Printed versus online in the newspaper biz

The Virginian-Pilot, the largest newspaper serving Southside Hampton Roads, has an online presence at PilotOnline. There has always been content in the newspaper that didn’t appear on the website, most notably any op-eds not internally produced. For the most part, though, over the years, more and more of the printed material appeared online.

A couple of months ago, the Pilot made the decision to no longer produce columnists online. Not only did this eliminate Kerry Dougherty and Mike Gruss, but also the columns of editorial writers Don Luzzatto, Roger Chelsey, Christina Nuckols, Candy Hatcher and Daryl Lease, who, for the most part, wrote a single column each week. (Although lately, it seems that hasn’t been happening.)

Note that newspaper subscribers get free access to ePilot, the electronic reproduction of the newspaper. Non-newspapers subscribers can purchase a subscription to ePilot for $5 per month., which, I might add, is a whole lot cheaper than the regular subscription – a minimum of $12 per moth.

Over the past week, the Pilot has had an interesting and informative series on the attack of U-boats in this area during World War II. In the past, such series would have been included on PilotOnline, as the series on Massive Resistance was. But the U-boat series will not be included online; instead, non-subscribers can purchase a booklet containing the eight-part series for $7.

As I have watched this printed versus online situation take place, I’ve had mixed feelings. I wonder how many kids today were introduced, as I was, to reading the newspaper as a daily activity at a young age. When I was eight, my godmother started quizzing me daily on the content of the paper. I developed a life-long love of starting my day with the paper – and rarely leave the house before doing so.  I know my nieces and nephews don’t feel the same way – they get their news from the internet, or by watching TV. So while I may be old school, I recognize that I’m a dying breed and that for survival, any business has to adapt their model to capture the way people operate today. For that reason, I disagree with the Pilot’s move to take content away.

On the other hand, the newspaper’s dwindling revenues are a serious threat – not only to the existence of the newspaper, but also to our community conversation. As the TV “news” gets to be more and more entertainment as opposed to facts, not to mention more slanted in its presentation, the newspaper remains the last source of information that reports what is going on. (Note that I’ve not said that the newspaper isn’t biased – because I don’t believe that to be the case. But that is a topic for another post, one which I’ve been working on for a while.) But what the newspaper has to do is be relevant and provide content that isn’t readily available elsewhere.

I’ve never complained about the national op-eds not being reproduced on PilotOnline – and I never will. Gone are the days when I couldn’t read those op-eds elsewhere. I don’t have to subscribe to the New York Times or The Washington Post to read their op-eds, so to be truthful, I find them an absolute waste of newsprint when they appear in the Pilot. Same with the wire stories on national issues. The series on U-boats was the type of reporting that makes me glad I get the paper every day. But why does it take a special series? Why can’t we have that kind of reporting – like the story that gave the local effect of the Cash for Clunkers program in today’s paper – every single day?

Putting opinion articles in the newspaper only isn’t going to drive folks to subscribe. Putting news in the newspaper only will. I want the Pilot to survive – it may be a rag, but it’s our rag and almost the only game in town. Give us what we can’t get elsewhere – indepth local coverage, good, solid reporting – and I’m sure I won’t be the last subscriber to the paper.