Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
The Asheville Citizen-Times this week launched an interesting experiment in attempt to bolster its withering print product. On Sunday, the newspaper launched a three-day series about the paper mill out in Haywood County.
The newspaper billed the story — an exclusive look inside a economic engine and a big polluter — as a “print exclusive.” The newspaper touted the stories online, but you had to buy the print product to read the stories.
I have yet to see an explanation about the approach from the editors at the Citizen-Times, but you can bet that you’ll be seeing more of this. While there’s nothing new about this approach, I wouldn’t doubt that the “print exclusive” is being pushed by the newspaper’s corporate owner, Gannett. I’m sure we’ll see a concerted effort to keep moving people to pick up the printed newspaper as the newspaper struggles with how to stay financially viable in the digital age, where most of your news is free.
At least one former Citizen-Times editor, who also recently launched a “print exclusive” at his Gannett newspaper in Ohio, offers some explanation about the move. Here’s Tom Graser, editor of the Marion Star.
The idea of a print-only story is that we are using the strength of each medium to its utmost. The Web site is there with the gist of the story and a place for interaction, while the newspaper allows the reader to take some time to absorb and understand an issue of great importance to our community.
This week is a bit of an experiment but, as we refine the process, I think you will see more and more of this type of reporting and distribution.
It’s either another last ditch attempt at saving a dying print medium, or an inspired move to serve two distinct audiences. I’m not sure a three-part series on Haywood County’s paper mill was sexy enough to draw people to print, and I’m wondering if the stories will ever be available online. But there’s something to be said about working to keep the print product a valuable entity. After all, it’s still paying most of the bills.
What do you think?
My feeling about the newspaper Web sites has always been that they should tease to the print edition. I’ve never thought giving readers all the content online (without charging an online subscription) was a good idea. But over the past several years readers have been able to get more and more content online especially since decreased ad revenue has decreased news hole. Print-only readers miss out on a lot of content that never makes it to the printed page.
Word ~
Their permit to pollute the Pigeon River expired in 2006. Please read up on this issue, perhaps starting with this: http://www.newportplaintalk.com/story/30656
As to your assertion that it "routinely recognized as one of the cleanest in the world"… how do you make up this stuff?
I challenge you and Ashevegas to meet me over at the plant sometime soon to see if the plant passes the smell test. Seriously. Let’s do it. I’ll pay for our transportation. We’ll sniff the air and if we deem it not nauseating, I’ll drink a pint of the Pigeon River from just downstream of the plant. If it is deemed the stench of death, I’ll challenge you to drink a pint from downstream.
I challenge any managers of that plant to do the same.
Who really cares what the Citizen-Times publishes? The newspaper is a joke…I don’t know anyone who reads it any more — I will look at it online maybe once a month, but in print … NEVER. The C-T has got to be one of the very worst newspapers anywhere. There is just nothing in it worth reading…no news, no ads, very little appeal to any type of reader.
Operating without a permit? Care to elaborate because that is just flat out wrong. Its easy to just make up facts but, the fact is that the Canton Mill is routinely recognized as one of the cleanest in the world. And as far as a "dieing industry," the majority of the paper made at that mill is for paperboard packaging which isn’t going anywhere…
Don’t forget, the schools in the Canton, Candler, Waynesville area are in the top ten for most polluted air in the US because of the paper plant….
Bill: Yes, the story was about a dieing paper industry. Ha, just like the newspaper.
Now that is funny and I can’t stop laughing…..
Jeff: That is the best I have read yet….
I think it is pretty ironic that the first "print exclusive" was about the paper plant, don’t you?
I remember way back to the early 90’s when "web exclusives" were all the rage.
ho hum
Ironically, I got up and read the AC-T website Sunday morning, noted that the lead story was "print-only" and stepped outside. The stench that only a paper plant could produce was at a nauseating level. And it was inescapable. I live in west Asheville approximately 19 miles due east of the Canton paper mill. I know that smell as I marched around that plant in May of ’08 to protest the fact that they are polluting the air and water and operating without a permit.
I’ve had to go to Canton on a couple of occasions on business and conducted my duties running and holding my nose. People who raise kids in that environment should be arrested on child abuse charges.
Too bad the suits at the Citizen-Times deemed this story only appropriate for readers of the dead-tree version. The main readership able to see the series is oldsters or those unable to figure out how to turn on a computer. Revealing the story exclusively to an audience of idiots is like the unheard tree falling in the forest.