Media essays

Country versus the Suburbs: Comparing the difference in impact between country and suburban local newspapers

By Nerissa Symon (2005 essay)

Local newspapers are seen as being a very unimportant and lackluster part of the media in Australia. They are mainly looked upon as a training ground for new journalists to cut their teeth on before moving up to bigger and better things. Probably the most telling of how unimportant local newspapers are considered to be is the lack of research done about them. No real value or importance is given to these newspapers, particularly in the case of suburban local newspapers. Local country papers are considered to be useful for keeping up with what is happening in the local community, whereas the attitude with suburban papers is that there isn’t that much a community there to bring together. But upon scratching the service it begins to emerge that all types of local newspapers play a far bigger role in informing, creating and supporting their community. These types of newspapers play a bigger and more important role in most people’s lives than they imagine. Even in the suburbs people read the local paper for a wide range of reasons, from the classifieds, to sports reports, to the latest scandal about the local council. For

Suburban Newspapers

The Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader is a part of the Leader Group of local suburban newspapers which is owned by News Limited. Most suburban local newspapers are now owned by the big media companies, News Limited or the Fairfax group. Through out many Victorian suburbs there is a local newspaper owned by each of these companies. The Lilydale Leader’s rival newspaper is the Lilydale and Yarra Valley Journal, part of the Fairfax chain. These newspapers are weeklies and generally delivered free to all households in their designated areas. These papers are usually divided as to the municipality they are under. The name of the distribution area comes first usually followed by the ‘Leader’ or the ‘Journal’. The stories are local content, but the lay out of these newspapers has a standard form, meaning that these types of newspapers all look fairly similar from area to area. Sometimes even the advertising, which makes up a large amount of these newspapers is kept the same. Because of this lack of originality the common view of suburban newspapers is that they hold little value in their communities or having little impact on them, they don’t any real personality for people to identify with. It can seem like a very impersonal thing because there is not the sense of community about these newspapers that there is for country or rural newspapers. But it would be wrong to say that suburban newspapers have no impact on their communities, it’s just not as obvious or immediate as that of a country newspaper. Journalist for the Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader, Lyndal Reading believes her newspaper definitely does have an impact on its community. “It might not be as big an impact as a local country newspaper has on its community, and it probably has a different kind of impact. But it (the Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader) does have an impact on the community.”

Country Newspapers

Local country newspapers seem to have a much more involved feel about them; they have been described as the heart and soul of Australia. These types of newspapers are treated almost as though it is a member of the community itself. They have often developed along with the town and are. These types of papers were use to be mainly family owned and run, but recently many of them have been bought out by larger companies. They still however retain their strong links with the community. “With an emphasis on local issues and everyday events the newspaper becomes a part of the smaller community.” (Bedford: 2002) The South Gippsland Sentinel- Times was created by the merger of two local newspapers in its area. It is a weekly paper and costs one dollar. The merger of small country newspapers was also a common occurrence several years ago to insure the survival of these newspapers when many looked like they were going broke or unable to cover running costs. These newspapers are directly accountable to their readership. “Collectively, readers have a detailed knowledge of local material, and they act as a check, not only on factual accuracy but on exaggeration or distortion arising from how news is selected. The people who run them live in the same areas as the papers are delivered to and are usually known by everyone in the town. Jason Beck is the editor of the South Gippsland Sentinel-Times, and has worked on the newspaper for ten years and knows the community well. He believes that his newspaper always has an impact on the community. “Sometimes it (the impact) of an issue or story can be profound and sometimes it can sink without a trace. It depends on whether people feel moved by a story or if they just don’t care.”

And Then There's those in Between

These are the local newspapers that can’t clearly be looked as either suburban or country due to the geographic area they cover. The Ranges Trader Mail is one of these newspapers. It is probably closer to being a suburban newspaper rather than a rural one, but there are still distinct differences in the way it is received and treated by its readers. It has far more of a community feel about it and it seems to have closer links to its readers than the Lilydale Leader does. Journalist Nathan Johnson for the Ranges Trader Mail says the paper is far more open to its readers. “For example, people are welcome to walk into the newspapers offices off the street and talk to the staff about a story they think should be run or about a complaint they have.” Because of this he feels that the Ranges Trader Mail probably does have a bigger impact on the community than other suburban newspapers do.

Judging the Impact

Country and rural newspaper have a very direct and immediate impact on their audience. They will know almost immediately what sort of effect they have had, by the phone calls and letters to the editor they receive, the people they meet on the street and if all the papers sell out. They do not generally worry too much about readership surveys and results, it is better for them to judge by the community’s reaction. Beck believes that his paper is there with the purpose of making an impact on the community. He always tries to use activist journalism saying “comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.” He always tries to make a decision on which stories he will run and lead with on the basis of how many people the will impact. As an example he had a “crazy week”, in which there was a murder, a police chase that resulted in a death and a violent council meeting. Beck chose to run with the council meeting as he felt it was more important for the community to know what had gone on at council. Unless he reported it, the majority of people would not know about it, where as the other everyone was talking about two incidents. Beck said that his readers always let him know if they think he makes the wrong decision, as they did on this occasion. Beck also believes that the communities views are very important and tries to publish all the letters to the editor he receives. “Sometimes we will have two or three pages of letters to the editor; we have to give people their say.” Beck said  “It would be hard working on a suburban newspaper where everything seems to sink without a trace. The population you’re writing for isn’t known where as here it is.”

At the Ranges Trader Mail they also generally judge their impact by the response from the readers. Johnson says that his newspaper is there for the readers, they are always open to feed back and try to publish as many letters to the editor as they can. “Our stories are often generated from what the locals (citizens) want to read.” He says. “We’re very open to what they want.” Johnson believes that his newspaper is very close to his readership, the aim of his newspaper is to keep them informed and entertained. Johnson also said that he didn’t really know how his newspaper judged their impact on the readers, other than by the letters to the editor.

The Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader like other suburban newspapers and the big daily metros, generally use readership surveys and polls to keep track of how they are going. They have no sales figures to indicate whether a particular issue did well or not because these news papers are distributed free to a relatively stable number of homes. These surveys are conducted regularly but not for every issue, they also tend to focus more on whether there are increases or declines in readership and the general reason for this occurring. Rather than particular issues or stories that people liked or disliked. A large amount of these readership surveys also concentrated on the demographics of their readership to help entice advertisers. The Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader experienced the highset growth of readership in the most recent results, jumping by 6000 to 63 000 readers. In these results there was an overall growth in the readership of the Leader newspapers of 18 000, proving that these newspapers are reaching more people than thought and are having an impact on the community. To judge the immediate impact of a particular issue however Reading says they rely on letters to the editor and the phone calls they receive, like the other newspapers. “If we get a big response then that’s seen as a good sign.” Reading comments.

So Who Are They Having This Impact On?

Because the Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader is distributed free to homes the stories written for are determined by geography rather than a target audience. But they do have dedicated youth pages to encourage younger readers in their geographic location. Reading said the newspaper's responsibility is only to report stories and news happening within their circulation area. There is generally no need for them to cover any world or current event news unless it directly relates to someone or something in that specific community. It is the job of suburban local newspapers to fill in the gaps between where people live and the news they hear that covers the rest of Melbourne. John Stafford, General Manager of Fairfax community newspapers in Victoria, says that it is the job of their staff “to draw together their expertise for a common purpose of bridging the gaps that regionalism might otherwise create.” The Fairfax papers also make a point of sponsoring community festivals, trying to encourage the growth of community spirit where there doesn’t always seem like there is one.

Local resident of the Knox area, Sally Symon, says she finds her local newspaper a valuable resource to keep up with general information about her area and find out about what her local council is doing for senior citizens. “A few years ago the council asked us if we’d prefer to have information about senior citizen events posted out to us printed in the local paper, and I think everyone preferred the paper.” She also says that she thinks that people rely on their local newspaper a lot more than they realise. “I always used to like having the births and deaths, which aren’t printed as often as they use to be,” She says. “But when you’ve lived in the same area for 42 years you like to know what’s happened to people.” This shows that there often is quite a strong sense of community in suburban areas that is realised through these newspapers. It has been said that regional newspapers are seen as part of the community because they run their children’s sports results, they run classified ads for their birth deaths and marriages these are then read by their friends and become a talking point. So these newspapers are dealing with the lives of the people in the community. (Bedford 2002) It is the small things like this in the suburban newspapers also that help people to feel they are part of a community.

For Beck’s newspaper there is very obviously a strong community there. People treat the newspaper as a part of the community. There local newspaper has become a habit to them. “Never under estimate the power of habit when it comes to media.” he says. “The paper is printed on a Tuesday and if it’s not in the newsagent’s by that afternoon I receive an angry phone call from the owner saying he has a que of people waiting!” He explains that whether “they (the readers) love it or love to bag it” the whole community is fiercely defensive of their newspaper.

Who uses it

When taken into consideration who uses suburban newspapers it begins to seem that there is an obvious belief out there that they do in fact have some impact the local community. Local government sees local newspapers as offering the perfect opportunity to stay in touch with their community. Because suburban newspapers generally cover the same municipality as the council they are getting to exactly the people they need to. They are also easier to deal with than the big metro dailies. John Ross, local government representative at the 1994 Australian press council conference on the role and responsibility of country newspapers, said “From my local government perspective our local newspapers are great allies who have consistently responded to positives we offer and regularly report on council meetings throughout our area.” This is a common view amongst many public relation representatives through from local government. Many attempt to make good contacts with their local papers so their press releases are likely to be run and they receive media attention. In the Lilydale Leaders and Ranges Trader Mail’s area of distribution the local council, the Shire of Yarra Ranges, regularly sends press releases only to the local newspapers. The big newspapers would have no interest or the time to put into these stories, but the local newspapers do. Most local newspapers, country and suburban, often carry a large amount of local government content.

Local Members of Parliament both at a State and Federal level also see suburban newspapers as a good way of getting across to their electorate. Government departments also commonly use suburban newspapers to keep people in touch with what they are doing. Johnson says that “All government based departments see local suburban newspapers as a good way of communicating to people at a grass roots level.”

 Beck commentated that although his paper is constantly used by their local council, they hear very little from other government departments apart from the standard press releases sent to all newspapers. He attributes this to the fact that they are outside the metropolitan area so they are not seen as being as important to these people. In this sense the suburban newspapers are seen as being more important and considered to have a bigger impact on the right parts of the community. Country or rural newspapers are thought of as less important by a lot of government departments because they are further out and it is easier to target the suburbs.

Advertising: It Pays The Bills

Advertising obviously plays a vital role in the survival and running of both country and suburban newspapers. Beck Johnson and Reading all agreed that it is “what pays the bills!” Like most other media it is what keeps these newspapers going. Often local newspapers are seen as being under more pressure than the bigger daily metros from advertisers to make sure that no negative stories are run about them, or alternatively the paper runs good stories about them because they buy a lot of advertising space.

In regards to local suburban newspapers you could be forgiven for thinking that they would be very tightly controlled when it comes to what they can and can’t write about advertisers who use their newspapers. The advertising completely pays for most local suburban newspapers. It is vital for the survival of suburban newspapers in particular that they continue to bring in revenue through advertising as these newspapers are free, so do not even make a partial recovery of costs through sales. There isn’t just the pressure of being able to cover the costs of running and printing these newspapers, but they are also expected to remain financially healthy so their share holders benefit. But both Reading and Johnson said they felt that advertising had no impact on the editorial part of the paper what so ever. Johnson said “Advertising has no impact on stories, the only way it will appear in anything like that is if it is a paid feature.” Reading said that advertising in the Leader “never affects the stories run or the spin on them.” Nor had she ever felt under any pressure from advertisers.

However, she did say that when it comes to regional or country newspapers it can depend on you a lot on the editor. At her previous job as a reporter on the Ballarat Courier, her editor had always liked the stories to be positive and up beat. It is common for country and regional newspapers to feel pressured by advertisers to give their business a good story or not write put in a negative story about them. Ironically this is where the suburban newspapers seem to have the advantage. Even though they are paid for and supported by advertising, because they are generally owned by big media companies and because their readership is more impersonal they have more freedom with what they write.

That is not to say that country newspapers are controlled by the wants of advertisers though. Beck admits that advertising always has an impact on the newspaper that efforts to keep the two separate don’t always work as well as he would like. But he is also very firm in his stance that people will not receive a good story written about their business simply because they buy a whole lot of ad space. Nor will he not publish a story because it involves the son of someone who spends a lot of money on advertising in his paper. He says in regards to those people he tells them “to get stuffed”. They do run paid features but he doesn’t particularly like them, but says, “Pragmatically it’s something everyone has to do” and suspects that most journalists don’t particularly like that advertising plays such a big part.

Technology and the Future for Local Newspapers

One thing that both suburban and country newspapers seem to agree on is that there is a good future for the local newspaper. The advances in technology have not seemed to cause any great harm to local newspapers, and if anything they have helped them. Now it is a common thing for people to got o the internet for the major news stories of the day, most of the time there is more up to date information than in the daily metros. But people generally aren’t inclined to do the same thing for local news. They are just as happy to sit down and read the local newspaper over breakfast or in the evenings. “When it comes to the looking at the future of newspapers, regional and suburban newspapers have the advantage,” Reading says. “People aren’t as inclined to go to the internet to read about what’s happening in their local area. But the first thing most people do is check the headlines when they turn their computer on.” “It might even help local newspapers.” She adds.

 Johnson also believes that it will be a long time before the internet takes over from local newspapers. “Our website hasn’t been updated in two years.” He said, as an example of how little desire there is for local news to embrace new technology. “Local news is not like world news where people want to constantly know what’s going on and constant updates. Local news is more like a good story which everyone likes to hear, but there’s no rush in getting it.” He finished off with “I believe there will always be room for local news.”

Beck also points out that a large number of his readers are from older generations who are less technologically savvy and a re far more comfortable with the printed newspapers. John Parker, retired Managing Director of Rural Press, agrees. “…I’m probably old fashioned, but I just can’t see that the electronic newspaper will ever be applicable in country areas.” He goes on to say that he expects for other news such as national and world news, we will probably increasingly turn to electronic sources, but he “just can’t visualise how this electronic means of communication – no mater how sophisticated - could carry the detail in the easy- to – read format, that a good country newspapers now carries.” Beck believes that there will probably be a day when we will eventually reach a point when all newspapers are electronic, but also points out that people have been saying that for a number of years now and it still hasn’t happened. He says, “While there is a continuing decline in the readership of metro papers, circulation figures for most local papers are increasing or at least remain static. Beck says, “It would be a bold person to predict the demise of the local paper, whether country or suburban, though!”

Bibliography

Australian Press Council Conference Papers, The Role and Responsibility of Country Newspapers, Southgate Motel, Mount Gambier, 24th November, 1994, Australian Press Council

Burgoyne Sandy, ‘Newspapers and the Community’ Press and Society Lecture, La Trobe University, 9th May, 2005

Beck Jason, Editor of the South Gippsland Sentinel – Times, Telephone interview conducted by author, Melbourne, Vic, 7th April, 2005

Bedford Kathy, Regional Press and the Community: The Ballarat Courier, [Online (http://guidomedia.com/kathybedford.html)]

http://www.community.newsmedianet.com.au

http://www.fconline.com.au

http://www.vcpa.com.au

Janowitz Morris, The Community Press in an Urban Setting, U.S.A., The University of Chicago Press, 1967

Johnson Nathan, Journalist at the Ranges Trader Mail, Telephone interview conducted by author, Melbourne, Vic, 5th April, 2005

Lauterer Jock, Community Journalism: The Personal Approach, second edition, Iowa, Iowa State University, 2000

Morgan Garry, Levine Michele, and Benjamin Colin, The Roy Morgan/ Ogilvy & Mather Values Segments: Values and Suburban Newspaper Readership, Presented at the Australian Suburban Newspapers’ Association 23rd Annual Seminar, May 1987

Reading Lyndal, Journalist at the Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader, Telephone interview conducted by author, Melbourne, Vic, 21st March, 2005

Ruddick Gary, The Local Rag (No publisher or date available)

Roy Morgan Readership Poll Results of Victorian Suburban  Newspapers, September, 2004, (Forward by Lyndal Reading)

Schultz Loralie, More Than a Local Rag: The Social Role of Local Newspapers, [Online (http://guidomedia.com/loralieschultz.html)]

Sommerland Lloyd E, et. al., Serving the Country Press: Country Press Association of New South Wales, 1900-2000, New South Wales, Country Press Association of News south Wales, 2000

Symon Sally, Local Resident of Knox area, Interview conducted by author, Melbourne, 15th June, 2005

Click here to go back to our LaTrobe writers page