Illustration by Rich Hauck.
In the October 2016 edition of TheBurg, Editor Larry Binda bemoaned the decline of the newspaper business and the projected end to some publications.
He decried the woes of the local daily (turned three days a week), The Patriot-News, and its something-to-be-desired online product, PennLive, version of the news.
I couldn’t agree with him more, but please don’t tar the entire newspaper industry with one brush.
Reason? Here at The Sun, which covers Hershey, Hummelstown, Palmyra and the surrounding townships, things are just fine. How fine? In 2007, when wife Rosemary and I sold The Sun, then covering Hershey, Hummelstown and Lower Dauphin County, we had just experienced the best year of the 37 years we owned the paper. This was in spite of the fact that The Patriot-News was more than 10 times larger than us and still had full-time reporters covering our coverage area.
Today, The Patriot-News’ circulation is less than half of what it was in 2007, and The Sun’s circulation has increased by 44 percent, with advertising revenue at record levels.
Why? Because we never forgot our mission. I had a standard phrase when we owned, and I edited The Sun—nobody gave a damn what I thought about Red China. They wanted to know what I thought about the Derry Township supervisors (the governing body that runs Hershey).
We recognized that no one bought The Sun to get their national, international or even state news. They wanted to know what was happening right around here and about their neighbors. You know—the mom and pop stuff—local government, school news, church news, local high school and Little League sports, police news, who bought and sold their house, etc. Also, lots of really good pictures and, oh yes, four-color availability throughout the paper. In other words, all the news they couldn’t get anywhere else.
We sit right in the middle between The Patriot-News and the Lebanon Daily News, and both papers left us with lots of local news they didn’t cover.
The dailies just didn’t get it. They continue to fill their front pages with national and international news, which most readers got last night on the television 11 o’clock news and pushed state, county and local news back further and further in their product with less and less detailed coverage.
Take The Patriot-News, for example. They are sitting right here in the seat of state government and should be the authority on what is happening on the Hill in all branches of state government. Yet that title belongs to the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. That, plus the fact they seemingly haven’t yet realized half the population of Harrisburg city is black, but you’d never know it except in the police and crime reporting. African-American social news? What’s that?
To the east of The Sun, our circulation now exceeds that of the Lebanon Daily News, which is suffering some of the same maladies as The Patriot-News.
Yes, The Sun is fortunate. We only have three school districts and the Milton Hershey School to cover, while The Patriot-News probably has 10 times that many. We also have the Penn State M.S. Hershey Medical Center (now the area’s largest employer) and the Hershey Company, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts and Hershey Trust (now No. 2 employer), while The Patriot-News and Lebanon Daily News try to cover those and many more businesses, hospitals, etc. But we work with them—most have a PR person—and give them good, if not always to their liking, coverage.
Yet, for example, The Patriot-News continues to cut staff, even some of their best. Guess what? Some are now writing for The Sun. Not full-time, mind you, but part-time or as stringers. We also continue the program I started many years ago of utilizing budding young high school journalists, who get their first taste of the business with us and get some good clippings in the process for those college entrance interviews.
So, Editor Larry, it’s not all that bad. You point to the demise of your competition, Fly and Mode, as major competitors. And why? Because you’ve obviously done some market research and are producing a better product, especially under new Publisher J. Alex Hartzler. Your competitors, and ours, are just pumping out the same old product.
William S. Jackson is the former owner/editor of the Sun.
Editor’s Note: Editor Larry agrees with much of the author’s argument that some newspapers have made a critical mistake, both to their missions and their businesses, by dialing back local coverage. Like The Sun, TheBurg’s circulation and revenue figures will hit record highs this year.
