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Local News Coverage Strategies in a
Three-Way Daily Newspaper Competitive Market
ABSTRACT
An exploratory study examines local news coverage strategies in the first months
of an unusual competitive market situation involving three daily newspapers. The
market is a two-county area including four main medium-sized cities and a few
dozen small towns. Content analysis was used to determine the amount and topics
of local news coverage allocated to the various muncipalities in the market to
find out if the papers were substitutes for each other.
Local News Coverage Strategies in a Three-Way Daily Newspaper Competitive Market
This research examines local news coverage of three competing daily newspapers
in the first months of the three-way market. The purpose is to determine the
strategies of the papers in defining local news, which in turn suggests how each
defines/delineates the market. Are these papers substitutes for each other in
their local coverage, or do readers have to take multiple subscriptions to get
news coverage of the specific areas they want to know about?
The northwest corner of Arkansas offers a highly unusual competitive newspaper
market situation. Since July 1998 three dailies - The Morning News of Northwest
Arkansas, The Northwest Arkansas Times, and The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette -
have been competing head-to-head-to-head for readers and advertisers in one of
the healthiest economic areas of the country.1
The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas (MN) and the Northwest Arkansas Times
(NAT) have maintained a fairly mild level of competition in this area for some
years; however, in summer 1998 the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (DG) of Little
Rock entered the market with a daily zoned regional edition.2
The market itself is unusual. The typical competing newspaper market tends to
be the large metropolitan area. This market, however, is comprised essentially
of two counties - Washington and Benton - which include four small cities (the
largest is about 56,000) and perhaps five dozen small towns (with populations
from approximately 200 to 3,000). The total population of the two-county area is
approximately 270,000.
Media observers in Northwest Arkansas describe the competition among the three
papers as intense; some informally call it a "war."3 Battles have been waged
through slashed subscription prices and skirmishes around ad rates.4 A major
question, however, is what effect this competition has had on the news sections
of the papers.
A major factor in research evaluating the effects of competition has been local
news coverage. As an area of great interest to readers, local news is not only
significant in competition, but also accessible to researchers.5 Previous
research on competitive newspaper markets suggests that there are some
qualitative changes that occur, and that these changes tend to vary with the
level of intensity of
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competition. Quality of content has been related to the financial commitment of
the paper to the competition and the resulting levels of allocation of resources
to the newsroom; for example, to fund increases in reporters and in salaries,
and the addition of wire services. 6
Local news coverage is particularly interesting in competitive markets because
there is a certain substitutability of such papers.7 Since each paper must meet
a certain fundamental standard of coverage in any market, they all are likely to
be highly similar - or substitutable - in local news coverage. Therefore,
defining how a paper deals with coverage of local news becomes a challenge for
editors and owners.
The competitive market in Northwest Arkansas presents a special problem for
determining local news coverage. There are city governments, public schools and
law enforcement agencies in the four main cities, as well as many of the several
dozen small towns. In addition, there are two county governments which deal with
issues that span city limits. Substitutability becomes an interesting matter
when the market presents so many possible configurations for the definition of
local news.
Literature Review
The relationship between competition and coverage was first formalized in a
"financial commitment theory" by Litman and Bridges (1986) in which they
described newspaper performance as the financial commitment of newspapers to
providing their editorial product. Lacy (1992) further elaborated on the theory
in developing a Conceptual Model of Financial Commitment. The bottom line,
according to Lacy, was that intense competition does have some effect on news
media content, and that effect is basically positive from the audience's
perspective.
Wanta and Johnson (1994) added another consideration: they found support for
the "sociology of news" theory which suggests that news content will not
necessarily vary for papers in competitive markets. Because of developing
standards for journalistic performance and increasing professionalism in the
field, news tends to be homogenized, no matter what the market structure.
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However, Lacy, Coulson and St. Cyr (1998) questioned reporters on city hall
beats across the country and produced evidence which supported the relationship
of competition to news content. They found that beat reporters, in responding
to a survey, perceived that competition did "have some impact on their behavior
and their content." Competition had both negative and positive effects. While
reporters had less time to develop in-depth stories, for example, more stories
were covered, including some which might have been missed in a less competitive
situation.
Reporters are thus likely responding to the dual needs to get at least the same
story as the competition, and then to get something more. Lacy (1989), Bigman
(1948) and Schweitzer and Goldman (1975) suggested that similarity in content
is linked to competition among newspapers. Moreover, "Intense competition is
associated with a high degree of substitutability." (Lacy 1989)
In the analyses of competing newspaper markets, local news has long been
considered a significant factor. Bigman (1948) in his study of the decline in
competing newspaper markets as a threat to free expression, considered local
news by comparing coverage of labor issues in Pottsville, Pa. He also noted that
analyses of the papers and their content "reveal strong similarity," concluding
that more papers do not necessarily mean divergent voices. Over the past 50
years, studies of competitive newspapers have frequently included local news
coverage as a basis for comparison. Rarick and Hartman (1966) considered space
devoted to local content; Grotta (1971) looked at local newsholes; Schweitzer
and Goldman (1975) found that local content does not necessarily decline with
decreased competition; Lacy (1989) in a model of news demand related competition
to coverage; and Wanta and Johnson (1994) looked at content changes including
local news in varying levels of competition.
Research has described a variety of structures or models of several levels of
competing newspaper markets (Rosse 1975; Owen 1975; Lacy 1992). Accordingly, the
Northwest Arkansas market could be defined as a variant of an "intercity
newspaper competition." The four layers which make up this model would consist
of the DG as the metropolitan daily which publishes "large amount of regional
and national news"; the NAT and the MN as the satellite-city dailies which are
more local but still carry some non-local news; a few small-circulation dailies
and weeklies in the two counties which are almost
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entirely local; and a collection of shoppers and non-specialized non-daily
newspapers. Only the two top layers are major competitors.8
Background
The Market. Northwest Arkansas is a distinct area of the state -
topographically, economically and culturally. It is the home of the major
university in the state higher education system and also to the headquarters of
three Fortune 500 firms - Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods and J.B. Hunt trucking company.
Since 1990 there has been an influx of new residents, from upscale retirees into
the more northern part of the area to Mexican immigrants seeking good jobs in
food processing.9
All or parts of eight counties comprise the Northwest Arkansas region; however,
the three papers in this study tend to concentrate their coverage on Washington
and Benton counties [The other six, Madison, Carroll, Crawford, Franklin,
Johnson and Newton, have sparse populations.] The populations of these two
principle counties are about the same and total approximately 270,000
(Washington, 138,454; Benton, 134,162). The four main cities, however, differ
significantly in populations with Fayetteville the largest at nearly 53,000.
Springdale and Rogers are close at almost 38,000 and 35,000, respectively.
Bentonville is fourth with about 15,000. With the exception of Bella Vista, at
13,000, the small towns in the two counties have populations between 300 and
2,700. The average household income in the two counties is very similar -
$32,375 in Washington County, and $34,807 in Benton County.10
Table 1 gives the breakdown of population in the towns and cities of the
two-county coverage area, and the per capita income for the four main cities of
Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville. Although the area includes a
few residents who are extremely wealthy (e.g., the family of Wal-Mart founder
Sam Walton), poverty is widespread.11 The per capita income in each of the four
cities in also very similar.In terms of location, Fayetteville, Springdale and
Rogers are on a North-South line, with Fayetteville at the southern end, just
below the approximate geographic center of the two-county
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area. Its town center is about nine miles from Springdale's town center. Rogers
is then another 10 miles or so north of Springdale. Bentonville is six or seven
miles west and slightly north of Rogers. Bentonville and Rogers are the most
northern of the four; Bentonville, in fact, is about 12 miles south of the
Missouri border.
Economic growth in the area over the last 10 to 15 years has been dramatic. One
measure of this growth is the total value of annual building permits, which
ballooned at a 101 percent increase between 1984 and 1991. Also
hotel/motel/restaurant tax receipts grew by about 73 percent between 1991 and
1998. Fayetteville, the largest city, has grown 33 percent in population since
the official 1990 census and the current estimate of 56,056, and is expected to
grow another 15 percent in the next four years. 12
These figures suggest increases in advertising dollars, which make the area
such a lucrative market for a dominant daily newspaper.13
The Papers. None of the three papers is locally owned. The DG is owned by
Walter Hussman, Jr., of Little Rock, who, through WEHCO Media Incorporated, also
owns other media outlets in Arkansas and has recently expanded to Tennessee. The
northwest regional edition is published out of offices and printing facilities
in the Northwest Arkansas area.
The MN, published in Springdale, is owned by Donrey Media Group, with
corporate headquarters in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Donrey operates 26 newspapers in
nine states, including three others in Arkansas. In turn, Donrey is owned by
Jackson T. Stephens through The Stephens Group of Little Rock; Stephens is also
chairman of Stephens Incorporated, a diversified financial group which is a
major underwriter of municipal bonds and corporate equity offerings. It ranks
among the 20 largest investment banking firms in the United States.
The NAT, located in Fayetteville, is the property of American Publishing
Company of Chicago, which is the U.S. subsidiary of Hollinger International
Incorporated, the world's third largest newspaper publisher in terms of
circulation (behind News Corporation and Gannett).14 The paper was owned
previously for 55 years by the Fulbright family of Fayetteville; J. William
Fulbright of that family was a former U.S. Senator from Arkansas and chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.15
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No official circulation figures are available as of this writing which would
relate to any changes which might have occurred since the DG started up the
regional edition in July 1998. Audit Bureau of Circulation figures which are
available can tell a partial story. Table 2 gives Washington and Benton county
penetration report circulation figures for March 10, 1998, which indicate the
MN was a clear leader. Table 3 gives additional information based on a September
1998 ABC report for the MN and the NAT; these are total circulation figures, not
broken down by county. Table 4 gives figures from an ABC "snapshot" of
circulation in Benton and Washington counties; this is a picture of circulation
on one particular unspecified day during the 12-month period between September
30, 1997 and 1998. Since the "snapshot" date is not revealed by ABC, one can't
know whether or not the figures reflect any change since mid-summer 1998.
In addition, the DG has its own figures which state that the Northwest Arkansas
edition at the end of November 1998 had a daily circulation of 19,459, an
increase of 21.5 percent over its circulation in the region before the zoned
edition was launched.16
It can be seen from the official figures, however, that the MN maintains the
lead. The "snapshot" shows that paper with a total daily circulation in Benton
and Washington counties of just under 33,000; while the NAT had a daily
circulation of about 14,000. On that same day the DG had a daily circulation of
about 8,000 in the two-county area. As of this writing, no official figures have
been released which would reflect any circulation changes since the DG zoned
regional edition.
Research Questions
The primary question is, how do these three daily newspapers in this
competitive market situation define and assign their local coverage?
Specifically:
Research Question 1: How do the papers compare in their overall amount of
coverage of "local news"?
Research Question 2: How do these newspapers define the coverage area
geographically? Where do they concentrate their coverage in Northwest Arkansas?
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a. For each paper, how is coverage allocated between the two counties? What
cities and towns are covered by each paper?
b. For each paper, how is coverage allocated among the cities and towns of
the counties?
c. Are the papers similar or different in their allocation of coverage
geographically?
Research Question 3: How do these newspapers define coverage by topics?
a. What topic areas are emphasized in their coverage?
b. How is this coverage broken down by counties, cities and small towns?
Methodology
In order to answer these questions, a content analysis was performed on a
sample of the three newspapers from the first five months after the DG's
regional edition entry into the market; that is, August through December 1998. A
constructed week of seven randomly selected days was determined for each of the
five months, and issues of the three papers from those days were collected and
examined.
The content analysis was focused strictly on local coverage, which was defined
as issues of critical interest to one city or municipality; that is, city
government, public schools, law enforcement agencies. In this case "local news"
could refer to such issues in any one of the few dozen towns in the coverage
area. It could also refer to issues in county governments which transcend city
limits and to regional issues. Local news included those stories found in the
"A" section of the MN and the NAT, and the "Northwest Arkansas" zoned section
of the DG. News stories only were included; not counted were obits, editorials,
comics, sports or syndicated features such as the horoscope or advice columns.
The content analysis identified all stories by dateline and by topic. The
length of each story was measured in column inches, which were converted to a
percentage reflecting the portion of the total amount of space in that issue
devoted to local news. Varying column widths were converted to a standard.
Percentages were also used to show how often stories about cities and towns
appeared; that is, the relative frequency of their coverage.
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The various stories covered by the three papers in the five-month sample were
grouped into eight topic categories:
y Law Enforcement - police reports, automobile accidents, crime reports and
the court system;
y City Government - city council, planning commission and other municipal
governmental agencies;
y Local Interest Features - annual festivals, crafts fairs, personal profiles;
y Higher Education - the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and Northwest
Arkansas Community College in Rogers;
y Public Schools - school boards and officials, news about school activities,
opening day;
y County Government - Quorum Court;
y Region - weather, water issues, new regional airport;
y Election - city and county elections.
These categories were developed for this study. They emerged from an analysis
of the most frequently appearing topics in the local news pages of the three
newspapers, and to a large extent reflect typical newspaper "beats."
Results
Research Question 1. Overall comparison of local news coverage by each paper.
Table 5 shows that the MN ran by far the most stories in local news coverage -
490 total stories to 408 by the NAT and 308 by the DG. However, the NAT
allocated the most space in column inches on a daily average to local news -
roughly 217 column inches. Not far behind was the MN with 191 column inches.
Both led the DG however, which ran an average of 149 column inches of local news
coverage per issue in this sample. The NAT also tended to run longer stories on
average, in fact, more than twice as long as the average MN or DG story, which
were about the same at six to seven column inches. Research Question 2.
Geographic coverage.
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This study considered how coverage was allocated between the two primary
counties, Washington and Benton; among the four main cities, and among the small
towns in the two counties [Refer to Table 1.] About the same number of small
towns in both counties tend to receive some attention from the papers; that is,
there are 12 towns in Washington County that received some coverage, and 14 in
Benton County. The MN covered 10 towns out of the 14 in Benton County, but seven
out of 12 in Washington County. The DG included coverage of 13 out of the 14
Benton County towns, but six out of the 12 Washington County towns. The NAT,
however, covered six out of 12 towns in Benton County, and 75 percent, or nine
out of 12, of the Washington County towns.
As shown in Table 6, the MN focused more than 10 percent of its total coverage
on towns in Benton County, and the DG gave these towns in that county nine
percent. The DG, however, gave 4.5 percent of its coverage to towns in
Washington County, whereas the MN gave those towns 2.6 percent. In this sample,
the MN ran 51 stories about towns in Benton County to 13 on Washington County
towns; the DG, though, ran 28 stories about Benton towns and 14 about Washington
County towns.
The NAT's county coverage was almost the opposite. Washington County towns
received 6.4 percent of the stories, while Benton County towns got about 3
percent. In hard numbers, that is 26 stories about towns in Washington County
and 12 about Benton County.
Table 7 indicates there was quite some variation in the allocation of coverage
by the newspapers of each of the four main cities - Fayetteville, Springdale,
Rogers and Bentonville. The MN (published in Springdale) gives roughly equal
coverage to Fayetteville, Springdale and Rogers in terms of both total number of
stories and percentage of total stories. On average, Fayetteville receives
somewhat more space (21.4 percent of space per issue, compared to 18 percent for
Springdale and 15 percent for Rogers); thus, Fayetteville stories tend to be
longer. The DG and the NAT both give Fayetteville the heaviest coverage by far.
The DG allocates 37 percent of its stories to Fayetteville, which appear in 97
percent of the issues in this sample. The NAT - which is published in
Fayetteville - gives that city 42.6 percent of its stories, which appear in 91
percent of the issues in this sample.
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Bentonville receives the least amount of coverage from the MN, but is second in
coverage by the DG, which covered Bentonville and Springdale in about the same
amounts - that is, total stories and percentages of stories - with the edge
going to Bentonville. The DG gave the least coverage to Rogers, with less than
six percent of its stories. Rogers also got the least amount of coverage by the
NAT, only six stories out of the five-month sample of 408 (2.3 percent).
Research Question 3. Coverage of Topics.
As noted in the Methodology section, all stories were grouped in categories of
eight topics: law enforcement, city government, local interest features, higher
education, regional issues, county governments, public schools and elections.
These are for the most part typical "beat" areas on newspapers.
As seen in Table 8, the MN concentrated on Benton County, covering in
particular law enforcement and city governments. In Washington County that paper
tended to cover mainly city governments. The MN gave the smaller town public
schools little coverage in either county, though Benton County schools did get
somewhat more attention. In all, both the MN and the DG gave public schools more
coverage than did the NAT.
The DG's heaviest small town coverage centered on city governments in Benton
County; in fact, these stories accounted for more than half of the DG's Benton
County coverage. About 10 to 14 percent of county small town stories were given
each to law enforcement, features, regional issues and public schools. In
Washington County, the DG concentrated coverage on law enforcement, city
government and local interest features; each topic received 28.6 percent of the
DG's Washington County stories.
The NAT coverage in county towns differed from that of the MN and the DG. It
covered mainly law enforcement issues; then city governments and features.
Washington County received the heaviest coverage by the NAT; 38.5 percent of
stories were on law enforcement and 31 percent on features. City governments
were given about one-third that level of coverage, or 11 percent of Washington
County stories. In Benton County, the NAT focused on law enforcement (about 33
percent of its total Benton
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County stories) and city governments (about 42 percent of its Benton County
stories). In hard figures, though, this amounted to four and five stories
respectively over the five-month sample.
The papers might be considered separately concerning their coverage of the
eight topic areas in the four main cities; comparisons of their coverage these
topics are seen in Tables 9.1, 9.2, 9.3. The MN, for example, gave heaviest
coverage to city governments in all four cities, with the greatest amount of
coverage given to Springdale city government. It gave Fayetteville almost the
same amount of coverage in law enforcement issues and on higher education as it
did city government. The MN gave heavy coverage in Rogers to law enforcement -
53 percent of the total MN stories on Rogers (42 out of 79) and 8.6 percent of
the overall MN total stories. This is compared to Fayetteville law enforcement
coverage of 4.3 percent of total stories, and Springdale law enforcement
coverage of 3.5 percent total stories, and to 4.5 percent of total stories about
Rogers city government. Regarding public school s, the MN covered Rogers the
most with six stories, Springdale with four and Bentonville with three; no
public school stories about Fayetteville appeared in the MN in this sample. Of
the three papers, however, the MN gave the most coverage overall to public
schools.
The DG concentrated on Fayetteville and Bentonville. See Table 9.2. Both cities
received strong attention to law enforcement issues (with both cities each
receiving about eight percent of total stories), but Fayetteville city
government was covered heaviest with 49 stories (or 16 percent of total DG
stories). The DG covered Fayetteville in all eight topic areas - the only
instance of one of the papers giving such across-the-board coverage. The paper
gave very little attention at all to Rogers. Instead the DG paid attention to
Bentonville, covering law enforcement the most (refer to above); about half that
level of coverage was given to Bentonville city government. The DG covered
Fayetteville public schools at about the same level as the NAT did, but gave
much less coverage to Bentonville and Springdale school systems.
The NAT gave heaviest coverage to Fayetteville law enforcement issues - 58
stories, or 14.2 percent of the NAT total stories. See Table 9.3. But it also
heavily covered Fayetteville city government, local interest features and higher
education issues (note that Fayetteville is home to the University of
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Arkansas). Less than half of the coverage went to the other topic areas. The NAT
also gave attention to Springdale, mostly on law enforcement issues and less on
city government. There was very little coverage of any topics at all in either
Rogers or Bentonville. Overall the NAT emphasized coverage of law enforcement
issues (a total of 83 stories in both Fayetteville and Springdale, which is
about 20 percent of total NAT stories). A total of 57 stories (or 14 percent of
all stories) focused on Fayetteville and Springdale city governments.
Discussion
The DG's entrance into the Northwest Arkansas daily newspaper market with a
regional zoned edition in summer 1998 created a very unusual competitive
situation - three dailies serving the same area which consists principally of
two counties with several dozen small towns and four larger communities. A
market - or readership - which varies so much in number and size of
municipalities might be termed an "intercity newspaper competition"; in such a
market, newspapers tend to position themselves to serve different purposes,
depending on their size. However, in this market, all three papers have an
interest in competing directly against each other for parts of the same market,
and thus having similar definitions of local news coverage.
Competitive newspapers have been shown in past research to be substitutes for
each other to some extent while making efforts to be different and distinct from
the competition. The primary purpose of this research was to determine the
strategies of these three papers for defining the local news coverage market for
themselves. Can they be regarded as substitutes for one another - in terms of
the quantity of local news coverage?
The results show that the three papers compete among each other in local news
coverage in varying ways; that is, the DG seems to compete directly with the MN
in some respects, but not in others. In still others, it competes directly with
the NAT. Therefore, the DG could be substituted for the MN for the segment of
the readership which is interested in certain cities and towns and topics, but
those readers would also have to subscribe to the NAT for information on other
cities, towns and topics. Since this
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study makes no attempt whatsoever to evaluate the quality of the content of the
three papers, all the distinctions made in coverage here are based solely on
amount of coverage; that is, where specifically coverage is given and
approximately how much.
An example of this "segmenting" of local news can be seen in the coverage of
the small towns in the two counties. If Fayetteville and Springdale are taken
together as a sort of center of the market area, the DG and the MN tend to start
there and go north into Benton County for the bulk of their coverage. The NAT
firmly centers its coverage on Fayetteville, but then leans more to the south
into Washington County.
It might be assumed that in the county towns, the amount of coverage would be
directly correlated to population size (and, thus, perhaps circulation size).
This assumption was correct in a very limited way. For example, the largest
towns in Benton County - Bella Vista and Siloam Springs - did receive the
heaviest coverage by the MN. But the MN coverage of other Benton County towns
was not predictable by population at all. The DG also gave Bella Vista the most
coverage of the Benton County towns, but was on the whole unpredictable as well
by population. There were no apparent correlations among the three papers in the
amount of coverage given the towns. When the NAT covered Benton County, it gave
most of the attention to a very small town which provided the dateline because
it was simply the site nearest the new regional airport - which was a news issue
during this five-month period. In Washington County as well, coverage of the
towns among the three papers varied in ways that did not fit any predictable
pattern, such as population.
As noted above, the NAT concentrated its coverage on Fayetteville, its hometown
location; for the NAT local news coverage extended up the road to Springdale but
not much further north. In Washington County small towns, the NAT's local
coverage was most often on law enforcement issues, then local interest features.
Although the NAT paid more attention to the smaller Washington County towns
overall, the MN targeted its coverage on the towns' municipal governments and
ran more than double the number of stories than the NAT.
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In the four larger cities, the coverage see-sawed back and forth. For example,
the DG went directly head-to-head with the NAT in Fayetteville, weighing in with
particular emphasis on city government , while the NAT gave heavier coverage to
law enforcement issues in the city. The DG didn't
spend much time or ink covering Springdale and Rogers. Instead it gave more
attention to Bentonville where it focused on two main topics - city government
and law enforcement. The MN also gave some coverage to Bentonville, but
primarily to city government; very little else in that city was covered. The NAT
gave Bentonville very little coverage.
The NAT and the MN were in most direct competition in coverage of local issues
in Springdale, but they focused their subject matter differently. The MN
produced about 20 percent more stories about Springdale than the NAT, and more
than half of those stories were about Springdale city affairs. Readers could
find some information about Springdale city government in the NAT, but they
would learn more about that city's law enforcement and even public schools than
they would in the MN.
Readers in Rogers could subscribe to one paper and learn what they needed to
know about their hometown, as the MN was the only paper of the three to really
cover Rogers, which it did to roughly the same extent it covered Springdale. The
MN covered Rogers law enforcement , city government and public schools - but
especially law enforcement which generated a large proportion of the stories.
So, all in all, readers in Northwest Arkansas might make their newspaper
subscription choices as below:
y Washington County small towns: the NAT.
y Benton County small towns: the MN.
y Fayetteville: The choice depends on the news the reader wants. Fayetteville
represents the nuclear core of the Northwest Arkansas coverage for the three
papers. Take the DG for the most stories on city government; the NAT for law
enforcement and public schools coverage; the MN for a balanced (in terms of
numbers of stories) coverage of most topics.
y Springdale: The MN covers city government, but the NAT covers law
enforcement and has a little more information on public schools.
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y Rogers: The MN is the only choice.
y Bentonville: Although the MN gives some coverage, the DG is the pick for
covering law enforcement and city government.
Conclusion
These three newspapers might be substitutes for each other in their coverage of
Fayetteville, but once they leave the city limits, they vary in their approaches
to covering Northwest Arkansas, and trying to explain why is a challenge. The
NAT concentrates on Fayetteville obviously because that city is its hometown
base and has been for the history of the paper. In fact, the NAT is often
referred to as "the Fayetteville paper."
The MN operates out of Springdale, and until a few years ago, published an
edition out of Rogers; therefore it continues its focus on those two cities.
"The Springdale paper," as it is has been known, has always given some coverage
to Fayetteville, but has stepped up that coverage in recent years, and operates
a news bureau there as well. Its coverage of Bentonville comes to some extent
from a story exchange arrangement with the Benton County Daily Record, the daily
newspaper in Bentonville.
The DG's zoned regional edition is the ingredient which may change the mix of
coverage. It has entered the market by focusing heavily on Fayetteville affairs
and, to a lesser extent, Bentonville. So far, Springdale and Rogers get far less
attention.
The balance of coverage among the three papers does not correlate to income
levels in counties, or essentially to population figures. Instead it is more
likely related to factors which were not considerations in this study, such as
locations of major advertisers and shopping areas, the sections of the region
which attract the most spending. A second factor might the sections of the
region which are expected to grow the most and the fastest in coming years. And
a third might involve the cost of different types of coverage; for example, law
enforcement issues (police, automobile collisions, crime reports) might be less
expensive to cover because a reporter, by relying on official sources, can get
more stories
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done in a certain time frame - as opposed to committing a reporter to covering
city government (city council meetings, planning commission) and its lengthy
meetings which require the reporter's attendance. Noting that the NAT seemed to
emphasize law enforcement coverage more than the MN or the DG, suggests that
perhaps its resources may be than the others.
This was an exploratory study; there are many more aspects of this competitive
market which bear investigation. For example, one interesting area of research
could focus on comparisons of high school sports coverage; in a region of many
small towns and public school systems, popular sports such as football,
basketball and baseball are essentially local news and are read avidly by
parents and fans. Other content studies might deal with kinds and amounts of
display advertising, especially the major accounts; the use of local
photography on page one and the section fronts; the inclusion of state,
national
and international news as opposed to local news; and maybe even qualitative
concerns such as accuracy and depth of stories.
Trying to draw a picture of a newspaper's coverage of an area requires a much
more subtle touch than can be managed through a basic content analysis; however,
this research is the place to start.
__________________________
1The Benton County Daily Record is published in Bentonville. It is not included
in this study because its primary circulation area is essentially different from
the main focus of the three competing daily newspapers; the most intense
competition is in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers corridor. Two of the three,
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and The Morning News, do circulate to some extent
in Bentonville. Audit Bureau of Circulations 1998 circulation figures for the
Benton County Daily Record were 10,582, as published in the article "Start the
Presses," in the December 13, 1998, edition of Northwest Arkansas Business
Matters, a regular publication of The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (page 15).
2 The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette had been circulated in Northwest Arkansas for
years before the zoned edition, which was inaugurated July 13, but it was not a
major competitor in the market.
Three-Way Daily Newspaper----
3William Bowden, "Northwest Arkansas Newspapers at War," unpublished master's
thesis. University of Arkansas, fall 1998: p. 2.
4Miguel Casas, "Start the Presses," Northwest Arkansas Business Matters
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Sunday, December 13, 1998): p. 17.
5Local news has been considered a variable in the study of competing newspaper
markets for many years. See for example, Stanley K. Bigman, "Rivals in
Conformity: A Study of Two Competing Dailies," Journalism Quarterly 25 (1948):
p. 127-131; Galen Rarick and Barrie Hartman, "The Effects of Competition on One
Daily Newspaper's Content," Journalism Quarterly 43 (Autumn 1966): p. 459-463;
Gerald Grotta, "Consolidation of Newspapers: What Happens to the Consumer?"
Journalism Quarterly 48 (Summer 1971): p 245-250; John C. Schweitzer and Elaine
Goldman, "Does Newspaper Competition
Make a Difference to Readers?" Journalism Quarterly 52 (Winter 1975): p.
706-710; Stephen Lacy, "A Model of Demand for News: Impact Of Competition on
Newspaper Content," Journalism Quarterly 66 (Spring 1989): p 40-48 and 128;
Wayne Wanta and Thomas J. Johnson, "Content Changes in the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch During Different Market Situations," The Journal of Media
Economics 7 (1), 1994: p 13-28.
6Barry R. Litman and Janet Bridges, "An Economic Analysis of Daily Newspaper
Performance," Newspaper Research Journal 7(3), 1986; p. 9-26.
7Bigman, "Rivals in Conformity," p. 130-131; Lacy, "Model of Demand for News,"
p. 44; Lacy, "Financial Commitment Approach," p. 8.
8Lacy "Financial Commitment Approach," p. 11.
9Dori Perrucci, "Gloves Come Off in 4-Way Fight," Mediaweek (July 27, 1998): p.
12-13; Scott A Johnson, "Area's immigrant populations deal with dislocaiton
differently," The Northwest Arkansas Times (Sunday, March 28, 1999): p. M1 and
M8.
10County Population Estimates for July 1, 1998 and Population Changes, July 1,
1997 to July 1, 1998, from "Population Estimates Program," Population Division,
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Internet Release Date: March 12, 1999.
(http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/county/co-98-1/98C1_05.txt). Also,
"Model-Based Income and Poverty Estimates for Washington County, Arkansas in
Three-Way Daily Newspaper----
1995," Bureau of the Census, Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates Program.
U.S. Census Bureau. Last revised: February 17, 1999.
(http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/saipe/estimate/ cty/ctyo5143.htm). Also,
"Model-Based Income and Poverty Estimates for Benton County, Arkansas in 1995,"
Bureau of the census, Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates Program, U.S.
Census Bureau. Last revised: February 17, 1999
(http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/saipe/estimate/cty/cty05007 .htm)
111990 Census Information.
12Judith Boudreaux, "Expert: Area's growth to remain steady, strong," Northwest
Arkansas Times (Sunday, January 31, 1999): p. C6.
13Casas, "Start the Presses," p. 16.
14Ibid., p. 17. In December 1998, Hollinger sold 45 of its newspapers including
three in other Arkansas counties.
15Bowden, "Newspapers at War," p. 6-8.
16Casas, "Start the Presses," p. 17.
Three-Way Daily Newspaper----
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