J. TODD FOSTER: Obits Moving Back To A2, Cheers Expected To Follow

By J. Todd Foster
Editor / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: September 28, 2008

For the nearly two years I’ve edited your newspaper, I’ve secretly longed to move the obituaries from the B section back to their rightful place on A2 so readers would regard me as a conquering hero and toss rose petals at my feet – or at least stop criticizing me for a decision that predates my arrival here.

That day is upon us. Drum roll please ………… starting Monday, the obituaries will return to A2.

I can hear your cheers.

This move was far from heroic, admittedly, but actually an agreement between me and Publisher Carl Esposito as a result of a cost-cutting move that will have minimal impact on your newspaper but will help us curb skyrocketing newsprint (paper) costs.

Starting Monday, this newspaper will reduce its four sections on weekdays to two so that we can eliminate filler ads in the classifieds section and save a dozen pages a week. Instead of getting four small sections, you’ll get two large sections. The Sunday paper, meanwhile, will not change – except for the obits starting on A2.

Again, this is a business decision with no adverse impacts on journalism. No content will be jettisoned.

While I initially cringed at the thought of decreasing sections, a page audit quickly revealed that a typical week yields a dozen classifieds pages that we can do without – ads promoting the newspaper and racy personals.

We had to do something. Last week, we began 2009 budget deliberations with company brass from Richmond. It’s the corporate/financial equivalent of a colonoscopy with a barium enema chaser.

The budget numbers for newsprint, the paper we’re printed on, were alarming. Those costs have increased 32 percent this year and are projected to skyrocket another 38 percent next year. That would mean paper in 2009 will cost $537,000 more than the same paper this year, provided our consumption remained the same.

Cutting a dozen pages a week will save $62,400 a year at today’s prices.

Keep in mind that these price increases include our volume discounts; our company buys paper for 25 daily newspapers and about 50 weeklies. In other words, newspapers that are part of smaller chains may pay even more for newsprint.

Newspapers are an endangered species: Our historical business model is outdated and expensive compared to the cheaper, more nimble Web, which unfortunately is not yet replacing the ad revenue we’re losing. Advertisers have tightened their belts because of the recession and already had begun spreading their ad dollars around the fragmented media landscape. Direct mail now accounts for more advertising than newspapers. Your children are not reading newspapers. If they’re getting the news at all, it’s on electronic devices.

Big-city newspapers are in real trouble. Papers our size also must move quickly to ensure our survival and growth.

“As we surveyed our options, we realized that current four-section configurations on weekdays were often costing an average two pages a day of house ad filler space, usually in the classified section,” said Esposito, the publisher. “I don’t know how many trees that translates to in a year, but you can be sure it’s enough to fill most of our yards and then some. We decided to save the trees and plant obituaries back on page two, where many readers have told us they prefer them.”

“Told us” is a little mild. Six months before my arrival here, this newspaper opened a new printing plant and launched a redesigned newspaper. Because of complicated page configurations and new sections, obits were moved to the B section with the rest of the local news. Readers revolted, only stopping short of amassing in front of our building with pitch forks and torches.

I still get reader complaints, 30 months after the obits were moved.

By collapsing our four sections into two, it created a new opportunity to return obits to their historical venue, A2. The obits will continue on A3 and occasionally spill over onto A4.

The A section on Mondays through Saturdays will contain all local, state and national news, plus business and obits. B section will be sports, classifieds, comics and most feature pages.

The four-section format took away much of our flexibility. That’s because when we run our press, we print the A and C sections at the same time, and then the B and D sections simultaneously. A and C and B and D must mirror each other in terms of number of pages.

To get the classifieds section to an even-numbered page, we often had to add fillers. By putting classifieds into another, larger section, we can trim out those fillers and reduce costs.

Other newspapers have chosen to control costs by killing jobs – an estimated 3,000 U.S. journalists have been laid off or bought out since June, according to industry trackers. Beyond people, our biggest expense is newsprint. Trimming a dozen unneeded pages a week is the most painless way for us to enact further expense cuts.
J. Todd Foster is managing editor of the Bristol Herald Courier and can be reached at or (276) 645-2513.