Experts see bright future for newspapers

Robert Provost, marketing director for the Times Union newspaper in Albany, noted that many newspapers across the country have dropped in circulation. He cited several reasons for this trend, from increased demands on readers' time to the fact that some news doesn't affect people as directly today as it once did.

"There's no draft any more; there's no Vietnam War," he said as an example. "What made news so significant to young people [then] was that it affected them. The last conflict we had was Kosovo; we had no casualties. We fought an entire war, and it barely made the front page."

Work to do

At the Times Union, he said, efforts to have teachers use the newspaper in school classrooms have paid off: The newspaper's readership increased by 48 percent between 1993 and 2000.

"Technology has gone from being a newspaper's foe to being its best friend," he added. "The internet offers us so many opportunities. When we think about how much material we gather [for stories] that ends up on the editing-room floor...." The internet, he concluded, gives newspapers an additional form of media.

Mr. Provost joked about "developing June Cleaver's website": Through newspapers online, he said, a mother could help her children with homework, do a job search and download a recipe for dinner, all with the click of a mouse. Newspapers can also publish some information -- such as calendar events -- online far in advance of their appearance in the newspaper.

On the web

In the past five years, additions have included graphics, daily Scripture readings and links to parish websites where Catholics can find Mass times or other information. Visitors can also access archives to read all the local stories and columns that have run since the website was instituted.

"It's been an experience over the last several years, but I try to keep updated with the technology," Ms. Oliver said.

More to do

"I would like to see us become more of a multimedia website -- have the full gamut of the media," she added. Bishop Hubbard's televised Lenten retreat last year would be the kind of event the webmaster hopes to someday promote in a different fashion -- "not just to download the text, but to show a film of his retreat."

One change that Ms. Oliver sees in store for The Evangelist's future is becoming more closely linked with the diocesan Media Office to provide live, up-to-date information.

"Now that the website for the Diocese [www.rcda.org] is up and running, maybe there will be more interest" in that proposal, she said.

Umbrella

"I don't think of it in terms of a paper," Observer editor Owen Phelps told The Evangelist. "We're not medium-specific. Our purpose is evangelization."

The Rockford Diocese is producing radio advertising, press releases and its own television show in addition to a newspaper, he said.

Still on paper

"There's a lot of staying power to the print medium," he stated.

Besides, noted retired Times Union publisher Robert Danzig, "the paper form is something people will want for a long time. There's something about the intimacy, friendliness and portability that is magical. There's something that says, `This is mine.'"

Many forms

Many newspapers will be printed in people's homes rather than delivered already printed, he added -- which will save on the paper's three main costs, "printing, postage and personnel."

Even with all the other forms of media available today, Mr. Provost pointed out that half of all adults in the U.S. still read a newspaper on an average weekday, and two-thirds of them do on Sunday. More than $45 billion is spent each year on newspaper advertising, more than any other form of media.

But newspapers "have got to innovate," he said. "You've got to play to your strong point: Nobody else can do a better job of covering your community than your paper."

Optimism

Mr. Phelps noted that any form of media must gain its users' trust in order to better inform them about world events, especially in a society that is increasingly focused on immediate self-gratification.

While the rapid changes in technology can be frightening, he said, "being scared isn't helpful. We get people to trust us, and then maybe they'll take our advice."

Ms. Oliver's plans for The Evangelist along those lines are simple: "to become more of a force to help people find information about the Albany Diocese."

(03-15-01) [[In-content Ad]]