Metro Newspapers

If you look back over the past 40 years you can see an interesting phenomenon. Despite the growth of TV and the emergence of the cable industry and online media, daily papers are still with us and remain the central forum for news and information.

But while newspapers are enormously important, their impact is being challenged. Between 1987 and 1996, according to the Newspaper Association of America, daily circulation fell by 5.9 million copies. At the same time, morning circulation rose by 5.6 million copies. In effect, readership has shifted from evening papers to morning editions and evening circulation has gone from 23.7 million copies per day in 1987 to 12.2 million in 1996.

But although we have fewer competitive dailies, the information industry -- of which the daily press is a part -- is hardly comatose. We may have fewer competing dailies, but there's no lack of entertainment weeklies, suburban dailies, city magazines, business journals, foreign language publications, religious papers and free advertisers -- many established in just the past few years.

Thus daily papers still face substantial competition. They may be the largest players on the local field, but they're hardly the monopoly of which ideologues complain and their turf and territory are not immune to competition. Home-town Goliaths must produce a viable product each day or lose readers and advertising to more specialized competitors.

To fight the new competitors, daily papers are becoming increasingly segmented. Monday business sections are now common as are weekend inserts on Fridays. When there isn't enough advertising to justify a weekly section, irregular supplements are produced for such topics as new cars, resort living and computers.

Not only are papers becoming increasingly segmented, they're becoming regionalized as well. There are suburban sections, mid-city editions, and Spanish editions, each with a somewhat different slant.

What does it mean to promoters?

First, the public still wants it's daily paper. Selling 57 million of anything is an achievement, selling 57 million papers each day is remarkable.

Second, papers need massive volumes of material to fill the thousands of pages they produce each day. As a comparison, the script for a 30-minute TV newscast can fit comfortably on one or two pages of a daily paper. Because daily papers need so much material, there are many opportunities for promoters.

Third, non-daily print outlets should not be ignored. Around the country there are some 1,500 daily papers -- and nearly 8,000 weeklies with a combined circulation of more than 81 million copies.

Fourth, because of segmentation, daily papers are not monolithic enterprises where a story rejected by one writer is doomed forever. A story that doesn't work on the business pages can often be re-packaged as a metro feature, style article, etc.

The process of obtaining newspaper coverage begins with a careful review target publications. Which sections are most desirable? Are there particular writers who cover your field? Have competitors received coverage and, if so, how much and what kind?

It's worth going to a library and reading back over past stories. You may find a pattern of coverage; you'll surely find good background material to help build a news package.

In broad terms, promoters will want to contact reporters (who cover breaking news), feature writers (who write longer, less time sensitive pieces), editors, deputy editors and assignment editors (who assign stories) and columnists (who produce commentaries). If you have a story that can be packaged for the business, metro, real estate, or feature sections, or perhaps even as breaking news for the first section, you may have 5 or 10 potential contacts to consider with a large city newspaper.

Who gets your first promotional letter?

Pick the section that most interests you and which rationally is most likely to provide coverage. Call up, ask who assigns stories and write that person. Or, if there's one reporter you feel would be particularly interested, phone him or her to see if an information package is desired.

What happens next is uncertain. A daily paper has the capacity to publish material overnight or even in a later edition. Sometimes though, stories languish for days or weeks and then promoters have practical problems that aren't always easy to resolve.

• You've spoken to a writer, found there was interest, sent materials but heard nothing after three weeks. Do you call? Write again? Contact someone else? There's no universal answer, but if you haven't had a response after a week or two, it's not unfair to call and ask if the writer got the materials and still has an interest in the story.

• A feature writer likes your story, gets your news package, interviews you at length but no story appears for five weeks. Now what? Do you call? Complain? Contact another writer on the same paper? At this point it's fair to call the first reporter. It may be that the story did not work out, an editor didn't like article or the editorial calendar is filled for the next month. You can't contact another writer until you know the first story's fate. If you interest another reporter and the first story is published elsewhere in the paper, reporter #2 is going to be more than annoyed. Conversely, if the second reporter writes about you in one section while the feature article is still in storage somewhere, reporter #1 is going to be upset.

• In those few cities where daily papers compete (and sometimes where a city daily competes with suburban papers) there is an unwritten, but very clear, "first interview" rule. If one paper doesn't get the first interview, it won't write about you.

The folks at the first paper may be upset, but at some point there needs to be a clause to the first interview rule, what might be called the "don't sit on it" statute. Under this regulation, reporters invoking the first interview rule must be prepared to deliver prompt coverage or forfeit their right to exclusivity.

Peter G. Miller is an image, marketing, and public relations consultant whose clients include selected national corporations, associations, and web sites. Mr. Miller can be reached at peter@boardroomarts.com