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Co-owned radio stations/weekly newspaper or shopper

J

joebtsflk1

I've heard of these combinations but that's about it. Would seem like a good basis for a small market operation, but does it work in practice?
In the old days radio and print went at it like loggerheads, but it seems like in today's environment where internet has been added to the mix there might be a different dynamic.

Anyone care to share their experiences with small market print and broadcast combos?
 
I worked at KIUL which was at that time was co owned with the local paper in Garden City KS by Harris. Because of "cross ownership", they had to put their FM KWKR city of license in Leoti KS (about an hour drive away) and had a marginal signal in town. The studios were in newspaper building except there was no direct hallway, except a locked doorway that was a 'fire escape". You had to go out on the street to get to the newspaper office. The sales folks did fight like cats and dogs with the newspaper, the other radio station in town and the local TV stations. We were a separate "profit center".

So much for the history lesson. Unless there was a "smokin" deal for a small paper and radio station combo, I would leave daily print out of the mix. They are having even more issues than broadcasting. A mass mailed "advertiser" is an option. If I wanted a "news" I would hire a couple of journalism grads (one of the lowest paying degrees) and start my own internet newspaper / local radio news combo. If you market still has "local" owned banks radio news is an easy sell.
 
Even though there has been a prohibition on cross ownership for about 35 years, there are several places where it was continued. One that I know of is WFLS and the Free Lance Star in Fredericksburg VA. They actually own a small cluster of radio stations there. I agree that it's a great way to run a small market operation. There is some sharing of news resources between the paper and the radio. As a result, the radio stations have a stronger local news presence than similar sized stations. However, the restrictions on cross ownership are about to be reviewed, and my hope is they'll be eliminated.
 
And then there's the situation in Cedar Rapids IA where the daily Gazette also owns KCRG-TV 9. It's a rare breed...locally owned paper and TV station. They also owned KCRG 1600 radio, but spun that off a few years back.

Should reiterate that I wanted to ask about WEEKLY newspapers and shoppers co-owned with radio. I didn't actually mention that in the body of my post, only the subject line. Sorry for any confusuion...
 
Are small-town shopper newspapers still around? I know of one that was the best weekly newspaper in Indiana a few years ago. Just checked their web site and it is showing photos of the "Flood of April 2011." I'm not sure if they're still publishing.
 
I've heard of stations running a weekly shopper and they had great success selling a combo of airtime and print. In the case I know of, the shopper was not mailed but a freebie available at stores in the area. They had a deal with a local print shop on paste up, printing and delivery of the paper which was a tabloid. I think they offered free classifieds. Lots of cross promotion (things like see this week's shopper for money saving coupons).

Several stations, in fact, 2 I work for, had a daily legal page printed both sides with business card ads and basically what was the day's local news typed up by the News Director who delivered it around town each weekday morning just prior to his first morning newscast.

Small markets might the the last stronghold for newspapers. Local papers in towns, versus cities, are usually well read. I suspect it would put you in a great position to beat competition for the ad dollars.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Are small-town shopper newspapers still around? I know of one that was the best weekly newspaper in Indiana a few years ago. Just checked their web site and it is showing photos of the "Flood of April 2011." I'm not sure if they're still publishing.
Click to expand...

What I think of as "weekly shopper newspapers" seem to be thriving in the suburban edges of major cities. A publisher will print may 6, 8 or 12 different shoppers for various indiviudal suburbs. There are economies of using some news and columns that are common to all editions, and major advertisers will agree to run an ad that appears in EVERY local edition.

I've been living here in the shadow of the big city too long to know what is happening in rural small-towns today. Most small town weekly papers now seem to be some kind of hybrid between what we used to call a weekly newspaper, and a weekly shopper paper. Small town weekly papers now tend to be part of groups that publish at least 10 or 12 different towns so they can consolidate their labor costs and efficiently use the talented workers who make modern printing devices work.

I just did a search to see if I could find anything about current FCC policy. All FCC policy seems to talk about DAILY NEWSPAPERS. Apparently in the eyes of the FCC, "if you ain't daily, you ain't xxxyxxz."

My guess is that if you have a radio property in a small town that is not fully served by a well established paper or shopper, you might be well served to have legal counsel pick up the phone and converse with their favorite contact at the FCC. The media finances have changed so radically in the last 35 years. The daily newspapers of years gone by had the clout (and the time and energy) to attempt to snuff out a broadcaster that was crowding their revenue. My how times have changed.
 
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