Freelancing for Pioneer Press - Researching the competition
As most of my regular readers know by now, about three weeks ago, I got a more-or-less regular freelance writing gig with Pioneer Press, the chain of weekly suburban newspapers owned by Sun-Times Media (Chicagoland's second-largest newspaper publisher). My old editor at Chicago Journal got a gig with the company mere days after the paper closed, so the possibility that I would get this gig was there for a while. It just took a few weeks to come together.
My former editor edits five out 32 Pioneer Press newspapers - Skokie Review, Lincolnwood Review, Niles Herald-Spectator, Morton Grove Champion and Park Ridge Herald-Advocate. As soon as I found out what newspapers he would be editing (there was some confusion (and, I suspect, last-minute reshuffling) about it at first), I started looking into their competition.
Why? Mostly because I'm plain curious. I like to know what sort of publications I'd be up against. And, in my opinion, it never hurts to keep an eye on what they're doing. People read them for a reason - why not try to learn from what they're doing right and watch out for things they are doing wrong. And, every once in a while, it's even a way to get story leads - tangents that went unexplored, factoids that could lead to another story altogether, event announcements that could be expanded into articles, etc.
Now, Pioneer Press is in a pretty interesting position in Chicago media world. For much of its history, it was the indisputable big kahuna of suburban media. It has the reach (over 50 newspapers) and decades of experience and community presence to fall back on. In the 1980s and 1990s, it bought several other newspaper chains, which further cemented its position. Most media companies preferred to expand to areas where Pioneer Press didn't have much of a reach rather then try to compete with it directly.
But that has changed over the last ten years or so. Part of it was the decline in print advertising revenue that has affected all newspapers in North America. Part of it had to do with financial problems in Sun-Times Media at large. In effort to save money, Pioneer Press closed a number of newspapers and consolidated others. The Sun-Times Media's bankruptcy only compounded the situation. By 2009, Pioneer Press lost nearly half of its newspapers, and the ones that were left had to make due with less resources and smaller staff.
As the result, for the first time in memory, Pioneer Press faced serious competition on multiple fronts. Including the territory where I'm now freelancing.
First and foremost, there is Niles Bugle. Aside from the Village of Niles, the paper covers Morton Grove and Park Ridge, making it competition to Niles Herald-Spectator, Morton Grove Champion and Park Ridge Herald-Advocate. The paper has actually been around since the 1950s, but ever since it was acquired by Voyager Media Group in 2003, it has been expanding, adding five more newspapers in other parts of Chicagoland and increasing circulation.
That last part is especially important. When I was looking for places to buy a physical copy of Niles Herald-Spectator two weeks ago, one thing that really struck me was that you could find Niles Bugle everywhere. In grocery stores. Liquor stores. Fast food restaurants. Libraries. I found copies of Niles Herald-Spectator at Walgreens, a Jewel-Osco... and that's it. Later, I discovered that Sun-Times maintains a directory of newspaper vendor locations, and I realized that there were others...
But here's the thing. If you want to get a copy of Niles Bugle, you don't have to look hard. Whether you're in Niles, Morton Grove or Park Ridge, you won't have to go far to find them. And if you were a customer, which newspaper you would rather pick up - the one that's readily available anywhere or the one where you have to work to find a copy?
Now, one may argue that's not an entirely fair comparison. Niles Bugle is a free newspaper, while Pioneer Press newspapers cost $1.00 each. One an also argue Pioneer Press papers have Bugle beat in terms of content - they are physically bigger, and they have several times as many articles per issue. Pioneer papers have larger sections and longer listings. And, as my former Chicago Journal editor would point out, having your newspapers everywhere isn't an advantage of nobody picks them up.
Which brings me to point #2. From what I have been able to observe, having larger circulation paid off, big time. One thing I noticed over the last three weeks is that, when people said I was a reporter, they tended to assume I was with Bugle. Niles government officials tended to assume I was from the Bugle. On two separate occasions, I had to explain to them what Pioneer Press was and what Niles Herald-Spectator was.
From a public recognition perspective, this doesn't bode well for Pioneer Press. At all.
And that's not the only competition my editor's newspapers have to face. There is also the Des Plaines based Journal & Topics newspaper chain. An outgrowth of Des Plaines' only surviving newspaper, it arguably benefited the most from Pioneer Press' financial troubles. It aggressively expanded into suburbs Pioneer Press abandoned, adding editions in Arlington Heights, Palatine, Elk Grove, etc. It also added editions in Niles and Park Ridge, putting it in competition with Herald-Spectator and Herald-Advocate.
Now, Journal & Topics newspapers have a lot more in common with their Pioneer Press counterparts. They also cost $1.00, and they are sold in similar locations. They are physically smaller and have fewer articles. And - and here is an important distinction - there is a lot more overlap between editions. In many cases, Niles and Park Ridge editions are nearly identical in terms of content. The only real difference is placement of the articles. For example, in Niles edition, Niles-related articles get priority, while in Park Ridge get pushed further back. And chances are pretty good that any given issue would have articles from Des Plaines.
Pioneer Press is no stranger to articles shared between multiple newspapers. But, from what I've seen, they make more of an effort to make sure that most of news and business pieces, at least, actually fit the areas they are covering.
The larger overlap isn't unique to Park Ridge and Niles editions. But in other areas, it matters less. In Palatine, for example, they have no competition. But in Niles... if you have a choice between two newspapers that cost the same, but one offers more content that's actually relevant to your area, which one would you choose?
(Journal & Topics newspapers do have one thing over Pioneer Press. Over the last two or so years, the publisher has been sponsoring several local election debates, putting its name out there in front of hundreds of voters. I'm not sure whether or not the strategy paid off, but as far as increasing brand awareness, it is, at the very least, a worthwhile idea. When was the last time Pioneer Press put its name on a community event?)
Finally, there are Nadig Newspapers. This Jefferson Park based company publishes two newspapers - the Northwest Side Press and Reporter/Journal. Officially, the former covers most of Chicago's Northwest Side, while the later covers the some of the more far-flung Northwest Side neighborhoods, as well as Skokie, Niles and Lincolnwood. In theory, that would put it in competition with Skokie Review, Niles Herald-Spectator and LIncolnwood Review. But in reality, both papers tend to devote majority of their space to Chicago city limits, occasionally touching on the suburbs.
Nadig Newspapers are pretty good at what they do. Their staff is small, but they are talented. When it comes to Northwest Side issues, no other news source comes close. But when it comes to suburban coverage... all of the other news sources do it more consistently. And I should point out that Reporter/Journal is, according to Nadig Newspapers' official statements, is healthily dependent on subscribers. While that is not a bad thing on the short run, It doesn't help to increase broader awareness any.
I will give them one thing, though - because Northwest Side Press and Journal/Reporter have physically larger pages than any of their competition, they are better source for longer, more in-depth investigative-type articles. I understand why Pioneer Press doesn't have much room - format limitations, the fact that majority of most pages has to be reserved for advertising - but it's still something worth emulating.
So, overall, the only newspaper that presents any serious competition to my editor's newspaper group is Niles Bugle. In terms of brand recognition, its running miles ahead of its Pioneer Press competitors. If I were one of Sun-Times Media higher-ups, I would be concerned.
My former editor edits five out 32 Pioneer Press newspapers - Skokie Review, Lincolnwood Review, Niles Herald-Spectator, Morton Grove Champion and Park Ridge Herald-Advocate. As soon as I found out what newspapers he would be editing (there was some confusion (and, I suspect, last-minute reshuffling) about it at first), I started looking into their competition.
Why? Mostly because I'm plain curious. I like to know what sort of publications I'd be up against. And, in my opinion, it never hurts to keep an eye on what they're doing. People read them for a reason - why not try to learn from what they're doing right and watch out for things they are doing wrong. And, every once in a while, it's even a way to get story leads - tangents that went unexplored, factoids that could lead to another story altogether, event announcements that could be expanded into articles, etc.
Now, Pioneer Press is in a pretty interesting position in Chicago media world. For much of its history, it was the indisputable big kahuna of suburban media. It has the reach (over 50 newspapers) and decades of experience and community presence to fall back on. In the 1980s and 1990s, it bought several other newspaper chains, which further cemented its position. Most media companies preferred to expand to areas where Pioneer Press didn't have much of a reach rather then try to compete with it directly.
But that has changed over the last ten years or so. Part of it was the decline in print advertising revenue that has affected all newspapers in North America. Part of it had to do with financial problems in Sun-Times Media at large. In effort to save money, Pioneer Press closed a number of newspapers and consolidated others. The Sun-Times Media's bankruptcy only compounded the situation. By 2009, Pioneer Press lost nearly half of its newspapers, and the ones that were left had to make due with less resources and smaller staff.
As the result, for the first time in memory, Pioneer Press faced serious competition on multiple fronts. Including the territory where I'm now freelancing.
First and foremost, there is Niles Bugle. Aside from the Village of Niles, the paper covers Morton Grove and Park Ridge, making it competition to Niles Herald-Spectator, Morton Grove Champion and Park Ridge Herald-Advocate. The paper has actually been around since the 1950s, but ever since it was acquired by Voyager Media Group in 2003, it has been expanding, adding five more newspapers in other parts of Chicagoland and increasing circulation.
That last part is especially important. When I was looking for places to buy a physical copy of Niles Herald-Spectator two weeks ago, one thing that really struck me was that you could find Niles Bugle everywhere. In grocery stores. Liquor stores. Fast food restaurants. Libraries. I found copies of Niles Herald-Spectator at Walgreens, a Jewel-Osco... and that's it. Later, I discovered that Sun-Times maintains a directory of newspaper vendor locations, and I realized that there were others...
But here's the thing. If you want to get a copy of Niles Bugle, you don't have to look hard. Whether you're in Niles, Morton Grove or Park Ridge, you won't have to go far to find them. And if you were a customer, which newspaper you would rather pick up - the one that's readily available anywhere or the one where you have to work to find a copy?
Now, one may argue that's not an entirely fair comparison. Niles Bugle is a free newspaper, while Pioneer Press newspapers cost $1.00 each. One an also argue Pioneer Press papers have Bugle beat in terms of content - they are physically bigger, and they have several times as many articles per issue. Pioneer papers have larger sections and longer listings. And, as my former Chicago Journal editor would point out, having your newspapers everywhere isn't an advantage of nobody picks them up.
Which brings me to point #2. From what I have been able to observe, having larger circulation paid off, big time. One thing I noticed over the last three weeks is that, when people said I was a reporter, they tended to assume I was with Bugle. Niles government officials tended to assume I was from the Bugle. On two separate occasions, I had to explain to them what Pioneer Press was and what Niles Herald-Spectator was.
From a public recognition perspective, this doesn't bode well for Pioneer Press. At all.
And that's not the only competition my editor's newspapers have to face. There is also the Des Plaines based Journal & Topics newspaper chain. An outgrowth of Des Plaines' only surviving newspaper, it arguably benefited the most from Pioneer Press' financial troubles. It aggressively expanded into suburbs Pioneer Press abandoned, adding editions in Arlington Heights, Palatine, Elk Grove, etc. It also added editions in Niles and Park Ridge, putting it in competition with Herald-Spectator and Herald-Advocate.
Now, Journal & Topics newspapers have a lot more in common with their Pioneer Press counterparts. They also cost $1.00, and they are sold in similar locations. They are physically smaller and have fewer articles. And - and here is an important distinction - there is a lot more overlap between editions. In many cases, Niles and Park Ridge editions are nearly identical in terms of content. The only real difference is placement of the articles. For example, in Niles edition, Niles-related articles get priority, while in Park Ridge get pushed further back. And chances are pretty good that any given issue would have articles from Des Plaines.
Pioneer Press is no stranger to articles shared between multiple newspapers. But, from what I've seen, they make more of an effort to make sure that most of news and business pieces, at least, actually fit the areas they are covering.
The larger overlap isn't unique to Park Ridge and Niles editions. But in other areas, it matters less. In Palatine, for example, they have no competition. But in Niles... if you have a choice between two newspapers that cost the same, but one offers more content that's actually relevant to your area, which one would you choose?
(Journal & Topics newspapers do have one thing over Pioneer Press. Over the last two or so years, the publisher has been sponsoring several local election debates, putting its name out there in front of hundreds of voters. I'm not sure whether or not the strategy paid off, but as far as increasing brand awareness, it is, at the very least, a worthwhile idea. When was the last time Pioneer Press put its name on a community event?)
Finally, there are Nadig Newspapers. This Jefferson Park based company publishes two newspapers - the Northwest Side Press and Reporter/Journal. Officially, the former covers most of Chicago's Northwest Side, while the later covers the some of the more far-flung Northwest Side neighborhoods, as well as Skokie, Niles and Lincolnwood. In theory, that would put it in competition with Skokie Review, Niles Herald-Spectator and LIncolnwood Review. But in reality, both papers tend to devote majority of their space to Chicago city limits, occasionally touching on the suburbs.
Nadig Newspapers are pretty good at what they do. Their staff is small, but they are talented. When it comes to Northwest Side issues, no other news source comes close. But when it comes to suburban coverage... all of the other news sources do it more consistently. And I should point out that Reporter/Journal is, according to Nadig Newspapers' official statements, is healthily dependent on subscribers. While that is not a bad thing on the short run, It doesn't help to increase broader awareness any.
I will give them one thing, though - because Northwest Side Press and Journal/Reporter have physically larger pages than any of their competition, they are better source for longer, more in-depth investigative-type articles. I understand why Pioneer Press doesn't have much room - format limitations, the fact that majority of most pages has to be reserved for advertising - but it's still something worth emulating.
So, overall, the only newspaper that presents any serious competition to my editor's newspaper group is Niles Bugle. In terms of brand recognition, its running miles ahead of its Pioneer Press competitors. If I were one of Sun-Times Media higher-ups, I would be concerned.