I. Finances
Though Willamette Week has been around for 25 years,
it has only been in the past seven that we have enjoyed significant
revenue growth. The driving force behind our business success
is readership. Back in 1990, we distributed some 50,000 copies
a week at about 400 distribution points. We had fewer than
200,000 regular readers. Today, we circulate nearly 85,000
papers at over 900 locations. Current market research identifies
more than 365,200 of you as regular readers.
In the fiscal year that ends next March 31, we expect gross
receipts from newspaper operations to exceed $6.5 million.
Most notable are automotive advertising sales, where we
have built a healthy franchise. We also appear to have stemmed
a two-year decline in Personals' revenue. Finally, we have
benefited from relatively lower newsprint prices than in
recent years, though the cost of paper jumped back up a
notch on Oct. 1.
As a result, pretax income at Willamette Week should
meet our stated goal of 9 to 10 percent of revenues. Though
that's less than half of what most media companies regularly
take to the bottom line, it should allow us to make significant
reinvestments in staff and equipment in the year ahead.
II. Trends
I've been associated with this newspaper
since its founding in November 1974. At one time or another,
I've been reporter, editor, driver, receptionist, paste-up
person, sales director and publisher. For me, the continuing
attraction of Willamette Week resides in its potential
for social change. No, we can't ban the bomb or end racism,
but in our own limited, local way we can try to help Portlanders
strive for a shared sense of community and make this a better
place in which to live, work and play. This week's story
on pay disparities between white and African-American public-school
principals, for example, raises tough questions about a
sensitive topic and attempts to provide some answers.
At the same time, anyone who follows the information business
is certainly aware of troubling developments in our industry.
First among these is the continuing movement toward consolidation
in the hands of corporate monoliths whose motives have little
to do with the betterment of their audiences. I wrote last
week in 500 Words about clustering, a new business practice
in which daily newspapers are now attempting to dominate
their markets by buying up smaller competitors. The goal
is not to improve the reporting of the news, but to eliminate
the threat of competition and to achieve increasing operational
efficiencies.
Readers, of course, are aware of what's going on. A recent
Freedom Foundation survey reported that 63 percent of those
polled believe "the profit motive" often improperly influences
news coverage. The national leader in ethics-challenged
journalism may well be found in Southern California. There,
a few years ago, the Times Mirror Company placed Mark Willes,
a breakfast-cereal marketer, at the helm of the Los Angeles
Times. Willes immediately set about knocking down the
traditional barrier between the newsroom and the business
department, raising fears that news stories may be created
for advertisers.
Last month, members of the LA Times newsroom were
outraged to learn that their newspaper not only was the
sponsor of a new sports arena, but had agreed to share with
it the profits of an issue of the paper devoted to coverage
of its opening. Willes' choice as publisher, Kathryn Downing
(a graduate of Portland's Lewis & Clark College), apologized
profusely, but you can be sure the Staples Arena fiasco
won't mark the end of this trend.
Another disturbing development in mass media is found on
the Internet, where virtually anything goes.
"[T]he Web looks a lot like a computer version of print
or broadcast media," writes Denise Caruso in the Nov. 8
New York Times. "But it is neither. As a rule, it
has not adopted the kinds of standards and practices that
are assumed in traditional media, where advertisements and
paid announcements are labeled and conflicts of interest
are, at least in theory, disclosed as a matter of course."
Caruso lists examples of Web publishers taking money from
advertisers to provide positive copy about their products.
She also mentions that listings in "comparison shopping
sites...are based on which companies paid to be listed with
them."
As a general matter, people don't distinguish between forms
of media. Because we're all lumped together this way, the
sins of Web publishers may wash over the rest of us. Soon,
that is, the Web's lack of ethical standards may raise skepticism
of all media to new heights.
Finally, there's what is often called "the tyranny of measurement,"
a phrase that refers to one of the unintended consequences
of the rise of the personal computer.
In some ways, Willamette Week and the microprocessor
have grown up together. While we have done a lot to embrace
new technology, we are all too aware of its less desirable
effects on journalism.
By expediting, simplifying and cheapening the crunching
of numbers and data, the microprocessor has enhanced any
and every process that can be reduced to digits. In the
world of marketing, the personal computer serves as a powerful
tool of segmentation and specialization. One effect of technology
has been to drive newspapers--once the ultimate mass medium--to
become increasingly individualized.
The fearsome implications of the microprocessor's impact
on print media were brought home to me a few years ago when
Cole Campbell, then an assistant to the editor at the Virginian
Pilot (where Oregonian editor Sandy Rowe was
then in charge) spoke at the annual convention of the Association
of Alternative Newsweeklies in Seattle. Campbell described
"the newspaper of tomorrow." As a physical product, it very
much resembles today's newspaper. But instead of news, the
lead headline on the front page would contain an important
personal reminder retrieved from the newspaper's data base
("Richard, don't forget to get your wife flowers for her
birthday today!"), while coverage of those parts of the
world that each reader was interested in could appear in
summary form in a neat little column at the bottom of the
front page. Elsewhere in Campbell's newspaper would be found
sections specially tailored to readers' personal interests,
such as home decorating, gardening and fashion. There would
be limited local news, and most of that would be zoned to
the reader's part of town, perhaps even to his or her own
street.
Campbell's vision seems absurd. Yet think of how each day's
paper already is broken into sections that speak to ever-narrower
interests. Think, too, of how Portland's daily increasingly
segments its coverage into different zones--so as to allow
advertisers more efficient access to targeted geographic
areas of town. Just look at Monday's paper. Gresham readers,
who subscribe to the Metro East edition, didn't get the
story about PCC's expansion plans for its Rock Creek campus
in Washington County; Hillsboro readers, meanwhile, missed
the profile of a former tagger's efforts to help troubled
kids in Northeast Portland. The growing emphasis on zoning
the news detracts from coverage of issues that are important
to all residents of the Portland metro area.
These developments highlight Willamette Week's special
place in Portland journalism. Though we pride ourselves
on edgy news coverage and believe in meeting your needs
as readers, we nonetheless see an important role for a newspaper
that speaks to the larger concerns of the community it serves.
Moreover, we remain unreconstructed boosters of Portland.
That's why our coverage--and our distribution--are designed
for readers interested in the events and larger public life
of this remarkable place.
In the midst of so much technological change and information
proliferation, we consider ourselves incredibly fortunate
to have so many of you as readers. You are quite simply
our reason for being; from you we derive hope and inspiration.
Thank you,
Richard H. Meeker
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Willamette Week | originally
published November 10,
1999 |
