Weekly publications capitalize on community connections

MONTANA - While daily newspapers are shifting their content to digital platforms, weeklies have been slower to move away from print. They have statistically done better at maintaining their print subscribers but as more and more readers demand digital access, the weeklies are taking different strategies to keep their publications relevant. Much of this is done by focusing on hyperlocal coverage and community-centered journalism. 

Weekly newspapers in Montana fared better than average in maintaining their print circulation, showing a 25% decline compared to a 40% decline for Montana daily newspapers and a nationwide decline of 45%.

Of the 16 weeklies in the Pathfinder's data set, two showed an increase with the Yellowstone County News showing the largest increase of 50%. The Seeley Swan Pathfinder also increased by 28%.

While weeklies in Montana saw a smaller drop in print circulation, they have been slower and more resistant to embrace digitalization than daily newspapers in the state.

Publishers from the Yellowstone County News, River Press, Choteau Acantha and The Boulder Monitor shared their thoughts on the state of printed news for Montana weeklies.

Yellowstone County News, a weekly paper based out of Huntley, 14 miles east of Billings, saw an almost 50% growth in print circulation in the past decade. Owner and publisher Jonathan McNiven said he utilized a variety of strategies to increase circulation.

When he originally bought it in 2014, the paper did not have a website. He had previous experience in website building and soon launched one for the publication. Through the site and a radio signal he purchased, McNiven is now able to broadcast local sports coverage to his community.

Another major accomplishment the paper experienced in recent years was becoming the official publication for all of Billings' legal advertising in 2017 and the official publication for all of Yellowstone County's legal advertising in 2019. With this came legitimacy and a new audience of readers who were exclusively interested in following legal notices.

The River Press is a weekly paper based out of Fort Benton in Choteau County. Bethany DeBorde has been a publisher since 2017. In the past 10 years her publication has seen a print circulation decline of 12.68%.

While her publication has also increased its online presence, its content is available as a digital reproduction of the paper and only available to subscribers. Since there are no individual article pages, it allows print advertisers to maintain their position so they are not being undercut by online ads.

The downside to this approach is that it is difficult to share individual articles with others online. She has been hesitant to take a full jump into digital content because she does not want to lose her current subscribers. She also is unsure if altering the content format is feasible for a paper as small as hers.

"It is a lot of work," she said. "It's super time consuming."

DeBorde believes that any decline in print subscriptions has been more than made up for in online subscriptions. She added that they have not seen as big of a circulation decline as other publications because all of their content is behind a paywall and their readers must have a subscription to read it. They also focus on being hyperlocal to the Fort Benton and Choteau County communities because no other publications are covering those areas.

"It's very much a community newspaper and people like reading about what's happening with the people that they know and care about," she said. "I think that's a big reason that we are maintaining the subscribers that we are."

Other weekly Montana publications also feel hyperlocal coverage has helped maintain their circulation because their content is exclusive.

"Our philosophy has always been that if we continue to cover our county and the communities within our county, with a fine tooth comb ... well, then people will continue to read us because there's no place else for them to get that level of coverage," said Melody Martinsen, editor of The Choteau Acantha weekly newspaper based out of Choteau in Teton County. 

Martinsen has owned the publication with her husband since 1990. In the last decade they have seen a print circulation decline of 9.65%. She attributes the largest declining factor to her out-of-county circulation because she feels they can access enough free content on the website. 

One of the most popular aspects has been their Teton County sports coverage.

"People out here are still very invested in high school athletics so I think it's important to provide that coverage," she said.

The Boulder Monitor publisher Keith Hammonds has been trying to reach new readers by expanding the publication's coverage into the northern part of their county, which had previously been under-covered. There they have also increased their focused marketing and sampling. He said this has been one of their most effective strategies at gaining subscribers.

Based on the circulation reports, the publication, run out of Boulder in Jefferson County, has seen its print circulation cut by more than 50% since its high point in 2011.  However that year the paper had just merged with another weekly paper in the county and combined their readership.

Hammonds, who has been the publisher for the past two and a half years, said another potential contributing factor to the decrease was that Boulder's population "declined significantly" following the closure of one of the town's biggest employers, the Montana Developmental Center, in 2015.

Social media has been a challenge for Hammond's publication because in recent years he has had to quickly release breaking news like wildfires faster in order to compete with the rapid stream of information.

"Ten years ago, we might have been the only source out there for keeping up with wildfires and now there are many sources," he said. "And we have to figure out ... what is it that we do that provides real value for our online audience that's paying attention all the time?"

In 2019 Hammonds launched a new website for the Monitor and has seen significant digital growth. Digital subscribers now make up more than 23% of the circulation with postal reports showing digital subscribers were up from 41 in 2017 to 174 in 2021.

While 23% might not seem like much of a digital growth compared to dailies like the Missoulian which has more than 50% of their circulation from digital subscribers, it is significant for a weekly. For comparison the River Press, Yellowstone County News and Choteau Acantha all range from one to two percent.

DeBorde said the internet has also created new challenges for her publication. Despite media consumption being higher than ever, it has also been more difficult to figure out how to appropriately monetize content so it can generate sufficient revenue to run a business.

Her smallest subscriber base is in younger demographics. Being a millennial herself, DeBorde said her generation and younger ones are not used to reading newspapers regularly.

It has been a challenge to remain relevant to younger residents and communicate that they can provide useful community information. She added another issue has been competing with bad journalism and fake news that spin stories to promote agendas.

To address this, Hammonds said The Boulder Monitor has to earn the trust of its residents over other outlets that publish biased narratives.

"There are all sorts of threats out there," he said. "I think that for papers like ours, it does come down to putting out a great, high quality product that people trust. It means engaging people in a way that helps us understand what those are. And thinking differently about our role as journalists."

McNiven also encourages his staff to remain unbiased and diligent in their reporting.

"Our readers aren't stupid," he said. "They're reading us because they want the hard news. They don't want fake news. I think if we can connect with our readers, and do a good job, and become that trusted source that many have felt like has been lost."

McNiven advises other publications to not be stagnant and to take initiatives to find new ways to build their brands. He uses social media and event hosting to further his publication's profile and outreach within the community. His annual Yellowstone DigIt Days event allows them to produce a special publication that helps spread the Yellowstone County News name throughout the event's duration. 

"We have to learn how to be flexible to the market," he said. "We have to understand how we are going to connect to people. As a newspaper industry, we cannot be stuck in this box that says it's only the newspaper that does it. We have to think outside the box and we have to expand." 

Martinsen's biggest concern for the print industry as a whole is publications becoming more detached from their communities by outsourcing staff and having production done out-of-state. 

"That is the wrong direction to go," she said. "I think that people no longer subscribe to those papers, because those papers no longer offer them intimate coverage of their communities."

Because of The Choteau Acantha's small staff size, Martinsen said that their publication can be much more responsive to industry changes.

"I remain more and more convinced [that a corporate structure] is not the best model for newspapers. I think that small family ownership is probably better, [but] I'm glad that there's other newspapers, [even if] they're run by corporations. I'm just glad that there's newspapers."

McNiven said there is a stigma that newspapers are dead but he thinks that that is completely wrong.

"The weeklies are the heartbeat of the communities," McNiven said. "We need to continue to build that trust and be a trusted source. And if we can [get people to trust us], and do it in a way that connects with them, then ... they'll continue to want to support us in whatever realm is beneficial for them."