In a bid to protect its paper-and-ink legacy, the Falls Church Information-Press plans to introduce just a few modifications to its enterprise mannequin — chief amongst them a web site paywall.
“If my deference to a print newspaper merely doesn’t afford us the flexibility to proceed in that mode, we’ll strive one thing else, no less than on a brief foundation,” Nick Benton, founder and editor of the greater than three-decade-old publication, informed ARLnow. “I’ll do no matter it takes to maintain the paper going.”
Benton, a California native, moved to Falls Church within the late Nineteen Eighties after touchdown a job as a White Home correspondent with Govt Intelligence Evaluation, a weekly journal based by American political activist Lyndon LaRouche that was identified for its contentious articles and conspiracy theories.
Just a few years into his profession, Benton noticed a chance for a distinct profession path. Pushed by the noticeable lack of devoted information protection in his group, he approached the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce with a proposition: Would native companies be serious about promoting in a nascent native newspaper?
That very same yr, Benton began the Information-Press in March 1991.
“The primary night time… of the papers rolling off of that [printing] press for the primary time — it was like a 16-page paper — the bell rang, issues began chugging, and the paper began coming down the conveyor belt and I stood on a soapbox and shouted, ‘Let each tyrant tremble,’” he mentioned. “That’s how we acquired began.”
Final month marked FCNP’s thirty-third anniversary, a milestone Benton marked by penning an editorial urging readers to stress the town authorities to revive its outdated custom of buying weekly advertisements.
Readers Requested to Assist FCNP Efforts https://t.co/dbl9PvqfvC
— Falls Church Information-Press (@fcnp) March 20, 2024
“We should confess that we, too, are skating on skinny ice in these occasions of nice hassle for native papers,” Benton wrote. “We’re relying on our readers in any respect ranges to pitch in and assist. Essentially the most environment friendly method of doing that is by means of a dedication of a tiny fraction of Metropolis tax {dollars} going to offer a worthwhile public service that additionally helps to maintain your native newspaper in enterprise.”
A month earlier, he opined in regards to the significance of the paper to the Little Metropolis’s ongoing growth. Two months earlier, he introduced a forthcoming $10month paywall for the web site and a pilot program to ship newspapers by mail, relatively than devoted supply routes, to handle these challenges.
Although he didn’t delve into the specifics of the monetary points, Benton emphasised they had been important.
“We now have to determine some technique to elevate income,” he informed ARLnow. “We’re working mightily low.”
Regardless of Benton’s affirmation of the newspaper’s enduring readership, he mentioned promoting is declining as a enterprise mannequin. Implementing a paywall isn’t Benton’s most well-liked possibility, however he says that with out extra group assist, it’s one of many few remaining avenues he has left.
“I’ve to do it earlier than we run out of cash,” he mentioned. “Individuals aren’t responding to those appeals that I’ve been making about getting the town [to take out ads] — that’s the simplest technique to do it as a result of it’s popping out of their taxes, proper.”
Town has since agreed to month-to-month advert placements, Benton says. Nevertheless, the association falls in need of their monetary wants, and in the long run, Benton hopes the paywall will enable FCNP to maintain distributing a bodily paper, which he argues is efficacious to readers.
“I really like the outdated phrase that claims, ‘You’re by no means alone when you’ve got a poet in your pocket,’ and I’d apply that to newspapers,” he mentioned. “[Newspapers] is a medium of communication. It’s nearly like a bodily net — a glue — that holds a group collectively.”
Furthermore, Benton argues {that a} bodily newspaper has an extended life span for the buyer than a strictly on-line publication, thus benefiting advertisers.
“You’re taking a newspaper, you may fold it and stick it in your pocket. You possibly can have it in your espresso desk for a complete week. You possibly can decide up the paper three or 4 occasions through the course of the weekend. That advert goes to be in there for individuals to learn and see,” Benton mentioned.
As a lot as he wish to see the paper proceed, Benton acknowledges it might not be a viable enterprise mannequin long run and would relatively scrap it to protect the publication than let the entire thing die out.
Both method, Benton is decided to maintain FCNP working.
“Except they drag me out of there and padlock the door, and I can’t do something, then possibly I’ll cease,” he mentioned. “However I’m not there but. And hopefully, a few of these options will seize on.”
