TO OUR READERS:
You are Willamette Week's reason for being. As such, you are our most important stakeholders. Each year on the anniversary of this newspaper's founding, I try to give you relevant information about our current situation, including key financial details, and attempt to place our efforts in the context of today's media. As far as Willamette Week is concerned, this year's message is upbeat; for the larger world of journalism, it is decidedly mixed. This year finds Willamette Week in the best condition ever. Back in 1983, when Mark Zusman and I formed City of Roses Newspaper Co. to acquire Willamette Week from the Eugene Register-Guard, it was in dire financial straits. Now, 14 years later, Willamette Week is a strong company. We print 80,000 copies each week--up from 75,000 last spring--and distribute them at more than 850 locations. Each month, according to our market-research firm, some 337,000 of you read our paper in the Portland metro area. Financially, our news is equally positive. For the first six months of the current fiscal year, which began April 1, revenues are up 41 percent, to $2,734,308 from $1,936,298 in the corresponding period last year. Growth has been strongest in classified advertising. As for profitability, our longstanding goal has been to produce a pretax bottom line of between 7.5 and 10 percent of gross. Though such margins are unimpressive compared to what most big media companies deliver, we've yet to achieve our goal in any full fiscal year. When next March 31 rolls around, however, we hope to achieve a pretax profit of 9 percent or better. Pleasing as these numbers are, there are shadows lurking over the horizon. One is the specter of a new round of hikes in the cost of newsprint--which now accounts for about 29 cents of every dollar we take in. The greater our circulation and the higher our page count, the more troublesome newsprint prices become. We experienced huge price hikes in late 1994 and 1995, only to see prices come down to reasonable levels last year and then rise again in February. A few weeks ago, we were notified that newsprint is going up again--by about 7 percent. Prices are expected to rise again in 1998. There's also the question of what the World Wide Web holds in store for us. We've made considerable investments of time, money and technology in our Web site, but have yet to generate appreciable revenue. For the near future, we expect to put even more resources into our site--with no clear idea of when it will pay for itself. Finally, there's the question of how long the current economy will continue its course. We like to think that our success is all our doing, but clearly the robust health of the local market is a big factor. Back in the winter of 1995-96, we learned how seriously a protracted stretch of bad weather, compounded by a weak holiday shopping season, could harm our business. So now, as our management group engages in the mid-year process of updating this year's business plan, we are trying to gird ourselves for the downturn that is sure to occur one of these years. Many of you are aware of the growing concentration of media ownership in this city. In 1997 the trend continued, with most of the action in radio, where a series of mergers and acquisitions has left Portland with just one major independent commercial station--KXL. The others now belong to one of five broadcasting conglomerates. Concentration of this sort in any industry can harm the consumer. In the journalism business, it can have even more adverse effects by homogenizing information into predetermined formats. Media concentration raises additional concerns. No longer is information just predigested and pigeonholed to increase audience shares. Now it is increasingly shaped and altered to suit the larger objectives of the corporate entities that have come to dominate media ownership. Some of the most blatant examples of this development are discussed in a report released last month by the Institute for Alternative Journalism. In Bottom Line vs. Top Story: The Synergy Report, IAJ documents 25 case studies in which "corporate intervention negatively impacted media content." Most are instances in which media owners tried to alter the contents of news reports to serve their larger business purposes. "America's access to information is under threat," IAJ warns. Recent stories in The Wall Street Journal demonstrate other ways in which the corporatization of journalism inhibits the free flow of printed news. Major advertisers, the Journal reports, have begun to demand prior notice of provocative articles, while big retailers have begun to insist on advance looks at controversial material. You don't have to be a raging Free Speecher to see the chilling effect these practices will have on public life. Any form of controversy, it would appear, has the potential to offend. What happened to A.J. Liebling's dictum that the role of a free and independent press is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted? Perhaps the most disturbing development is occurring at the Los Angeles Times. Publisher Mark Willes, formerly an executive with General Mills, is restructuring his newspaper as a consumer brands company. Henceforth, individual Times sections will be teamed with "business partners" from the sales and circulation departments and will be expected to operate as independent profit centers. Willes' move presages further commoditization of the news. Bringing all this full circle are recent developments in the schools that train America's journalists. As recounted by James Ledbetter in a recent issue of Rolling Stone, a new approach to journalism--known as "integrated marketing communications"--has begun to influence the curriculum at a number of the the nation's leading J-schools. "[I]ntegrated marketing communications," Ledbetter writes, "holds that marketing, public relations and advertising should be taught and practiced as a unified field of communication.... So where does journalism fit in? Some believe that modern technology and marketing tools must be deployed to make journalism as consumer-driven as Starbucks. Instead of the journalist defining what's news, the consumer does." This new language of journalism speaks volumes about its intentions. In terms reminiscent of Marshall McLuhan's, integrated marketing communications seeks to eliminate the critical distance that ought to exist between the news media and its message. "What's at stake in the J-school curriculum war," Ledbetter concludes, "is ultimately how to teach students to think about power and powerful institutions: Do you confront the Pentagon, or do you coddle it? Should you spend your college days thinking about what Wal-Mart wants you to say about a subject, or do you go out and find a real story?" To anyone interested in free and robust public discussion, these trends are troubling. I may be naive, but it remains my sense that the power to choose between true journalism and integrated marketing communications still lies with those of us who operate media companies. "[J]ournalism can't be run like other consumer businesses," insists Tom Rosenstiel, former media critic for the LA Times and current director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism at Columbia University. "News in the hands of market researchers tends toward the familiar. Real news--that which is new--is precisely what eludes the survey researcher and focus group moderator." Clearly, I and the fabulous crew here at Willamette Week see what we're doing as a public service, as well as a growing business enterprise. It is impossible to overstate the importance of this shared sense of mission. We also understand that if we're in the business of trying to make the Portland area a better place in which to live, work and play, we must have readers who share that view. In other words, as I remind myself every year when I write this column, we are in this together. We appreciate your support for what we do, and we always need more of your help in the forms of tips, criticisms and suggestions. Only with your direct feedback can we tell how we're doing, where we should improve, and what stories we're missing. Please write (c/o WW, 822 SW 10th Ave., Portland OR 97205), call (243-2122), fax (243-1115) or e-mail (rmeeker@wweek.com) your thoughts about what does--and what does not--find its way into our pages. Until I hear from you, I offer thanks from all of us here at Willamette Week for sticking with us for another year. Richard H. Meeker |
