Newspapers are hurting all over the United States, but the pain is less severe at small publications like The Blackshear Times in Georgia.
The weekly newspaper fills an information vacuum in a county of 17,000 people who live about 75 miles from the closest metropolitan market, in Jacksonville, Fla. That has made it easier for The Times to hold on to its 3,500 subscribers and keep its revenue stable in a recession that's ravaging much of the newspaper industry.
"CNN is not coming to my town to cover the news and there aren't a whole lot of bloggers here either," said Robert M. Williams Jr., The Times' editor and publisher. "Community newspapers are still a great investment because we provide something you can't get anywhere else."
The scarcity of other media in small- and medium-sized cities has helped shield hundreds of newspapers from the upheaval that's causing dailies in big cities to shrink in size and scope as their print circulations and advertising sales decline.
Less competition means the print editions and Web sites of smaller newspapers remain the focal points for finding out what's happening in their coverage areas.
In contrast, large newspapers carry more national news, as well as local, and have many competitors, including Web sites and television and radio stations. They report much of the news the day before printed newspapers reach homes and newsstands. Large newspapers' Web sites also provide the news for free a day ahead of print editions.
Perhaps even more important, newspapers in smaller markets still haven't lost a big chunk of their revenue to Craigslist and other online classified advertising alternatives that have become the bane of large newspapers.
Print ads for everything from jobs to jalopies were a gold mine for newspapers until Craigslist began expanding an online service for free classified ads in 1999. Today, Craigslist blankets most major metropolitan markets while publishing about 40 million classified ads each month.
In 2000, classified advertising accounted for nearly $20 billion, or about 40 percent, of the U.S. newspaper industry's revenue. In 2008, classified ads in U.S. newspapers had dwindled to less than $10 billion, or about one-quarter of the industry's revenue. (Subscription and single-copy sales traditionally contribute just 20 to 30 percent of newspapers' revenue.)...
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