Investing in local news
Beginning March 19, the News Letter Journal will cost $3 per issue, and our annual subscription will increase to $156.
We know that is a significant change. We also believe our readers deserve a clear and honest explanation of why this is happening — and what it means for the future of local news in Newcastle.
You’ve probably noticed fewer pages. There’s a reason.
We are certain many readers have noticed a decline in page counts in recent years. That change did not happen overnight, and it did not happen because local news suddenly became less important. It also did not happen because we laid off staff. Many weeks we have more news than we can fit in the news hole. Traditionally, a healthy newspaper looked something like 45% advertising and 55% news.
The News Letter Journal has never fit that mold. Historically, we’ve been closer to 35% advertising and 65% news — because our mission has always been to prioritize coverage of this community.
Since COVID, many long-time area advertisers — including local businesses and restaurants — have either closed, been purchased by out-of-area companies or consolidated into chains that no longer control their own advertising budgets. In many cases, local managers simply are not allowed to buy local advertising anymore.
That shift has had a real impact on the traditional business model that supported newspapers for generations.
For most of the past century, newspapers operated on a simple formula: Readers paid for a small part of the cost, advertisers paid the lion’s share. That model no longer works
As advertising declined, something had to give.
To control costs and keep the paper alive, we reduced page counts. Fewer pages meant lower printing and postage costs. That decision allowed us to continue covering the most important local news each week, but it also meant we could not cover everything we wanted to cover – and we have been forced on occasion to publish some stories only online.
At the same time, the costs of producing a newspaper have risen sharply. Postage alone has increased significantly over the past five years, and printing prices have risen as well. Meanwhile, we had not raised the per-issue price in nearly 20 years.
That imbalance is not sustainable.
What’s happening elsewhere should be a warning
In the last 20 years nearly 3,500 newspapers have closed nationwide – 136 in the last year alone. In Colorado, 14 newspapers shut down in the past two years, many of them in small towns much like Newcastle. Those closures directly created news deserts in two counties, places where there is no longer any local newspaper at all. There are roughly 213 news deserts across the U.S., and 80% of these news deserts are in predominantly rural areas.
When a community loses its newspaper, it doesn’t just lose headlines.
It loses:
• A public record of what happened
• Regular coverage of schools, courts and local government
• A watchdog that shows up week after week
• A shared place for community life — sports, events, milestones
In a news desert, decisions still get made. Taxes still get levied. Meetings still happen. The difference is that very few people know about them.
We do not intend for Newcastle to become the next example.
What this change makes possible:
By asking readers to take on a larger, and more fair, share of the true cost
of producing a newspaper, we can reverse course.
Raising the cover price and subscription rate allows us to:
• Add more pages of locally produced news and a state news section in our print edition.
• Reduce reliance on local businesses whose numbers have dwindled over
the years
• Invest directly in reporting, photography and coverage of local life
• Restore depth and breadth to
the paper
Simply put: This change lets us produce more news with less
advertising, not less news with more cost-cutting.
A newspaper is not paper and ink. It is people — local people — doing the work of documenting, questioning, explaining and preserving the story of this place.
This is about choosing to have a
newspaper.
We are making this change because we believe Newcastle should have a locally owned, locally produced newspaper — one that is here not just this year, but for years to come.
The alternative is the path too many communities have already taken: delay hard decisions, undercharge for the product and eventually disappear.
We believe local news is worth supporting on purpose.
And with this change, we believe the News Letter Journal can once again grow the amount of local news it brings to your doorstep each week — and we can continue to serve this community with excellence and pride.