As Jeanne Dixon now knows, the newspaper industry no longer can be accused of timid responses to declining readership.
Key members of their operations, the managing editors, recently sought wisdom not merely from three entrepreneurial titans but from an astrologer. And it was revealing.
When the Associated Press Managing Editors held its annual meeting last week, many members were amused-for periods ranging from 10 to 25 seconds-by the arguably bizarre, unannounced appearance of Dixon on a day devoted to a sober-minded consideration of the industry`s future.
Along with predicting the collapse of totalitarian societies by 2000, the end of war in Africa and coming of a democratic People`s Republic of China, she declared, ”Newspapers will be alive and well in the year 2000 and beyond.”
Admittedly, given the group that invited her, one might have been a bit surprised if Dixon proclaimed that only USA Today and the Daily Racing Form would be left by the year 2000. Still, only a few found solace in Dixon, whose pillbox hat and black and red attire suggested a sartorial cross between Minnie Pearl and Tammy Faye Bakker.
But the editors did pay a great deal of attention to three brash media entrepreneurs, whose basic message was far removed from Dixon`s: that newspapers must change or die. In so doing, they underlined a basic clash in old and new values that plays out in newsrooms and media boardrooms with increasing frequency.
The three were Ralph Ingersoll II, who owns more than 200 papers, including the new St. Louis Sun; William Dean Singleton, whose Media News Group owns 50 papers, including the Denver Post and Houston Post; and Chris Whittle, an innovator in niche marketing of magazines, wall posters and the controversial Channel One, a TV newsmagazine for high school students that includes commercials.
Each represents a break with tradition and their joint appearance highlighted tensions in the media during an age in which cost-cutting is rampant, TV`s influence is deeply felt, illiteracy is a growing concern and the three believe radical change is incumbent.
Ingersoll argued that newspapers err by an increasing penchant to be more complete. Bigger is not better, he said. ”The last thing Americans need is more information.”
Not that they don`t want to read. He noted that Americans devour magazines and argued that ”the average person finds the newspaper
irrelevant.” Papers are part of an informational ”mosaic,” he said, no longer the primary source of data, so one must tailor the product to narrower concerns. ”More features, more sports, more business coverage will not add up to better. Better will be better.”
In his St. Louis Sun, Ingersoll pointedly does not try to be a wide-ranging ”paper of record.” Stories are short; photos and graphics plentiful and colorful; and the emphasis is on consumer news, sports and TV. He does not believe that his readers are interested in lengthy series on public policy.
Singleton called newspapers ”the most arrogant industry to walk the face of the Earth, assuming that we know what the readers want.” Editors must realize, he said, that newspapers are a ”packaged good” that should reflect what consumers want in an individual market and that declining readership is a function of poor distribution or a bad product.
Singleton is, from a financial standpoint, notable as one of the industry`s biggest risk takers, even willing to take on the second paper in a two-paper market. But he has a reputation as a hefty cost-slasher whose papers are not yet synonymous with quality journalism. Still, he can point to circulation gains over the last year at both the Houston Post and the Denver Post, though his short-lived operation of the Dallas Times Herald is generally seen as a failure.
A clash in cultures was further highlighted by consideration of the debt- filled, highly leveraged nature of Ingersoll`s and Singleton`s operations.
For example, Ingersoll cited 1988 revenues of $700 million but current debt of about $800 million. Singleton said he finds no difference between paying interest to bankers, as he does, and paying dividends to shareholders. `Go where people read`
Whittle, who last year sold a half-interest in his firm to then Time Inc. for $185 million, was the most provocative. Newspapers, he said, don`t want to innovate, fearing the prospect of short-term declines. Innovation may ”take away readers or advertising from the mother ship” but increase both in the long run.
Newsstand and subscription sales need not be the only avenues to increase circulation, Whittle said, explaining his decision to ”go where people read,” such as into doctors` offices with his Special Reports magazines, school hallways with informational ”wallboards” and classrooms with his satellite-delivered TV news show.
”Perhaps you should give them (newspapers) away. Perhaps break them up into 20 institutions (individually marketed products). Every Sunday, my paper comes, I look at it and think, `There`s a better way.` ”
And then there`s what he calls the biggest impediment, the ”Anti-Christ of the Burger King slogan, `Have it your way.` ” It`s the printing press.
”It dictates your form, your shape, your size. That machine stands squarely in the way of your future.”
The question period underlined conflict, especially editorially. One editor rose to wonder where, in all this discussion, was the traditional notion of the newspaper as public servant, prodding, provoking, writing important stories that may be too long for some to read, doing some things without concern for the bottom line.
With undisguised derision, Singleton said: ”We make the decisions in our own clubby groups as to what good journalism is. We`ve been wrong.”
Get rid of `jumps`
Singleton and Ingersoll are adamant that the huge mass of citizens who don`t read a daily paper can be lured if one discerns what they want.
When later given a hypothetical question of his running one of the major metropolitan dailies, Ingersoll said he wouldn`t hestitate to make radical changes. He then cited the Los Angeles Times, citing problems it faces from several fierce competitors, the apparent declining percentage of households it reaches in its market and its propensity for long stories that ”jump” from one page to another.
”If I took it over, I`d kill all the jumps,” he said. ”Look at their household penetration. One must make big changes.”
As for the notion of public service, Singleton said earlier that public service is turning out a newspaper ”that is very useful to your readers.”
For many in the audience, it was, at best, a partial prescription.
