Thursday, March 15, 2007

Daily failure does not prove Joplin Globe cannot be successfully challenged

My former publisher at The Carthage Press Jim Farley always said the Joplin Globe was vulnerable to a challenge from a feisty weekly. At one point, he even had me draw up a blueprint for such a weekly, though we never followed through with the idea.

When the news of the Joplin Daily's Jan. 1, 2006 launch leaked, it appeared that publication might finally be the challenger that could put a dent into the Globe. The concept was novel- a website with a weekly newspaper designed to direct readers to the website rather than the other way around.

The folks at GateHouse Media did some things right:

-The hiring of John Hacker, the area's best reporter, indicated GateHouse was preparing to launch a serious challenge.
-A strong emphasis on school coverage and a reporter, Kaylea Hutson, with experience in that area.
-An early blitz of publicity, including radio, television, and billboards.

Unfortunately, that was about it. GateHouse never made a serious attempt at creating a viable alternative to the Joplin Globe. And once a challenger fails, and fails miserably, it makes it that much more difficult for another challenger to succeed.

The Daily had its moments, many provided by Hacker, who put in his usual 100 percent effort, but you can't beat a solidly-entrenched newspaper with a journalism-as-usual approach. People are not going to go to a new newspaper just to read a different version of a city council meeting or to catch breaking news 15 minutes before it appears on the Globe website.

What went wrong with the Joplin Daily?

1. GateHouse officials promoted the first issue heavily, but then failed to get copies of the print edition to much of Joplin, and the same areas were never adequately sampled (many were never sampled at all). There are Joplin residents who will never mourn the passing of the newspaper, because they never knew it existed.

2. Except for positive news reporting, the paper never demonstrated any major differences between its brand of reporting and the brand employed by the Globe.

3. The Daily had few, if any, stories that would create the kind of water cooler buzz that would steer readers in its direction. Hacker and his staff did their jobs well, but never had the kind of major scoops that could put the Daily on the map. A lot of that was due to the pressures placed on what was essentially a three-person staff to put out a daily publication, something that is virtually impossible if you plan to adequately cover a town of 40,000 plus.

4. Promotion for the Daily was non-existent after the first few weeks. GateHouse never gave it a chance.

5. The Daily never had even one full-time ad salesperson and never had anyone who made a concentrated sales pitch for the web product.

The Joplin Daily should never have existed if GateHouse didn't plan to give it a fighting chance to succeed. Sadly, it could have succeeded, and would have had at least a ray of hope if the following steps had been taken:

1. The website should have been easier to navigate instead of being one of GateHouse's cookie-cutter sites. A greater emphasis on comments and discussion could have kept readers coming back to the website every day.

2. The minute the decision was made to make the website and not the print edition the focus, GateHouse should have emphasized links, links, and more links. Links should have been offered to anything remotely connected with Joplin, the school systems, city offices, the public library, businesses. If people want to know what is going on in Joplin, this would have given them a one-stop site, which would make it far more attractive to potential advertisers.

3. Make up for the lack of manpower by using links to increase coverage of Joplin news. The Daily could have offered links to legislation sponsored by Joplin's representatives and senator, legislation that affected Joplin residents or businesses, on the state or national level. Provide links to newspaper stories about Roy Blunt, Kit Bond, Claire McCaskill, Matt Blunt, other statewide officials. When people or businesses with connections to Joplin are in the news provide links to the stories. Links could have been done quickly and could have greatly expanded the coverage provided by the Daily.

4. Take major issues that hit the city and featurize them. Keep providing the nuts-and-bolts coverage, but blanket the website with information and features. Show how the major news stories affect the readers. Scan or link to documents that provide background. Obviously, a small staff does not have the capability to take on the Globe on every story, but by picking and choosing the right battles and offering far more coverage on those stories, the Daily could have staked out a claim to readership. Alternative publications thrive in many areas across the United States.

5. Build a stable of columnists that people actually want to read. One failure of the Daily is that it never had regular columnists that people want to come back to read every day or every week. In a town where the Globe's Mike Pound is the only daily columnist, the target would not have to be set too high. Unfortunately, the Daily took the advertising department approach to lining up columnists. In other words, let's find a columnist who represents the Chamber, let's find one that covers this niche or that niche, the Humane Society or some museum. Forget about that nonsense. Find people who can write, and who are willing to share their opinions, and give them a forum. Find people who can tell a story.

6. Find things that are not being covered by the Globe and cover them well. The positive news about schools was a step in the right direction, but there are other areas that could also be effective. Media coverage, comings and goings at the radio and television stations and offer coverage of the trials and travails of the Joplin Globe itself. You certainly are not going to read about those in the Globe. The New York tabloids and the Village Voice constantly make hay by writing about problems at the New York Times.

7. Find a voice. The Daily never did. A competitor needs to be feisty and deliver stories with attitude and a little bit of a swagger. If the Globe is the voice of big business, then the Daily should have been the voice of the little guy.

Even a publication that employs the above strategies faces an uphill battle, but taking a different approach guarantees that your readers will be a part of the battle, and if you fail, at least you will leave something that will be remembered for a long time to come, something that unfortunately, will not be the fate of the Joplin Daily.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Specifically, here's how GateHouse blew it (Installment No. 1):

1. Naming Chip Watson as publisher of Joplin Daily. He had done a solid job with the Big Nickel, but knew next to nothing about running a newspaper. It was Watson who put the kabosh on the Daily hiring Randy as its first columnist. Randy probably would have done it for free. But no, Chip didn't want any association with Turner, figuring he was too controversial. Can you imagine the amount of additional hits the Daily would have received if it had been publishing Randy's column all this time?

Anonymous said...

No. 2:

The best move Watson made was taking Neosho publisher Rick Rogers and making him the unofficial sports editor of the Daily. In about a two month period, the Daily was outhustling the Globe and really cutting its teeth. Sports fans were claiming that the Daily provided much better coverage than the Globe, which was experiencing its own internal problems in that area. The crucial mistake Watson made was allowing Rogers to return to Neosho, without finding a qualified replacement. The edge the Daily had over the Globe in sports reporting soon evaporated.

Anonymous said...

No. 3:

In April, the Daily replaced Watson with Randy Blaukat as publisher. Blaukat knew even less than Watson about running a newspaper. Regarded as GateHouse's Internet guru, he never did anything to change the Daily's cookie-cutter web site. His impact on the paper was neglible. The Daily started to fade from the public's consciousness, and never recovered.

Randy said...

About a column for the Daily: As a matter of fact I agreed to do the column for free. John apologized to me for not being able to offer any money, but I was more interested in being part of what could have been a groundbreaking news strategy. I told John as long as The Turner Report and Small Town News could be mentioned with each column, I had no problem with it. The first issue of the Daily featured my update on the nieces of Nancy Cruzan. By this time, apparently Chip had decided he wanted nothing to do with me or my column. I had written a second column which focused on the death of a former Joplin journalist who had been the first reporter to put the news of JFK's death over the wire. I was told that Chip only wanted my column to run once a month or so. I did not believe Chip had any intention of ever running any more of my columns, but even if the once-a-month thing was what he wanted, I decided that was not worth my time or effort. The Daily could have easily succeeded without my columns, but there was never any effort made to get outside columnists who actually said something. Instead, the Daily relied on handouts from Governor Blunt and our area politicians, and niche columns designed to appeal to certain groups, but which almost never did.

Anonymous said...

No. 4: After several months of 60-hour weeks, Hacker began to burn out and run out of ideas. This is where a publisher who had some editorial skill could have helped out. Instead, Hacker got little support from GateHouse, except to be second-guessed and criticized. He started to be inconsistent in his reporting, even missing key events at times. GateHouse made a token effort to hire another person or two, but insulted them with low-ball offers. And in the middle of this, Kaylea Hutson went on a missions trip to Brazil. The new sports guy, David Barr, was mediocre at best. His reporting certainly didn't cause the Globe to lose any sleep.

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to Levi Payton?

Anonymous said...

No. 5:

GateHouse drove another nail into the Daily's coffin in the fall by changing the paper's distribution date from Sunday to Friday. This was an ill-fated move for two reasons: It forced an unrealistic news deadline on Hacker, meaning that the Friday paper would have content that was three or four days old. And secondly, some people had grown accustomed to receiving the paper on Sunday and hardly gave the new Friday issue a look. To make matters worse, management never explained the move or the rationale to readers of the Daily.

Anonymous said...

No. 6:

The Daily changed publishers yet again, dumping Rodney Blaukat in favor of Chuck Elliott, a former ad man with the Globe. A much better choice would have been Rick Rogers at the Neosho Daily News. Rick, perhaps the only person at the local GateHouse with the ability to think outside the box, might have saved the sinking ship. Elliott, although a nice guy, simply had nothing to offer. The writing was on the wall: The Daily was doomed.

Anonymous said...

Did the Daily's lack of visibility hurt the paper? The news portion of the paper was tucked into the back of a strip mall on Rangeline, with no road frontage at all. Meanwhile The Globe has a very visible building downtown.

Anonymous said...

media critic hit it right on the head. With every post.
The biggest error made by the Daily was not letting "Hacker be Hacker."
Hacker is the best reporter in the area. He was a rookie administrator. And, instead, of giving him a solid news-based mentor, they gave him idiots. At least news-idiots.
Rick Rogers has his own paper to run. It is a shame there aren't more 'Ricks' to go around.
I have a strange feeling area papers will get worse before they get better.

Anonymous said...

John Hacker's mother makes excellent cookies. Can I get some?

I hear Hacker's holding out for a potato chip allowance at The Press. Any truth to that?

Anonymous said...

Potato chips and cookies - oh boy! The only thing better would be squirrels playing Battleship during a lightning storm.

Anonymous said...

squirrels in pantyhose

Anonymous said...

Isn't it just possible that it is no longer really possible to start-up a newspaper?

Surveys show fewer and fewer young people read a newspaper. Meanwhile older readers are unlikely to leave something they've been reading for 50 years (like the Globe). They also aren't likely to move to the Internet.

I feel very bad for everyone who lost a job or lost money, but didn't they know this was an uphill battle to begin with?

Anonymous said...

It's actually easier than ever before to start a newspaper. You can, in fact, do it from your home with a single computer. To GateHouse's credit, they came up with a novel concept and a nice slogan, "All Joplin...all the time." Unfortunately, they didn't have the upper management to make it work. The Globe is still vulnerable, but it's going to take someone who can think outside the box a bit to make it work.

Anonymous said...

It is true that Rick Rogers had his own paper to run. But would he have been more valuable to GateHouse saving JoplinDaily.com and averting a huge financial loss for the company? (Not to mention the embarrassment of the failed experiment.) Perhaps Rick could have worked half a day in Neosho and half a day in Joplin. The Neosho paper has such a strong editorial staff that it could have survived. I wonder if Mr. Watson and Co. considered this option.

Anonymous said...

I thought Rick Rogers was that photographer for The Joplin Globe? Why would he want to help the Daily?

Anonymous said...

You are thinking of T. Rob Brown. The two are frequently confused.

Anonymous said...

They weigh about the same, but Rogers is a few inches taller. Rogers wears the funky glasses, Brown the fedora. I think they really were separated at birth.

Anonymous said...

In no way did T.R. Hanrahan author or approve of previous posts.

Anonymous said...

That's just nice... make it personal why don't you!

Oh, gee... I had no clue I was overweight. It's great that you're here to tell me these things, professor! I might have missed my enormous gut if it weren't for you!

Oh, frell! (That's a "Farscape" term for those of you uneducated in intellectual things like science-fiction.)

And the fedora comment... honestly, I'm surprised you even knew what it was called. You do realize I've only worn that thing once or twice in the past six months.

Try paying attention and getting with the program.

Oh, and Rick... I probably weigh more than you do -- not that it's a good thing or anything. Just wanted to make sure you got your facts straight.

Never ONCE have I made fun of someone for superficial things.

Anonymous said...

I thought it was "Tom Brown."

Anonymous said...

Levi Payton is working at the Joplin Globe. Joplin Daily let him go for financial reasons and the Globe hired him within 2 hours.