When I was down in beautiful Sussex County for the Christmas holiday (my parents live near Bethany Beach), I had a chance to read their local paper, The Coastal Point. I believe it is a weekly newspaper. It has all the local news and events you could need. This is the future of local newspapers across this country. It is the future of the News Journal.
Today, the NJ announced format changes as a step in that direction:
Business has moved into the “A” section, along with our best Delaware stories and the national and international report. The editorial pages continue to anchor the back of the section.
Life has merged into Local. Comics, puzzles and TV grids will now be found each day in this combined section, which will continue to carry obituaries.
…
The new format is leaner. But The News Journal will continue to cover all of Delaware, and we’ve tried to package the news to make your reading experience enjoyable.
There will come a point where regional newspapers like the News Journal will have to stop covering national and international events (even if those stories are coming from the AP) and economic news, for they simply cannot afford the paper and ink those stories take up. Indeed, trimming the News Journal to solely local news and events is probably the next step the News Journal will take in order to peserve the daily format. But I think the future of the local newspaper, especially if that local newspaper exists in a large metropolitian area that has a much larger newspaper, is weeklies like the Coastal Point. Think about all the local daily newspapers surrounding Philadelphia besides the News Journal. Each suburban county as at least one. That is redundacy and during this period of downsizing such fat is going to be cut.
Simply put, consumers get their national and regional news online now. I don’t go to the News Journal for the latest on the conflict in the Middle East, or for information on how the Stock Market is doing. No, I go to CNBC or the Wall Street Journal or CNN or MSNBC or the BBC.
I don’t think the daily newspaper will disappear everywhere, like in major cities like Philadelphia and New York and Washington. But they will disappear in satellite regions surrounding those major cities. The Star Ledger of Newark (near New York). The Wilmington News Journal (near Philadelphia)? The Delaware County Times? The Bucks County Courier or the other suburban newspapers surrounding Philly? They are all daily papers and they will all be gone from that format in the next few years.
The future of these local newspapers is that of the Coastal Point.