Dennis Ryerson

“We’re like everybody else,” says Dennis Ryerson.  “We’re affected by the economy … and like everybody else we have expenses.  When one is out of line with the other, you have to make adjustments.”

But, Ryerson’s adjustments mean changes at The Indianapolis Star.  He’s the editor and vice-president of the newspaper.

Corporate cost-cutting forced the lay-offs of 37 people in the Star building.  17 of them were part of the news operation.  Some were managers. Others may have been copy editors or page designers. “Not very many” of them, Ryerson said, would be recognizeable names to readers.  He told me he wanted to protect the paper’s newsgathering function.  But, he acknowledged he had to release one reporter, too.

The cuts will force the newspaper to find new ways of doing things. At the same time, Ryerson said readers won’t “see significant changes in what we do — and that’s our goal.” That means no changes in content.  Any changes he implements will affect parts of the business that do not involve the daily news product. He’s determined, though, “not just to repeat yesterday’s news.”  That’s available from many other sources, now.  So, he wants the Star to “provide people with things they can’t get any place else … So, I think the onus is on us to focus more than ever before on looking out for the interests of the public — its public interest and its personal interest.”

Financial challenges for the nation’s newspapers — along with its radio and TV stations — have been monitored for years. Bloomberg News reports that’s the motivation for The New York Times to consider charging a fee for access to the Times’ web site.  Bloomberg says the Times “is contemplating additional sources of revenue as marketers slow spending on the Internet.”

Ryerson understands the motivation for such a change. “We’ve talked about those kinds of things,” he says. The Wall Street Journal and the Times can charge for their content because they have content of a national nature that nobody else can provide. And, there’s great value to a lot of people when you have a national market … We don’t have that kind of luxury plus our franchise is local. There’s a lot of competition for local.”

Indianapolis Star Building

More of that competition is coming on-line.  The Newspaper Association of America reports “more than 73.3 million monthly unique visitors on average” to newspaper web sites in the first quarter of this year.  That’s “a 10.5 percent increase over the same period a year ago,” according to a survey done for the association.  In an association press release, the association’s president, John Sturm, said: “Digital success has become a critical component of newspapers’ transformation.”

Electronic media outlets also understand the demands of the digital age.  That’s why, for example, WISH-TV is devoting more resources to its web site and to the opportunities provided by Facebook and Twitter.  WISH-TV’s New Media/Interactive Director, Jason Crundwell, said the goal of on-line news is “not really that different than ‘old media’.  We still need to deliver relevant content to the consumer.  The only difference is that content is delivered across multiple channels, simultaneously.”  And, with consumers demanding immediate access to information, Crundwell says “it is our responsibility to deliver that content through as many platforms as possible.”

Ryerson remains confident in the ability of his paper to ride-out the recession — in its traditional format or on a computer screen. He said research shows The Indianapolis Star “was in the Top 10, nationally, in terms of penetration of adults in our market, reading what we have in print or on-line every week. That’s a good position to be in. And we want to maintain that position so that when we come out of this recession we can add some things, continue to be the kind of player in the community for news coverage — positive change — that people have come to expect.”

You no doubt know about Facebook and MySpace.  Now Mitch Daniels has a similar social networking site for supporters of his bid for re-election.

You can find it at mymanmitch.ning.com.  It has videos, blogs, and more.

Whether it will do anything to attract new support for the candidate may be questionable but it is one more advance in Internet campaigning.