The Rochester, New York newspaper business has seen some changes in recent years, which have affected nearly every other major city in the nation. As classified and real estate advertising began to dwindle several years ago, Rochester NY news outlets had to quickly scramble to secure advertising elsewhere while also keeping their focus on delivering quality content to their respective readerships. Some Rochester news outlets survived through this, and others tanked entirely. So what qualities did the kind of Rochester NY newspaper that survived possess?
One: A strong Rochester NY newspaper that largely was unaffected by the recession kept its intent and its focus on this content. It did not veer off and immediately fire the reporters who had worked so hard over the years to craft quality features and develop hard hitting business and sports news. Instead, it trimmed where it could afford to trim and scaled back where it could scale back on things. And today, that Rochester NY newspaper is still succeeding.
Two: A strong Rochester NY newspaper that saw what was happening with advertising told its sales executives to refocus their energies on other areas that were less affected by the recession. They avoided reaching so far into car sales and real estate, where they knew things were not looking good, and instead refocused their attempts to reach other advertising partners. This included both creative partnerships like sponsorships rather than straight up print advertising.
Three: A strong Rochester NY newspaper that noticed the world was changing also began to look more closely into the Internet, realizing that it at least would be a part of the future of every Rochester newspaper and newspapers all around the nation. Publishers of strong papers in town turned their eyes toward the web, using it as both a new venue for advertising and as a new method of reaching out to readers and of developing feature stories for them online. Today, nearly every Rochester ny newspaper has some sort of online presence, but the strong ones definitely are more noticeable.
Four: A strong Rochester NY newspaper that saw the writing on the wall at least temporarily took proactive measures to grow when needed and cut back when necessary. Publishers got together as teams and filled their newsrooms with reporters and editors who were out there every day to figure out the best approaches; and these papers have been rewarded for their efforts because they are still standing today.