In the clearest local sign yet that the American newspaper industry is in trouble, the San Antonio Express-News last week began notifying readers in some 30 South and Central Texas counties that they’ll no longer be able to subscribe or to buy the paper whose masthead proclaims itself “The voice of South Texas since 1865.”
“Obviously, newspapers are transitioning,” Express-News President and Publisher Tom Stephenson acknowledged. “The core product is not attracting younger readers the way it once did. That’s leading to declines in circulation and revenue. Add in production costs and newsprint costs, and we were delivering newspapers in the state at a significant loss.”
Stephenson called the decision “difficult but necessary.”
The Express-News is the last of the state’s major newspapers to pull back, but it’s a trend. The area from which the Express-News is withdrawing – effective Dec. 31 – is roughly the size of Maine, with a circulation of about 12,000 papers daily and nearly 13,000 on Sunday.
It’s a lot of trucks and carriers driving long distances, burning lots of fuel to deliver relatively few newspapers. But it’s devastating news for people who have made reading a newspaper a daily ritual most of their lives.
“I feel like I’m losing a leg,” said Lois Billings, a nearly 70-year newspaper reader in Pearsall, where delivery will be Sunday only. “It’s a hard blow. It has made a bunch of us just cry.”
Joe Dewitt, who lives near Leakey, complained bitterly in July about problems with his carrier. He allowed last week that they had reached a measure of detente, but when I told him the Express-News would no longer be delivered to his home, he called it “a damn shame.” Dewitt, 84, has been reading newspapers “forever, I guess.”
And, in an e-mail, Ted Barecky of Portland, a recent devotee who dropped the Corpus Christi paper for the Express-News, said: “I’ve enjoyed a newspaper that truly covers South Texas … We need you. We consider your paper important.”
As an alternative, the Express-News is offering a 30-day free subscription ($2 a week thereafter) to an “E-Edition” for readers with Internet access. A letter to readers in the affected areas explains: “The E-Edition is formatted just like the newspaper and utilizes modern technology to help you navigate the paper.” Curious? Call 1-800-456-7411 for details.
The question arises: Will the Express-News continue to cover turf from which it is retreating?
Yes, said Executive Editor Robert Rivard. “The State Desk mission remains the same because we cover South Texas primarily for the benefit of our readers in San Antonio and the surrounding counties.
“I’m sorry to see us pull out of so many small towns, but I’m also sorry that every household in (San Antonio) no longer subscribes to the newspaper the way people once did. The post-baby boom generations live in a digital world, and that’s how they want their news.”
Similarly, the Express-News will – after the holiday recess – no longer provide newspapers to schools participating in the Newspapers In Education program. Instead it is offering 1,048 teachers in 574 area schools the E-Edition, which sparked this comment from Pam Luttrell, a journalism teacher at San Antonio Christian High School:
“This might be an extreme statement, but I believe that this is a sign that the Express-News is throwing in the towel to the Internet. When we refuse to teach the younger generations the value of holding (the paper) in their hands, then we have given up and are saying that the situation cannot change.”
When I told them this was an economic, not a journalistic, decision, Dewitt, Barecky and Luttrell indicated, grudgingly, they’d go digital. Billings said that’s not an option for her.
“I consider this … historical,” Luttrell said, “because it shows a door closing on the past and opening for the future. I love the Internet, but I also love the newspaper. For so many, we will be saying goodbye to an old friend and family member.”
Bottom line: Newspaper people hate what’s happening to our trade. It’s the opposite of growing pains, but we’ll adjust.
