Bob Collins
If a person is walking naked down the streets of Crookston, it may take longer before the residents can read about it in the newspaper.
The smallest daily newspaper in Minnesota will no longer be a daily newspaper at all. It’s the latest paper to cut back print production. The Crookston Daily Times will publish only on Mondays and Wednesdays in what’s called a “frequency reduction plan,” the Crookston Times’ managing editor, Mike Christopherson, writes.
Web stories will go behind a paywall.
This is no fun. Since 1885 we’ve been the Crookston Daily Times. While it’s obvious print news is struggling basically across the board, the current crew at the Times…we can’t help but feel like we’ve somehow failed. How else could we possibly feel?
We get it. It’s a money thing. You need to invest your resources in the for-profit business world in things that have the best chance to produce a bottom line on your budget that’s as deep in the black as possible. The number of Times print subscribers has been on a slow downward trend for some time, and the majority of those subscribers, to put it as politely as possible, are not exactly in the Millennial age demographic. At the same time, our website traffic has grown and our social media presence has expanded. Still, clicks, likes, shares and retweets don’t pay the bills, print and online subscription fees and advertising revenue do.
But understanding why this is transpiring doesn’t make it less frustrating. For many, the Crookston Daily Times is not viewed as a traditional business that needs to make money. Through many eyes, we’re seen as a community institution that has always been here and will always be here.
To its credit, the newspaper is not cutting staff.
(h/t: Peter Cox)
