We received an e-mail last week from a reader who thought there was less news in the paper than there used to be.
“Does the lack of content reflect nothing happening in the community, further cost-cutting or the ongoing conversion to a digital format?” she asked.
Her question prompted me to investigate.
The answer is “none of the above.”
For comparison I looked at the last full week (Monday through Sunday) in August this year compared with the same week last year (another Monday through Sunday). I found that the Friday and Sunday papers had more news space this year. The other days were slightly larger last year.
But when I added up the seven days for each week, I found we ran 1,348 columns of news (about 26,960 inches of space) in that week this year and 1,351 columns (about 27,020 inches) last year. So we had three columns, or about 60 inches, more news last year in one comparable week. In my view, that’s an insignificant difference.
News space in most every paper in the nation is determined as a ratio to advertising sold. That’s why the paper in Yakima will have less news space than we do, and we have less than The New York Times. It’s also likely, given our somewhat softer economy, that total space, including that for news, will be slightly smaller this year.
Our paper, as is the case with most McClatchy papers, runs about 50-50 news and advertising through any given week, a much more generous margin than the 60-40 (ad/news) ratios one sees in many papers throughout the nation.
Obviously, the Monday paper has a larger proportion of news because it’s a slow advertising day and the Sunday paper has a smaller proportion of news because it’s the most popular advertising day. The Sunday newshole is always the biggest of the week – about twice the news space of any weekday.
Given that the average 30-minute newscast would translate into a transcript that takes up at most three or four columns of newsprint, our average of 150 to 180 columns each weekday and more than 300 on any Sunday means there’s still a phenomenal amount of news in the paper on any given day.
The reader had another concern – the size of each page: “It’s not even as if you are still printing on ‘real’ sized newsprint any more.”
Her perception that our pages aren’t “real” in size is relative. The width of American newspaper pages has been shrinking at least since the 1930s. Ours became an inch narrower a few years ago. Our page width is standard for almost every paper in America today, and wider than some. In fact the trend is to even narrower pages, a trend that will continue.
If we were able, many American papers would go to the Berliner size, which is both shorter and narrower than American papers but not as small as tabloids. The Berliner is popular in Europe and with consumers tested here, who say they like a smaller paper that’s easier to hold or spread out on a table.
There’s no denying that the last and next wave of page-width shrinking will save a bit of paper, but there’s also no doubt that consumers consistently vote for the smaller sizes.
In sum, the reader’s perception may be that the paper is significantly smaller than a year ago, and that we’ve somehow cut back on news, but the facts don’t bear that out.
NEW PREP SPORTS INFORMATION ONLINE
We’ve significantly improved our presentation of high school sports news and scores on our Web site (preps.thewnewstribune.com).
“In one spot readers can get stories from the paper and from our preps blog, a display of published TNT high school sports photos available for purchase, scores, standings and schedules,” notes Dale Phelps, our sports editor.
While we’re experimenting with having coaches enter some information on the site, most data comes from information we enter when correspondents call in scores and stats after games. That makes it available for viewing online immediately.
We also use the online database to create a file for publication in the newspaper. In the future we want to add rosters, statistics and opportunities for readers to upload photos.
The project was the work of many newsroom staffers. Among them: news programmer Aaron Ritchey, sports assistant Jonathan Smith, sports reporter Eric Williams and interactive media news producer Laura Gentry.
Dave Zeeck: 253-597-8434
