Resistance to Change: The Way to Obsolescence

How surprised would you be to learn that the largest circulated weekly print publication in the fastest growing county in the state of Florida is afraid of its own shadow?

Let me put it another way. My step father-in-law is the editor of a 120-year-old newspaper named The DeFuniak Herald servicing Walton county, which includes Destin and a large hunk of other well-known tourist beach destinations in the panhandle of the state. Colloquially known as “lower Alabama,” this area has experienced explosive growth over the past 10+ years and is now grappling with infrastructure issues placing the “rich” citizens of the southern half of the county against the “regular” citizens in the north part of the county; the line of demarcation is essentially determined by real estate values and proximity to the ocean. It saddens me immensely to say that when I go home on vacation in a couple of weeks that I’ll actually have to rent a beach house in order to access the shore, as there are no more public access beaches.

A point I’m trying to create is that by all accounts, Walton county is growing – in volume, in its tax base (which is highly literate and on the high end of HHI fringe, ergo the vacation home in Florida). The area has reached a saturation point where “quaint” is less valued and appreciated than is convenience, quality, experience. Tourists “from up north” arrive and for about 5 minutes find the accents amusing (I’ll have to post separately about the many hidden messages behind the southern endearment “Bless your heart. . .” but that’s for another day). After buying their inflatable rafts and zinc oxide sunscreen and renting their chairs and umbrellas, these transplants expect what they got at home.

They expect to get be able to get their news online. When they’re also checking their email, finding the operating hours of the outlet mall, and looking up recipes for fresh shrimp.

What they find, however, is a sophomoric site that has good intentions but falls short of delivering current, relevant, value add content. The site feeds into the “quaint” stereotype of small-town areas and the charm (the syrupy drawl, the slow pace, and the boiled peanut stand) can quickly rub off.  Because while the wealthy tourists that feed the county’s economic machine might not mind a visit into yesteryear, they most decidedly do not want to live there (or buy their vacation condo there).

Before they were vacationers in a southern town, they were consumers.  They were doctors and lawyers and investors and executives.  They live in Atlanta, Nashville, Savannah.  They have 2.4 children and a Golden Retriever named Jake and when they’re at their regular home they use the Web extensively to perform a myriad of tasks to fulfill their various roles of father, golf partner, mother, chairperson, student, cheerleader et al.  The tools and resources they’ve grown accustomed to using in those roles influence their behavior patterns and decision making process, and help establish an environment of certain expectations.

But this long-standing newspaper is experiencing circulation growth, and they’re doing a minimum online.  So everything is okay, right?  I have some concerns about maintaining a near-term evaluation of sales activity if it is done in absence of a long-term review of strategic goals.

But there are barriers, one might argue.  The paper isn’t in a position to hire an additional staff person to manage the site and content.  If all of the content is online, then what reason do people have to buy the paper?  And it’s circulation numbers of the actual paper that grant The Herald the right to publish all of the county legal ads, a respectable portion of overall revenues.  If circulation drops, the potential for losing the revenue stream becomes very real.

The stories about how print is dying (exascerbated by the consolidation of news holdings companies like McClatchy) may be greatly exaggerated.  But I do firmly believe that in the face of a critical shift of variables (mass consumerism, socio-economic meltdown, hot political climate, ad nauseum), the prudent thing to do would be to more fully evaluate the current business model, gather some insightful data, maybe consult with other print entities with success stories, and formulate a growth plan.

Because when you become complacent with status quo, you risk being left behind.