advocate, Oak Park's Wednesday Journal, Evanston Roundtable. I know my Niles Bugle article about Niles library taking money from the Friends of the Niles Library got some traction, but that's about it. Every once in a while, an article in Austin Weekly News gets some traction online, and I sometimes see people reading the paper, but when I see West Siders read any paper, it's usually our competitor, Austin Voice. I have no idea whether anyone reads the Chicago Gazette. With Cook County Chronicle, sometimes, stuff gets traction, but most people don't know the newspaper even exists.
I can't tell you how many times I've attended meetings and hear people complaining about how they didn't hear about such-and-such thing, and I want to scream "Well, if you've read an article I wrote so-and-so weeks ago, you'd know about it."
I don't want to blame the readers. Niles Bugle is less than a shadow - it's a wisp of its former self. At least back when I was on staff, I felt like it had some substance, in terms of content and scope, but it's been cut back so badly that it can barely cover Niles, let alone the nearby suburbs it's also, in theory, supposed to be covering. The big issue with Cook County Chronicle is that, again, there's zero brand awareness. DNAinfo has more of a brand awareness and it hasn't been around that much longer.
But there is also Austin Weekly News, which people do know about, which, in spite of the cuts, still has heft and substance. I take pride in the fact that we cover the West Side of Chicago, catching details literally no one else, print or digital, does. But when I talk to people living in Austin, they usually talk about reading Austin Voice - which, admittedly, has some nice pictures and interesting columns, but which doesn't do the kind of investigative reporting we do. Or much of any kind of reporting period.
Kanata Kourier-Standard reporters obviously put some effort into it. But I suspect that, out of all the households that get the paper, a pretty good chunk of them treat it the same way as our hosts do. And thinking about it is, well, kind of disheartening.