Saturday changes coming to the Idaho Statesman will preserve our bright future
It’s no secret — or at least that’s what I thought — that the traditional model for local journalism has been completely disrupted.
Google, Facebook, Craigslist and other social media giants have decimated traditional revenue streams such as commercial print advertising and classified ads for over a decade.
Has that changed how we do business in 2020? Absolutely. Does that mean the Statesman’s mission of providing high impact, investigative journalism has changed? Absolutely not.
In October, we announced that we are moving to a new format for our Saturday editions. Starting Feb. 1, we will no longer produce a printed newspaper on Saturday and will launch with a Weekend Edition that includes expanded newspapers on Fridays and Sundays.
Many of the features that you enjoy on Saturday, such as comics, puzzles, TV listings and local sports coverage, will now appear in expanded editions in print on Friday and Sunday. For example, our real estate listings, popular TV guide and new features highlighting uplifting stories will now be included in Friday’s print product.
On Saturdays, we will continue to publish breaking local news to our website and social media platforms, and we invite you to visit our website or eEdition, which replicates the experience of a printed newspaper online.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns related to the new delivery method, please give us a call at 800-635-8934 or email us at customerservice@idahostatesman.com. We will do everything possible to ensure your satisfaction.
As a result of continued disruption to our industry, communities large and small across the country have suffered. According to the Pew Research Center, about 1,800 metro and local newspapers in the United States have merged or shuttered their doors completely since 2004, when about 9,000 papers across the country were being published. That’s about 20% of all newspapers nationwide.
But while we make our life’s work telling other people’s stories, journalists have done a terrible job of telling our own. As it turns out, to most people, it is a secret that their local newspaper is struggling.
According to the findings of Pew Research Center’s 2019 State of News Media study, 7 of 10 people surveyed said they thought their local news media was doing “either somewhat or very well financially (71%), while about a quarter say their local news organizations are not doing well (24%).”
When asked if those people had paid or given money in the past year to any local news source – by either subscribing, donating or becoming a member – 84% of Americans said no; 14% said yes, according to the research center.
That’s where you, our loyal readers, come in. We know we need about 18,000 digital subscriptions to fully fund our newsroom at the Idaho Statesman. I am proud to say we have seen incredible growth in our digital subscriptions over last year. That includes print readers who have activated the digital subscription included in nearly all of our print subscription options. We have work to do, but the future of local digital journalism is bright in Boise.
Have reader habits changed? Yes. Nearly 1.4 million unique visitors read stories or watched videos on IdahoStatesman.com last month, and we know readers are finding value in the work we do because we see it in how many hit our gateway to subscribe. Since September, the newsroom has had a new focus on what subscribers are reading on our website by diving into those subscriber data sets in ways we never have before.
We’re conducting a survey right now where you can tell us about the issues that keep you up at night, and we’ve been hosting reader listening sessions for the last six months to get more direct feedback on what we should be covering, especially when it comes to affordable housing and the Treasure Valley’s exploding growth.
These changes are necessary for the future of our business, and they are challenges I welcome head on.
If you’re already a subscriber for the Statesman, thank you. It sincerely means the world to us. If you’re not, please consider supporting our work.
The health and future of our community depends on it.
