Last Friday, I sat in a library conference room in Charles City among other newspaper professionals talking about the successes of our businesses.
Quite frankly, I’m not super excited about driving very far these days (it’s about two hours and 15 minutes, if you’re wondering) but I sure was glad I did.
What took me to Charles City is a class — part of an Iowa Newspaper Foundation program called the Leo Mores Institute. It turns out this guy Leo had a long, varied and successful newspaper career and his two sons, Steve and Alan Mores, (who I met last month, but just Googled because I’m bad with names) thought so much of him that they decided to set up an endowment for the continuing education of newspaper leaders.
Each month we get together and talk about things like the changing media environment, connecting with the community, financial strategies and community leadership. It’s great because I’m among people as passionate as I am about the work we do, but also among these sort of rock star newspaper folks. They usually host.
Last week, our host was a semi-retired publisher by the name of Gene Hall, who I suspect is less semi-retired than most. Gene spoke about many things, but one of the common themes that us newspaper folks have to keep reminding ourselves (and you) is that what we do is important. Local news and community newspapers have value.
I have to admit I did like the way he delivered his thought and it’s probably why it’s stuck with me this week.
"Cut the B.S.," he said. "What we do is important — and if it's important it has value."
Newspapers, as a whole, have undervalued themselves for far too long, he said.
This is the sort of thing that gets journalists like myself nodding, yet shaking my head at the same time. Why have we done this? What were y’all thinking? What can we do about it?
Gratefully, I’m working for a strong community newspaper, and a great company for that matter. We’re addressing this matter head on. In the past year that I’ve been the editor of the Newton Daily News, we’ve made great strides. These upcoming months will be about telling you who we are and how we’re doing it and yes — why it’s important and has value.
If I may pick on my newspaper forefathers for a moment, I must point out one of the greatest flaws on their part. When newspapers went digital, they gave our product away and undervalued it. The same thing happened with music — remember Napster? That was for sure a poor business model and one that almost every community newspaper has remedied.
Here at the Newton Daily News, you can have a few free articles online per month, but really our digital product is for subscribers, and we offer a very reasonable rate. If you’re a print subscriber you get the best of both worlds.
The thing that people forget about newspapers is that we are a business. You don’t see any local restaurants or retailers, for example, handing out free food or goods. They would go broke. Besides, what they are selling has value, right? Just like our community newspaper.
So I invite you to get better acquainted with the news team and the news product we’ve assembled over the last several months. It’s with much gratitude that I thank my news and sports staff for a wonderful first year in Newton.
By the way — the best is yet to come.
Contact Abigail Pelzer
at 641-792-3121 ext. 6530
or apelzer@newtondailynews.com