Newspapers: number one source for local news

http://magnoliaclips.com/newspapers-number-one-source-for-local-news/ Despite all the doomsayers out there writing obituaries for the nation's newspaper industry, 150 million Americans - two out of three adults - read a local newspaper last week. Newspaper Association of America research from 2011 by Scarborough USA indicates almost 70 percent of your neighbors read either a printed newspaper or its online counterpart within the past seven days. How could that be? Well, it's because newspapers still represent the most trusted source of news in America. I know that's hard to believe when you hear the mainstream media criticized at every turn on cable TV. But it's true. When citizens want to get the facts, they turn to their local newspaper. This is National Newspaper Week, and this year's theme, "Newspapers - Your Number One Source for Local News," underscores the importance of the nation's newspapers in the daily lives of citizens. Newspapers certainly have their competitors out there: a hundred million websites, hundreds of thousands of bloggers, Facebook, Twitter, billboards, radio and television. And that competition is formidable. But where does the vast majority of the "authoritative" news coverage originate that other media outlets utilize? Simple ... the nation's daily and weekly newspapers. If print is dead, then why do more than 7,000 weekly and 1,400 daily newspapers still open their doors every day and report what is hap-, pening in their communities? Because they take seriously the importance of local news. They know those who plunk down their hard- earned cash want their newspaper to cover those events that are unique to each community. Every day, newspapers in our local communities cover the big stories and the routine as well. Editors take to heart the newspaper's role as the most comprehensive source of a community's historical record, so births, deaths, weddings, engagements, business accomplishments, crime, courts, real estate transactions and a myriad of other day-to-day news events are covered along with the important governmental decisions that affect our lives. Newspapers are the number one source of local news in every city and county in America because we show up each and every day and cover those stories. It's what our readers have come to expect. And it's what we do better than any other news source in America. Doug Anstaett is executive director of the Kansas Press Association and current president of the Newspaper Association Managers

Is there a Print Monitoring Alernative?

Recently a colleague post an interesting question to which I do have an answer. "Is there and alternative to Cision or Burrelle's for National Print Media Monitorig Service?"

The short answer is Yes & No. Let me quickly try an explain the current climate in the print news monitoring. You have Cision which does nation, but not all papers, only large markets, or only dailies, and key weeklies. Similarly you have Burelle's which also the same thing, in addition they have teamed up with the publishers and now get something that is not quite an Internet feed, and not quite the same as the printed article... it is something different. Then you have the small independent clipping bureaus like me, Magnolia Clipping Service (magnoliaclips.com), Universal Information, and Louisiana News Clips. Yes we can somewhat fulfill a national order through the network, but Burelle's owns some of the state clipping services, like Minnesota, and a few others. Then you have states that do not have an independent clipping service. These states like Tennessee, have press association that have internal clipping services. The problem with those services are that they do not read all of the papers, only the papers that belong to the press association. So technically through a network of press clipping services you could place your order with each. By doing this you would get the most thorough coverage currently available. Then you would then have to have the compile those clips once sent to you. Since there are a number of services, the quality, cost, and service levels would differ from one company to another.

The alternative to print monitoring, is a digital online internet news monitoring service. Vocus, Cyberalert, Custom-Scoop, and Meltwater excel at getting the online clips from newspaper and TV websites. What they miss, and fail to disclose is that not everything is on the internet. Last time I checked in early 2007, only 40% of the papers in my market had websites. When I compared the actual content from the paper, less that 40% of the content made the websites. As important and easy to use as these services are there is huge amount of print that is being missed from these services.