Thanks for reading The Hawk Eye.
I want to give you a peek behind the scenes as we transform our business to safeguard local journalism in Burlington, and I’d like to tell you a little bit about some of the challenges and opportunities local newspapers such as The Hawk Eye are facing.
Let’s start with the bad news.
First, the cost for us to produce the traditional paper news product is rising.
There are two big costs that go into creating, printing and distributing a newspaper.
Number one is people.
Newspaper publication by its nature is a labor-intensive task, but between rising health care costs and extremely low unemployment, which creates worker scarcity, finding workers who can fill open positions has grown more challenging, especially on certain delivery routes.
We run a giant logistics operation that goes into motion every morning before most of you get up, in which newspapers are printed here in Burlington, hauled to various locations across the region and then delivered to your doorstep. Finding people to fill all these jobs has been an enormous challenge, despite our constant efforts to hire.
Our second-biggest cost is newsprint. Newsprint is the bulk paper on which the words and photos in your local newspaper are printed.
We buy giant rolls, literally tons of the stuff that is stored here in Burlington right next to our printing press for easy access. Come by for a free tour sometime if you’re curious about how it all works.
Unfortunately, because of new tariffs that will hit Canadian paper manufacturers in February, newsprint in 2018 has become both very hard to find as well as much more expensive.
According to paper manufacturers, the problem is only going to get worse. We expect monthly price increases from our paper suppliers, and are preparing for possible newsprint shortages in the near term because of these tariffs.
So what does all this mean for you? Right now, we’re working as hard as we can to remain profitable so that we can continue to provide the local news you’ve come to expect.
We’re trimming our costs as much as possible to keep them in line with our revenue in ways that we hope will have the least impact on our community and our customers.
Some of this happens behind the scenes in ways that are hopefully imperceptible to the public, such as renegotiating vendor contracts or curtailing overtime.
Other actions we’ve taken have been more noticeable. For instance, we’ve moved or plan to move a handful of our more remote routes to a hybrid delivery system that includes a mix of same-day mail delivery during the work week, and hand delivery during the weekend and on holidays.
Delivery on these routes, some of which we’ve been trying to fill for months, should be much more consistent, and will allow us to deploy scarce resources to strengthen our news and digital operations.
We’re exploring other ways to offset our rising costs, but we’re also working to find new sources of revenue.
Our website, which we relaunched last year, now has north of 165,000 unique visitors per month, compared to 16,000 or so who subscribe to our print newspaper.
The Hawk Eye’s responsive website is accessible on any device, and news stories on TheHawkEye.com are updated throughout the day and night. We also have a digital replica of the print newspaper, which some of our early risers appreciate because it becomes available before 5 a.m. each morning.
We’re working hard with our friends in the local business community to help grow their digital presence in line with our own, offering best-in-class tools for companies to reach new audiences.
Our digital services allow any local business to stand toe-to-toe with any national competitor, with built-in accountability so clients can see whether their messages are effective. Nationally, more than half of all advertising is now digital. The newspaper industry lags behind at about 20 percent.
Yet The Hawk Eye has seen huge growth in this area as our subscribers, who are also customers of many local businesses, continue to migrate to online news.
The Hawk Eye is also doubling down on local journalism. Though we’re expanding beyond print, we’re more committed than ever to accurate, impactful, local reporting.
For instance, our upcoming eight-day series, A River Runs Through Us, will explore how the natural wonder in our backyard impacts our daily lives and the lives of our neighbors. Make sure you check it out in print and online, because I think the team did a great job.
This kind of deep, local journalism is something you can only get from a newspaper like The Hawk Eye, and we’re proud of that.
As we move into 2018, we intend to continue prioritizing local content, and giving you the news and features you love as we cover the community we all share.
Thanks again for reading. Feel free to reach out to me at esmith@thehawkeye.com at any time, for any reason.
Ellis Smith is general manager of The Hawk Eye.