Does the death of print journalism mean the end of small businesses?
Earlier this week, my father passed on a poignant article asking the same question that’s been on the minds of thousands of small business owners across the country — Does the death of the newspaper mean the death of small business?
The stipulation being that without local dailies local businesses don’t have a place to advertise, announce job openings or spotlight their community involvement.
No doubt it’s a real threat. Newspapers in their current incarnation are fast becoming an ephemeral memory of the bygone days. Two-daily cities are dropping to one and many economists predict it won’t be long before a major city is paperless. Even more papers are now in talks to ditch the physical product for an online-only version.
Small business owners argue that without a local daily they won’t be able to reach their clients. They won’t be able to update the community on sales, the most recent addition to their menu or a community fundraiser.
But they’re wrong. Rather than a death sentence, the fall of the print paper is actually a blessing in disguise if small businesses are willing to make the necessary adjustments to the Internet.
Over 75 percent of Americans use the Internet, according to a recent poll by the PEW Internet & American Life Project. I’d bet a lot of money that not that many people are reading their local daily across the country.
Here in Santa Cruz, the Sentinel’s circulation has dropped below 25,000 countywide. That’s in a county of 250,000. I’ll be generous with the statistics. Let’s say only half of the county is using the Internet. That still means there are 100,000 more people in Santa Cruz County on the Internet than reading the Sentinel. Yikes!
If anything, small businesses will benefit by switching to the Internet. They’ll reach a larger and broader base (I know my little brother isn’t reading the paper, but he’s spending hours on the Internet every week). And it’s cheaper. An ad that costs thousands of dollars in the print edition of the Sentinel costs a fraction of that it in their online edition.
As for posting job openings, Craigslist, Monster and Santacruzjobs.com have all proven their value. They’re cheaper than posting in print classifieds and you can vet potential candidates electronically, which saves time and allows you to quickly eliminate erroneous applications. Again, using the Internet is easier, quicker and cheaper.
And there’s no reason that the Internet can’t provide a platform to organize and mobilize the community. Facebook, Myspace and other social networking tools have more than proven their usefulness around the globe. And it’s not like journalism is going away. If anything, it’s exploding. New startups are appearing across the country.
Non-profits, citizen journalism publications like the Cournalist and traditional companies who’ve made the move to the Internet will all still exist. They will still write about local events, companies and fundraisers. And they’re all going to be looking for advertising revenue in one way or another.
And opportunities for broader audiences and novel ways of reaching them will continue to expand on the Internet. No longer will advertising have to be one dimensional. Direct interaction between businesses and their consumers will soon be the norm. And it’s for the better. If a customer doesn’t like your ad or thinks it’s ineffective, he or she will have the ability to tell you immediately. No more guessing games for small business owners. They’ll be able to know exactly how many people their ads get in front of, and they’ll be able to follow it live.
Rather than write a requiem for small businesses, we should embrace the powerful opportunities the Internet provides. I sense the real issue is whether small businesses are willing to become more creative in their efforts to reach a broader community, because the tools for reaching them are here and they aren’t going anywhere.