Mountrail County Promoter - Latest News

By Michael Standaert
North Dakota News Cooperative 
Challenges faced by local newspapers across North Dakota could become opportunities if the potentially uncomfortable changes modern news consumers demand are embraced, a new study recently found. 
In recent months, the Future of Local News Initiative was launched by the Rural Development Finance Corporation along with several other groups to take the pulse of the state of newspapers about what ails print journalism and potential solutions to invigorate the print press. 
This included surveying 31 newspaper executives about their challenges, 53 editors and journalists about their work, as well as 381 adults across the state about their news consumption habits and the importance of local news. The initiative is funded by a grant from the Bush Foundation. 
“The public has an impression that their local newspaper is doing okay, and maybe in many cases it is doing okay,” said Cecile Wehrman, executive director of the North Dakota Newspaper Association, which partnered in the project. 
“When we ask on the other side, if you knew your local newspaper was struggling, what would you be willing to do? There’s very strong support for subscribing, possibly giving a donation, or giving some kind of additional support for its continuation in pretty high numbers,” she said. 
Challenge to opportunity 
Despite the public perception, many newspapers are struggling. 
Newspaper owners and executives detailed major challenges they face, ranging from staffing shortages to payroll costs, succession uncertainties, rising postal costs, revenue and subscriber shortfalls, as well as ad revenues siphoned off by other sources that leave them on shaky ground. 
Digging deeper into the surveys, however, shows rays of hope that newspapers could potentially tap into because local communities place high value on their local papers. 
Nearly nine out of 10 adults surveyed said having a local newspaper in their community is very important or important, while 80% said losing a local newspaper would have a negative impact on their community. 
Since 2005, over 3,300 newspapers across the U.S. have ceased publication, leading to “news deserts” where local communities are without a local news source. In North Dakota, three counties do not have a local paper - Dunn, Sioux and Slope. 
And in this age of potential misinformation and disinformation, original news from local newspapers was found to be the most trusted source of news, higher than local TV and much higher than social media or local radio. 
“The public has a much more positive outlook than I would have expected, given the national attention there is on fake news and all the attacks on the press,” Wehrman said. 
One issue is newspapers may not be valuing themselves high enough, said former North Dakota journalist Teri Finneman, who is now an associate professor at the University of Kansas focused on the history of U.S. journalism. 
Finneman said many newspapers are stuck in a business model from the 1800s that kept costs low for news consumers because ad revenue supported most costs. That revenue source has dramatically changed without many newspapers catching up, she said. 
“We need to adjust, and the public needs to do a better job of supporting journalism,” Finneman said. 
She gave the example of how going to the gas station, someone might
buy a soda and a candy bar that costs two to three times what most people pay for their local newspaper. 
One purchase is for something mass produced in seconds, and another is for a product which potentially takes hundreds of hours of labor to put together, but people often don’t see the true value behind those purchases. 
“So, we just really need to do a much better job explaining this to the public,” Finneman said of the cost of producing news and the value to local communities. “People extremely support local news. They want local news, but the pricing no longer works.” 
Marianne Grogan, president of Coda Ventures who conducted the surveys, said it was heartening to see the dedication of newspapers and their staffs come through in the data.
“I’m very touched and amazed by the resilience of the newspapers as they face some big challenges,” she said. “And what comes through is they are deeply committed to their communities.” 
The other side that’s promising is how much community support there is for local news. 
“What came through with the data is how much local newspapers mean to North Dakota residents, and it almost doesn’t matter by age group,” Grogan said. “They want them to be the watchdog for them. They want them to tell them about local events. They want them as productive members of their community.” 
Providing value to local communities 
Currently, the steering committee for the initiative is coming up with a menu of solutions for local newspapers to review that could help them be sustainable, provide fulfilling careers for their editors and journalists, and give local communities more of what they want. 
Some of that may require uncomfortable changes if local communities are willing to back their papers. For example, 20 of the 73 newspapers in the state are print only, meaning they don’t have websites or digital editions. 
“Economics is part of it, resistance to change is part of it,” Wehrman said. 
The news consumer surveys found 41% of people want both print and digital editions of their newspapers. 
They also want newspapers every day and websites with daily updates, according to the data. 
Among the dominant group of future news consumers, pluralities of Gen Z (48%) and Millennials (45%) also want both print and digital editions, signaling the market changes going forward.
That desire for more news is at odds with the challenges most papers face, however, so finding a happy middle ground where communities deeply support their papers so they can get closer to what they want is important, those involved in the initiative said. 
Part of that may take newspapers becoming more involved in their communities through public events and other engagement. 
“Publishers we deem as some of the most successful, Pulitzer and Hearst, were huge on audience engagement,” Finneman said. “I emphasize doing events by getting people from the newspaper office to reclaim that role of being the heart of the community and bringing the community together, not just through passively, through the news, but also actively, bringing the community together.” 
Ellen Huber, rural development services director at the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives, which also partners with the initiative, said the steering committee has created three groups - one to study revenue models, one on content, and another on operations – as part of that menu of solutions the group can provide papers and communities. 
“Ultimately, why we’re involved is we know local news is important to strong communities and community vitality,” Huber said. “In healthy communities where you have strong local news you’re going to have a more involved and engaged community and stronger community leadership.” 
Committee member Rob Keller, co-founder of the ND Public Information Officer Association, said local newspapers are “indispensable” for local, state, federal and tribal information officers to get information out to the public both during periods of crisis as well as providing that on a general basis. 
“What we put out has to be timely, accurate, and has to be actionable information to everyone in the community,” Keller said of the importance of local newspapers and how they are among the most trusted sources of information. “Without them, there’s going to be a significant gap.” 
Keller said that one thing discussed in the steering committee is how even smaller newspapers need to have a strong social media presence so that even if information can’t get out in a timely manner in a weekly newspaper, they could get that information out on social media platforms. 
“This is especially important in times like, for example, in the western part of the state when the fires were happening,” Keller said. “There’s a lot of papers that don’t have a social media presence, so one thing we’ve talked about is creating a team that could help with that. From our standpoint, it is extremely important. While we have only three news deserts now, maybe a few more are coming.” 
The North Dakota News Cooperative is a non-profit news organization providing reliable and independent reporting on issues and events that impact the lives of North Dakotans. The organization increases the public’s access to quality journalism and advances news literacy across the state. For more information about NDNC or to make a charitable contribution, please visit newscoopnd.org.