TERRE HAUTE —
Rarely does a week go by when someone doesn’t call, write or stop me on the street to express how much they value their local newspaper and appreciate what it means to the community. Usually they like to tell me that it’s the print edition they find most satisfying, but many acknowledge they also use the online edition to keep an eye on things as well.
It is also becoming more frequent that I hear readers state they follow the news from the Tribune-Star on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Our sports reporters have large followings on Twitter, and fans of high school and college sports are finding it’s fun to follow their favorite teams, such as the ISU Sycamores, in real time during games. You can’t see video of the contests, but accounts of the action and color commentary by our sports reporters are far superior than anything you’d get on TV or radio, which is often not available at all.
While our print edition remains the heart and soul of the newspaper, the digital product becomes more robust and relevant by the day. That trend will continue. We’re no longer just a newspaper, we’re a news organization.
Technology, of course, changes things. Any business or institution that expects to remain a vital part of its community must change
with it.
For the newspaper industry, it has not always been an easy process. Real change is rarely easy under any circumstances.
Despite constant change in the industry and ways news is delivered to newspapers’ legions of faithful readers, many things remain the same. The past decade has posed challenges, but the future remains bright.
Caroline H. Little, president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America in Arlington, Va., summed it up succinctly in a column she wrote in observance of National Newspaper Week, which has been celebrated across America this week.
“It has been painful to bring costs in line with revenue and recast the product to reflect the realities of the new media world,” Little wrote. “But one thing that has not changed is our historic mission of informing and enlightening, agitating and entertaining, protecting and defending the public’s right to know.
There is no question that newspapers have learned how to function quite well in a digital world. Our communities are better for it. There is simply no product of any kind that comes close to doing what the new newspaper does.
You may sometimes still hear “Gloomy Gus” down at the coffee shop or grocery store talking about the demise of the American newspaper. But that notion is beginning to disappear as evidence mounts that newspapers have positioned themselves for a grand resurgence.
As for the Tribune-Star, we are proud to have more than 20,000 paid subscribers who depend on us every day to tell them what they need to know about their communities. Add in the pass-along “eyes” reading print editions, and the hundreds of thousands who view items from our digital editions each month, and you begin to understand the scope of our newspaper’s ability to reach people. We’re not alone. The stats are impressive, as Little is glad to demonstrate.
“Newspapers reach more than 100 million adults — nearly 6 in 10 of the U.S. adult Internet population — during a typical month,” she writes. “Consumers age 25 and above still are the core audience for our print product, but newspapers also reach nearly 60 percent of the critical 18-to-34 demographic in print and online during an average week.”
Occasionally, having heard exaggerated reports of our industry’s challenges, readers tell us how fearful they are that someday their newspaper may no longer exist. We do our best to calm those fears and make our case as a strong, vibrant and expanding segment of the news media. We haven’t always told our story as well as we should. National Newspaper Week is a good time to begin to correct that.
Max Jones can be reached at 812-231-4336, or by e-mail at max.jones@tribstar.com. Follow him on Twitter, @TribStarMax.
Max Jones
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Max Jones, Tribune-Star editor
Discussion
MAX JONES: Newspapers have story to tell about bright future
- Max Jones
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MAX JONES: For loyal readers, a bit of news from the T-S newsroom
As journalists toiling to create a content-rich, relevant and compelling community newspaper each day, we feel a special bond with our legions of readers across the Wabash Valley and beyond.
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MAX JONES: The American Newspaper: Changing? Yes. Dying? No way!
It happened again this past January when all those “looking at the year ahead” stories started popping up on Internet “news” websites and broadcast “news” programs. Under a provocative headline reading something like “Five industries/businesses doomed to tank in the coming year,” there it was, a prediction based on an unsubstantiated “expert” analysis that the newspaper industry will continue in 2013 to suffer its slide into oblivion.
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MAX JONES: Call it religion if you want, it’s still bigotry
The tiny grocery store my grandfather operated in the 1950s and ’60s was often a gathering spot for the colorful cast of neighborhood characters that populated my hometown. I liked hanging out there with my brothers or cousins because it was good entertainment and we all enjoyed the way our granddad interacted with the locals.
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MAX JONES: Social media can actually serve a useful purpose
If you’ve spent any time at all on Facebook and Twitter, you know that so much of what we now call social media is mindless banter. Not that this is a bad thing.
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MAX JONES: There are simple ways to get your letter published
As an old year turns into a new year, I am inclined to look back and assess the newspaper’s performance on behalf of readers the past 12 months. When I do, the volume and quality of reader letters we publish always amazes me.
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MAX JONES: Newspapers have story to tell about bright future
Rarely does a week go by when someone doesn’t call, write or stop me on the street to express how much they value their local newspaper and appreciate what it means to the community. Usually they like to tell me that it’s the print edition they find most satisfying, but many acknowledge they also use the online edition to keep an eye on things as well.
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Many years ago — too many to ponder at the moment — I joined a community theater troupe in Sullivan and had the opportunity to perform in several Broadway musicals. In one instance, I was fortunate to have the lead role portraying George M. Cohan in the musical “George M!”
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MAX JONES: News dynamics sometimes test an editor’s principles
It has been a long-standing policy at the Tribune-Star not to publish the names of crime victims
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MAX JONES: Got a question for Lugar-Mourdock debate? Submit it
Hoosier voters, especially those who choose a Republican ballot for the May 8 primary election, face a difficult decision this spring. Longtime U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar faces a spirited re-election challenge from state Treasurer Richard Mourdock for the GOP Senate nomination. The winner advances to a general election showdown in the fall with the presumed Democrat nominee, Rep. Joe Donnelly, and any third-party or independent candidates who qualify to run.
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MAX JONES: The sun never sets on Indiana’s time-zone debate
When Mitch Daniels aggressively pushed for Indiana to adopt daylight-saving time in his first term as governor, I admit I was not enthusiastic. The state, I figured, had found a way to handle its awkward time-zone geography by merely maintaining the time status quo while states around it changed their clocks twice a year. We peacefully coexisted with that strategy for a couple of decades.
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For those of us who’ve watched the inspired growth and development of downtown Indianapolis through the years, it’s hard to understand sometimes the amazement some express at what’s been created.
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MAX JONES: More changes and challenges, but we’re getting there
As a newspaper lands on your porch each day, or you grab it from a local vendor, the complex manufacturing process that goes into producing it is probably the furthest thing from your mind.
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MAX JONES: Arranging the pieces so it all makes sense
Putting together a newspaper, with its diverse mix of content, is sort of like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. You just have to keep mixing, matching and playing with the pieces until things begin to look right.
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MAX JONES: Community newspapers too valuable to go away
These days, rarely a week goes by without someone — a co-worker, a friend, a professional associate, an acquaintance, etc. — asking for my thoughts about the future of the newspaper industry.
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MAX JONES: Angry emotion yet to rear its head in mayoral race
October has arrived. Five weeks remain before Election Day, and a staple ingredient seems to be missing from Terre Haute’s mayoral campaign season.
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MAX JONES: Join us as we walk in the shadows of 9/11
The 10th anniversary of 9/11 has sparked renewed interest toward a haunting time in modern history. With all that’s happened the past 10 years related to the terrorist attacks of 2001, it still seems like only yesterday that we all were watching those terrible images of commercial airliners flying into buildings, towers collapsing and grief-stricken people all across America — and the world — mourning the victims.
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MAX JONES: 9/11 ‘moments’ still vivid 10 years later
With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaching, Americans are recalling in vivid detail where they were when they first learned of the terrorist attacks.
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MAX JONES: Something special — courtesy of your newspaper
Publishing a daily newspaper is our bread and butter here at the Tribune-Star.
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MAX JONES: Ernie Pyle never ceases bringing pride to Indiana
Once again, Ernie Pyle has made me proud to be a journalist.
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MAX JONES: What do you know about that founding Declaration?
Of all the national holidays Americans celebrate, July 4th — Independence Day — sports the most essential link to the country’s shared history and ideals.
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MAX JONES: Ready, action! Video lets us tell even better stories
Those of you who make the Tribune-Star’s online edition part of your reading routine — and there are approximately 40,000 of you each week who do so — have been treated recently to an enhanced feature on our website.
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MAX JONES: Vigo County played active role in Civil War history
When the Tribune-Star set out to find a way to commemorate Vigo County’s unique role in Civil War history on the 150th anniversary of its beginning, I was concerned it might be difficult to find much information on the subject locally.
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MAX JONES: Local seminar to shed light on access
Transparency in public information is an important principle for the proper functioning of government at all levels. Vigilance is key in ensuring that public records and meetings remain open and accessible to citizens of our communities.
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MAX JONES: Readers benefit from new resource
The Tribune-Star’s primary mission is to report news and tell stories that are relevant to our large community of readers, helping them be better informed and more engaged citizens.
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MAX JONES: Farewell to Stephanie, for a while
The Tribune-Star and its legions of readers throughout the Wabash Valley were extremely fortunate six years ago to welcome back a native daughter.
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MAX JONES: Friends ready for next big step at Pyle historic site
The campaign to preserve the legacy of World War II journalist Ernie Pyle in his hometown of Dana passed a milestone last week. Indiana’s Natural Resources Commission voted to end the state’s involvement in the Pyle historic site and turn it over to the Friends of Ernie Pyle organization.
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Max Jones: Taking the pulse of community progress
Terre Haute and Vigo County have been in a period of vibrant change in recent years.
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