Can you picture a day when there is no print edition of your local daily newspaper? What would you do for your local news? Where would you go to stay updated on what’s happening in your home town? But you’ve got a bigger problem because you’re a small business owner. What will you now do to tell people about your business?
The problem is that newspapers, like other suffering business models, are slowly dying because of a lack of revenue. More online new sources are now offered with free news content. Plus, in today’s 24-hour, up-to-the-minute news cycle, there’s a good chance that this morning’s news is already old news by the time you open up your morning paper.
Fitch Ratings, a research firm that closely monitors the media and publishing industry, now believes that several cities have a good chance of losing their newspapers in the next few years. Not helping the situation is the struggling economy, which has forced companies to pull back on their advertising spending with many of these newspapers resulting in even lower revenue streams for publishing groups.
The key for small businesses is to understand what other opportunities they have to generate local PR if they ever face the day when there is no local newspaper. In addition to a stronger focus on Internet news models in certain communities, other PR options will include guerrilla marketing for word-of-mouth buzz, events and promotions, and local social networking forums.
Leave a comment here and tell us what you think about the notion of losing your local newspaper.
