Sir: I’m appealing to readers not to be too flippant about The Chatham Voice. Yes, we have local papers like The Chatham Daily News and Chatham This Week that provide interesting stories and good news, but The Chatham Voice is somewhat of a miracle.
Throughout my 25-year career in the newspaper business, as reporter and later editor, I have been made aware how important newspaper advertising really is. The newspaper’s ad sales reps always knew they could get my goat by calling the editorial pages “flyer wrap’. We used to figure 75% of the paper should comprise advertising and the rest would be editorial space.
That used to be the norm but now things are changing in the newspaper business,
Paul Godfrey, the CEO of Postmedia, whose dailies reach 6.3 million Canadian readers (including Chathamites) every week, has recently said the old revenue model of 75% advertising and 25% editorial is no longer sustainable.
As far as Godfrey is concerned, today’s newspaper industry requires closer to a 50/50 split between advertising and circulation revenue. If readers want more “compelling content” he said, “they will pay more.”
It is interesting to note that Postmedia employed approximately 5,600 people when Godfrey took over in 2010, but has since shed more than a third of its workforce and currently employs about 3,500 people.
That is why I am so impressed with The Chatham Voice that exists solely on advertisers’ fees and “voluntary” contributions from some readers.
I never expected it to survive and I am grateful that it has done so.
We should extend our gratitude and best wishes to the small team who own and operate it.
God bless the little but powerful Voice.
Stephen J. Beecroft
Chatham
