Post & Courier Decline Can Be Fixed

The local paper has shrunk and so has its staff. No one should be surprised that the P & C, despite the lack of any lowcountry rival, has been losing revenue. The shrinking budget haunts every large newspaper in the country, with more newspaper staff reported as laid off every day. This alarming development must be a topic of discussion among the P & C's editors. What to do?

In reality, as you may have noticed, to fight back the paper has already made some obvious choices on its front page--namely, more local than national or international news. Saturday's edition provides a good example. The front page highlights above the fold a DUI accident that injured a state trooper on I-26 in North Charleston and, below it, the arrests of two prolific local burglars. The top banner teases arachnaphobes in Summerville. However, the featured story on the front page regards the Quantas jet that developed a hole and landed in Manila.

REALITY CHECK: The jet story has already made the 24-hour news cycle on TV & Internet ad nauseum. What is the target audience that will pick up the paper to read it?

The other front-page story provides a more interesting example of what the P & C could attempt to boost readership. It's an AP story about college students using both food banks and food stamps to make ends meet ["College Students Tap into Food Banks as Prices Soar"]. The AP reporter interviewed one student who used food banks while attending Benedict College in Columbia and another who applied for food stamps while attending Francis Marion University in Florence.
REALITY CHECK: Would the P & C's readers want to know if local students are clients of the Lowcountry Food Bank? Would they want to know if "showing identification proving they live in the area" is the only requirement for getting food from it, as the AP story suggests? Would they want to know if local students have successfully applied for food stamps?

Getting this information would take more time and a local reporter, but facts that relate to local institutions clearly would cause more local readership [Hey, Trey, did you hear that the guys at the frat are on food stamps?]. Of course, that focus would require reporters who KNOW the local community.

HELLO! The days are gone when even old curmudgeons like me learn any important national or international news from the front page.

Further, wouldn't readers be curious about the two supremely successful burglars who committed more than 70 crimes before being caught? How could that happen? Was it lack of connection between local law enforcement agencies or lack of manpower or lack of interest? What's the background on these characters, anyway? Why couldn't we have had a nice big photo of some of the fenced items? Or of the "fence"? How about a three-part series on what goes into the making of a local burglar?

The days for having "Local and State" as section B are so over. Make it a State (or tri-state, for that matter) section and REALLY report on what goes on in Columbia (and Raleigh and Atlanta, if you like). Put a column down the front page of section A with summaries pointing inside to national and international news (doesn't the Wall Street Journal do that?).

The P & C needs to focus on its strengths--and those have got to be local and truly informative. Otherwise, a print edition will not survive. Don't believe me? Come back in 10 years.