Facing increasing competition from Web sites such as Craigslist and Monster.com, Vernon-based Reminder newspapers are in for a monster of a change.
The self-proclaimed most widely-read weekly newspaper in the state will soon launch an ambitious redesign that executives hope will better emphasize its hyper-local news coverage, and drive its growth.
The Reminder, a poly-bagged “shopper” delivered to homes in 62 communities in Central and Eastern Connecticut, will debut a redesign within weeks in all 16 of its editions. The free weekly reaches about 230,000 readers, and competes in some areas with other shoppers — so named for their ad-heavy content — published by larger newspapers such as The Hartford Courant and the Journal Inquirer.
Publisher Kenneth Hovland Jr. declined to give details about the redesign, saying he has yet to finalize rate cards and strategy with the newspaper’s sales team. But prototypes of the new paper viewed by the Hartford Business Journal showed a drastic design change, featuring a black and red front page color scheme and a cleaner look to its news content. Its “Speak Out” column — a list of everyday gripes logged by readers — was still displayed prominently on the left-hand side of the front page.
Brass Tacks Design of Norfolk, Va., the firm that redesigned the Waterbury Republican-American and the classified section of the Hartford Courant, spearheaded The Reminder’s redesign over several weeks last fall.
“It wasn’t that long ago that The Reminder was a shopper with no editorial content,” said Brass Tacks’ Alan Jacobson. “Slowly, the content has grown, but the presentation hadn’t,” a problem Jacobson said the new design fixed.
“What we’re finding is that free community newspapers have grown significantly over the last decade or so,” said Paul Sciaraffa, president of the Free Community Paper of New England, a trade group of the region’s free weeklies. “More papers that are joining our group have heavier editorial content, and that is driving circulation pretty strongly as far as shoppers go. The feeling is that people want their local news, and that seems to be a big strength for our industry.”
“The future is really bright for our part of the industry, although we’re still trying to figure out what we need to do to sell ads on the Internet,” said Sciarafa.
The Internet Problem
The Reminder employs a unique method to drive classified ad sales, a way that better competes against Internet giants such as Craigslist.com. The Reminder is part of a network of free weeklies that allows users to post free ads to the Web site through Backpages.com, in a site that looks astonishingly similar to Craigslist. Of course, there is one small difference: Before finished posting a free ad online, one can check a box and pay $35.30 to have the ad run in all editions of The Reminder.
Presumably, a prettier Reminder will make checking that box a more attractive option for classified buyers.
Because they are not forcing readers to write checks in order to receive their publication, free weekly newspapers seem immune to the declining revenue and circulation problems that have plagued paid daily newspapers for years, a fact that probably influenced The Reminder to undertake its redesign.
“Free weeklies are not following the general trends of daily newspapers,” said Timothy Bingaman, president and CEO of the Circulation Verification Council, an audit bureau based in St. Louis, Mo.
But another factor in the redesign may be legislation that is pending in the Connecticut General Assembly. A bill introduced by state Rep. Bruce Zalaski, D-Southington, would, as of July 1, force all free newspapers in the state delivered to a residential or commercial address to “contain a conspicuous notice on the first or second page of the newspaper regarding how to stop delivery of the newspaper.”
By redesigning the Reminder papers now, and accenting their editorial content, the company may be working to hedge any impetus to stop having its publications distributed as widely as they are now.
Pubs Growing
Although New England weeklies are doing slightly worse than other parts of the country, the average circulation and revenue at free weeklies in the region still grew as much as 2 percent in the year ending Sept. 30, 2006. That compares with newspapers, where daily circulation in the same time fell by 6 percent, and Sunday circulation fell by 7 percent. In some parts of the country, free weeklies’ circulation climbed as much as 3 percent in that period. “That’s a pretty big swing,” Bingaman said.
Gross profit margins at free weekly shoppers can be higher than 40 percent, said Thomas William, a Savannah, Ga.-based consultant and author of several books on publishing.
“The industry is labeled with this downward trend simply because paid circulation for large metro dailies is falling,” said CVC’s Bingaman. “But those challenges aren’t really seen on the weekly side.”
