Newspapers and upstate

NYCO in her blog today asks why the Post Standard is, by percentage of readers, the most read Sunday newspaper in the US. An interesting sidelight is that 3 of the top 10 newspapers are Upstate.

1. Syracuse Post-Standard
2. Buffalo News
3. Wichita Eagle
4. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
5. Des Moines Register
6. Saginaw News
7. Toledo Blade
8. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
9. Mobile Register
10. Roanoke Times

Well let’s look at how the newspaper industry views their current situation. Scarborough Research and the Pew have been analyzing the trends in newspaper readership over the last few years. A very interesting article at the stateofthenewsmedia website covers the trends in readership. The article answers NYCO’s question. First, we all know that Upstate is hemorrhaging young folks and looks increasingly old and Anglo. Upstate metropolitan areas like Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester are still fairly homogenous ethnically and tend to be older. Newspaper readership is down among people below the age of 65 and that number falls precipitously among Hispanics and Asians. The article notes:

* The problem for the newspaper industry is not just young readers. People of every age bracket - except those over 65 - are starting to read newspapers less.

* The newspaper industry is failing to attract newer immigrant groups. The backbone of the industry remains non-Hispanic whites and African Americans, the two population groups not growing much.

* Papers are losing among people at all educational levels, although that trend may have reversed somewhat since September 11.

So what do you have – a largely homogenous area that fits the pattern of traditional American newspaper readership. Actually, Florida and his ilk would see this as another example of why Syracuse and Upstate are failing to attract the so-called creative class.

Or as a publisher of an Upstate paper once told me: “I’ll admit our paper doesn’t cover much…but we don’t have to worry because we have a strong subscription base. Until that begins to change – we are not going to change.”

Ahhh -- Sedit qui timuit ne non succederet [for fear of failing – he did nothing]