Every once in a while, I’ll grab one of our archive books to see how we handled a particular issue. Sometimes, I have unexpected reactions when seemingly insignificant nuances pop off the page.

There’s one thing I immediately noticed when I glanced through 2011: Change.

We can all agree that we’ve seen a lot of transition in the past three years — some forced by economic conditions, some simply because life pushes us in different directions. The newspaper business is no different.

Part of me says that’s a good thing. Our pages should mirror life, from hometown publications like ours to large-scale metro papers.

I recently watched a documentary called “Page One: Inside the New York Times,” which dealt with our industry and how it’s changed. One argument is that newspapers wrote their own obituary when they started to give information away online for free. It’s difficult to argue against that concept.

Clearly, that model struggles to pay for itself through traditional sources — advertising and subscriptions — particularly because half the model is missing.

As revenue streams decline, savvy business owners cut their expenses to keep their operations afloat. The ones who do it wisely often can keep their doors open and ride the waves of recession.

But we also see the rise of electronic communication, the need to instantly know the latest details and the platforms that allow users access at the push of a button.

The combination of declining revenues and information technology has created a media revolution. With Facebook and Twitter, tablets like iPad and Galaxy, and e-readers like Kindle and Nook, it’s getting easier every day to browse, read, share and comment on stories or friends’ statuses.

People have changed, too.

In our office, we said goodbye to four advertising representatives and added two in the past 12 months. A net loss of 50 percent.

Two other front-office positions were budget casualties. 

Our newsroom has the same number of people — four — with one new face that we welcomed in November.

Our reporters have been asked to keep track of many more things than I had to worry about when I first started in the newspaper business nearly 15 years ago. Each week, they have check boxes not only for stories in print but for our website and social media feeds, too. We share our one staff photographer with our sister paper in Puyallup, so reporters at both locations sometimes are asked to take their own photos.

It’s an exciting job, one that’s different on a day-to-day basis. And we’re excited about a few additions in 2012, primarily a program that will allow us to have automatic web feeds and social media links once our stories are released for publication, plus an electronic, searchable archive. We’ve been doing both functions manually for years.

We’re also looking forward to developing partnerships, both with community clubs and organizations, and our sister publications, particularly The News Tribune.

We get to redesign how news organizations disseminate information, and that’s the biggest transition of all.


Brian McLean is the editor of The Peninsula Gateway and The Puyallup Herald. He can be reached at 253-853-9245, by email at brian.mclean@gateline.com, on Twitter, @gateway_brian, or at www.facebook.com/gatewaybrian.