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Tight times
In covering the news and events in Rappahannock County, we often have heard mild rebukes about the shrinking content of the paper, that many events are not given coverage, and that some issues of interest don't always get reported.We share the same sentiments. There are stories we want to write, events we want to cover, news we want to report – more than the space we are allotted each week.
No one needs to be reminded that we are in the grip of a constricting economy, and as consumer spending has dried up, so too have advertising dollars. Staff also has been reduced to save costs, and subsequently our ability to cover everything going on in the county.
Newsprint has nearly doubled in price this year, and newspapers that ignore the relationship between ads and editorial content are not destined to last very long. In terms of our ad/news ratio guidelines, the Rappahannock News is firmly in line with industry standards.
The fact is, if we have a lot of ads, we have room to print a lot of news. The converse, regrettably, is also true.
We can make a persuasive argument that merchants should devote even more of their budgets to advertising in a downturn, but merchants make their own decision in the end.
Newspapers across the nation are struggling, hit on one side by shrinking revenue, on the other by increased competition from the Internet.
The Rappahannock News has a long and distinguished history in the county. The paper – and its parent company, Arcom Publishing – are making whatever changes we can to ensure that the Rappahannock News will have a long and distinguished future.
We have had to make some very difficult decisions about what news to cover and how we cover it.
The economy will improve, however, and when the dust settles, there are likely to be fewer – but better – newspapers. With the understanding and patience of our readers and the support of our advertisers, we fully hope to be one of them.
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