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Looks like Gannett finally shot themselves in both feet.

K

KeithE4

These geniuses have decided to put AZCentral.com (The Arizona Repugnant and Channel 12 websites) behind a paywall beginning September 10. Pricing starts at $10 a month for online access only.

Judging by all the caustic comments (including a few of mine), this is going to go over like a lead balloon. Probably their dumbest move since calling a "newscast" EVB Live. Newsflash: We're talking about the journalistically- and grammatically-challenged Arizona Republic, not The Wall Street Journal.

But I'm quite sure that Channels 3, 5, 10, & 15, and the East Valley Tribune are licking their chops at what should be increased readership and ad support on their websites. ;D

Link: AZCentral
 
I currently have delivery on Wed/Fri/Sat/Sun and pay $17.42/mo. Looks like that will jump to $21 next month including 'full access" to the digital content.
 
I knew something was going on. When I called to renew my subscription two weeks ago, the agent referred to the fact that I was going to get a letter in September about changes. However, my current rate would be guaranteed through the end of the subscription period.
 
Gannett is doing this across all its papers, or what's left of them. It hit the Democrat and Chronicle here in Rochester in the spring, and anecdotally, I hear they've lost more than a third of their circulation as a result. Turns out a lot of the remaining subscribers were older folks like my seventy-something parents, who just want a printed newspaper on the step every morning and don't have any interest in paying for online access they'll never use. Phoenix is an interesting twist, taking the TV station's web presence behind the paywall as well.
 
This falls under the category of "things we should have thought through". The paywall feature might be viable for the Arizona Republic as many newspapers, not just those owned by Gannett are putting up these online subscriptions to provide revenue to keep themselves afloat and not end up like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (shutting down the actual paper and becoming an online-only newspaper) or the Rocky Mountain News (going kaput entirely). However, KPNX does not need revenue from a paywall stream, because it already makes profits from retransmission consent compensation by cable and satellite providers, and the oldest method in the book for broadcast media to receive revenue: advertising. Pair that with the fact that viewers shouldn't have to pay a subscription to view news stories from a TV station website when they can watch it for free on TV. The only way to rectify this is the obvious, split the website in two: a paywall site for the Republic that under the AZCentral.com domain and a new webpage spun off for KPNX that is free to all users.
 
The competition wasted no time jumping on it. CBS 5 is already running ads promoting their free website, and even had a feature on it on their 6:30 pm newscast, showing the AZ Republic building, but very carefully leaving out the channel 12 logo.
 
This is wonderful news. This boneheaded decision will make them less and less relevant. Gone are the days when the Republic drove the news cycle. In fact, the idea of a news cycle is pretty-much gone, too. Now the Republic has thrown up its hands and basically given us all a big new reason to get our news from... well, let's see: azfamily.com, kpho.com, myfoxphoenix.com, abc15.com, kfyi.com, kjzz.org and ktar.com, just to name a few. kpnx.com? (Oh, yeah...right.)

I loved seeing that the Republic claims to have about 750,000 readers (roughly 3x daily circulation). I don't dispute the figure. But recently I asked someone in a position to know, how many people in the Phoenix DMA watch local news on a given weekday. This means every station from 4:30 AM to 10:30 PM. That figure is roughly 2.2 million people. TV is king.

I've also seen it reported in the Phoenix Business Journal in the past year that ktar.com is the second most-viewed news content website in Arizona. AZcentral is first... for now.
 
buster2 said:
This is wonderful news. This boneheaded decision will make them less and less relevant. Gone are the days when the Republic drove the news cycle. ownership effectively ran the City of Phoenix, and the opinion of the paper all but dictated city and state policies.
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Fixed. ;D

I loved seeing that the Republic claims to have about 750,000 readers (roughly 3x daily circulation). I don't dispute the figure. But recently I asked someone in a position to know, how many people in the Phoenix DMA watch local news on a given weekday. This means every station from 4:30 AM to 10:30 PM. That figure is roughly 2.2 million people. TV is king.
Click to expand...

Has been for years. Add to the fact that news can break after the rag is "put to bed" at around 10 PM, the print edition that comes out in the morning is already out of date. They couldn't include final scores of late-ending games either.

I've also seen it reported in the Phoenix Business Journal in the past year that ktar.com is the second most-viewed news content website in Arizona. AZcentral is first... for now.
Click to expand...

I've been moving my news reading to the EVT, Channel 5, and KTAR websites. I'm a participant on the columnists' blogs and I'll miss that, but otherwise, AZCentral offers nothing that the others don't have.
 
I did use azcentral.com for weekend events, but I'm sure I can find info elsewhere. The New Times website does a great job with restaurant reviews and other events.
 
An example of AZCentral's exemplary and professional editing, they list tonight's Bengals-Falcons game as being carried on Channel 5. Hey, geniuses at Gannett - it's on Channel 10. ::)

Hardly the first time they've done this - even with programming that they say is on Channel 12, but is on NBC Sports Network, or vice-versa. Some of the NHL listings come to mind immediately. They can't even get their own station's listings right sometimes.

AZCentral Sports On TV
 
KeithE4 said:
An example of AZCentral's exemplary and professional editing, they list tonight's Bengals-Falcons game as being carried on Channel 5. Hey, geniuses at Gannett - it's on Channel 10. ::)

Hardly the first time they've done this - even with programming that they say is on Channel 12, but is on NBC Sports Network, or vice-versa. Some of the NHL listings come to mind immediately. They can't even get their own station's listings right sometimes.

AZCentral Sports On TV
Click to expand...

Yeah, but Channel 10 used to be CBS... :D

And the Republic used to be relevant.
 
Legend City said:
KeithE4 said:
An example of AZCentral's exemplary and professional editing, they list tonight's Bengals-Falcons game as being carried on Channel 5. Hey, geniuses at Gannett - it's on Channel 10. ::)

Hardly the first time they've done this - even with programming that they say is on Channel 12, but is on NBC Sports Network, or vice-versa. Some of the NHL listings come to mind immediately. They can't even get their own station's listings right sometimes.

AZCentral Sports On TV
Click to expand...

Yeah, but Channel 10 used to be CBS... :D
Click to expand...

But the game was on Fox. If they were mixing up Fox affiliates, they would have said Channel 15. ;D

And the Republic used to be relevant.
Click to expand...

Not since Gannett bought them.
 
Good point! If they are going to charge, they need to be held to a higher standard than the freebie sites. I guess subscribers will decide that.
 
So, while I totally disagree with the Republic's decision to charge a fee, I think that some of you need some clarification how news in Phoenix works. To say "TV is King" or to say that "gone are the days that the Republic drives the news cycle" is silly, only because if you haven't worked at a TV news station in Phoenix, you wouldn't know what really goes on.

The Republic IS King, and it will continue to be until it goes out of business. This is because of their 140 reporters, compared to a TV station's 4-6 reporters at any given time (and 1 or 2 in the morning.) Very rarely does a TV or radio station scoop the Republic. Does it happen? Of course. But on a daily basis, TV station news desks get tips from azcentral.com. So that's not gonna change, because they'll all have access.
I'm sure the paper will take a hit from consumers, but don't delude yourselves into thinking that TV is King...because the majority of news that TV stations break comes from the Republic.

For instance, if something happens in the morning, and everyone hears about it on the scanners, everybody rushes to get there. The Republic can send dozens of people. A TV station has one roving guy/gal who may or may not be close.
And sometimes, anchors read verbatim from azcentral when no one has any other information. (And the police/fire PIOs direct you to the paper, as well.)

Just the 411.
 
Scoop or not the Republi(can) is clearly not doing the job in certain areas, and digital seems one of them.

I usually scan Yahoo.com news first thing simply because I use it as a home page. They have a "local news" featurette which are headlines from several other sources Arizona-wide including TV stations and newspapers including the Republi(can).

Of late I have noticed that the only stories not being updated on a daily basis belong to a couple of weekly papers.....and the Republi(can). Seems their digital offerings are delayed even further than their tree mail - sometimes up to a week. If you go to their site you find timely, for them, stories so maybe the link is at fault and Yahoo is to blame. But if that were the case I would think the TV stations would also be tardy and that doesn't seem to be the case.

I have not received the Republi(can) at my house since the early 90's simply because it isn't as timely as online news. I don't see how a subscription is going to make it any better. There are simply to many other choices which are not behind a paywall.
 
OneHorseTown said:
So, while I totally disagree with the Republic's decision to charge a fee, I think that some of you need some clarification how news in Phoenix works. To say "TV is King" or to say that "gone are the days that the Republic drives the news cycle" is silly, only because if you haven't worked at a TV news station in Phoenix, you wouldn't know what really goes on.
Click to expand...

That's an irrelevant statement. Of course readers, viewers, and advertisers don't work in newsrooms. We don't have to, and we don't care. It's the results that count, and Gannett doesn't deliver good results to its paying customers. Other news media are not its customers.

The Republic IS King, and it will continue to be until it goes out of business. This is because of their 140 reporters, compared to a TV station's 4-6 reporters at any given time (and 1 or 2 in the morning.) Very rarely does a TV or radio station scoop the Republic. Does it happen? Of course. But on a daily basis, TV station news desks get tips from azcentral.com. So that's not gonna change, because they'll all have access.
Click to expand...

So what? If that's the case (and I have no reason to doubt what you say), then the other media aren't doing their news-gathering jobs. That's their problem. But the finished product (newscasts/websites) on Gannett's competitors is superior, both visually and in quality of reporting, to that of AZCentral.

I'm sure the paper will take a hit from consumers, but don't delude yourselves into thinking that TV is King...because the majority of news that TV stations break comes from the Republic.
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Again, it doesn't matter where the tip came from. If 3, 5, 10, and 15 are doing more with tips from Gannett properties than the Republic & Channel 12 are doing with their own tips, then that says something about Gannett's ability, or the lack thereof, to present their news.

And if the paper's circulation goes down (more likely), and Channel 12's ratings tank due to a protest (less likely), then Gannett really is shooting themselves in the foot by doing this. Regardless of where news tips come from, the bottom line is still the bottom line. The Republic and Channel 12 will probably be hurt by this move, and their competitors will be helped. That's not very smart business, to put it mildly.

For instance, if something happens in the morning, and everyone hears about it on the scanners, everybody rushes to get there. The Republic can send dozens of people. A TV station has one roving guy/gal who may or may not be close.
Click to expand...

Do they send that many? Besides, if the story breaks after 7 AM, the only news sources that can air it immediately are KTAR, KFYI, Channel 3 and Channel 10. Channels 5, 12, and 15 are already running their network morning shows and probably wouldn't break in unless it was something catastrophic. They'd wait until their local news break at 7:25.

And sometimes, anchors read verbatim from azcentral when no one has any other information. (And the police/fire PIOs direct you to the paper, as well.)
Click to expand...

They do this without attribution? I find that hard to believe.
 
The Republic and azcentral get crushed everyday on breaking news. TV stations are able to report live from a scene and give updates as needed. The Republic gets printed once a day and by the time it hits your driveway, the daily news is at least 12 hours old. Azcentral has a better advantage here because it can publish 24 hours a day. Unfortunately, they don't have comprehensive coverage of live breaking news events and hardly ever a picture or video to go along with the story.

The Republic has focused on reporting on bigger, long term issues in town and that is what most local newsrooms scrape out of the Republic. It does happen on a daily basis.

Gannett is in a bad place because of their business model. People don't get home delivery of the newspaper anymore. Circulations across the country have plummeted. Online news is a commodity that people aren't willing to pay for. With sagging circulation (lacking ad sales) and a website that is advertiser based, Gannett is going to struggle to make profit on these two properties.

The paid digital subscription will not succeed and my guess will be that the paper will stop printing within the next 4-5 years. Not something investors are looking for.
 
Sorry, TV is King. 2.2 million viewers watch news in Phoenix on a typical day and the Republican claims about 750,000 readers. Viewership translates to ad sales, and that's what matters.

And while the Republic still generates a lot of stories, it is NOWHERE near the level it was a few years ago. The layoffs they've experienced mean they can't develop the enterprise stories they used to and the ones they do develop are so long and (usually) tedious that I wonder who besides a few policy wonks reads them. And I have to believe the few veteran reporters they have left must be embarassed that journalism students (Cronkite News Service, anyone?) write a great deal of their product.

So I will concede the Republic is a 300 lb. gorilla. It's just that it used to be a 900 lb. gorilla. I grew up in Phoenix, and the R & G truly set the agenda. Heck, 40 years ago the paper killed a downtown freeway plan. 20 years ago, the paper helped drive Ev Mecham out of office (he didn;t help his own cause much). Now? That type of power is just a memory. Soon it will be a 200 lb. gorilla.... you get the point.
 
The Repulsive seems to be turning into an English language version of La Voz (the Espanol rag also owned by Gannett)..mostly Latino-oriented issues (immigration, the Scheme act, masked wrestlers)
 
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