Here’s my weekly coverage of the Whitewater Register‘s April 10, 2008 issue.
The Register‘s front page runs two stories, both above the fold: a profile of a farm in Richmond, and part two of the Register‘s multi-part series on the Whitewater Police Department. I mentioned last week that I will refrain from commenting on the police department series until it concludes.
The story on the local farm is ample, and pushes the Whitewater Police Department’s push for accreditation onto page two. News listed under the heading “Community” appears on page three. The heading “UW-Whitewater in the News” appears on page six.
Such is our community paper that it feels compelled to let readers know where to look for the community news.
I’ll offer a few observations on advertisements in the Register. I have mentioned before that only a minority of the picture advertisements in the Register are for Whitewater businesses. This raises two possibilities: other businesses in Whitewater don’t advertise, or they advertise elsewhere.
It’s elsewhere. One can find many print ads for Whitewater businesses in the pages of the Good Morning Advertiser.
The GMA Good Morning Advertiser is a true shopper-advertiser with advantages over the Register. It’s small, easy to read, and arrives via the mail without cost to recipients. The Good Morning Advertiser has a solid selection of local merchants’ ads.
If the Register lacks the advertising appeal of the GMA Good Morning Advertiser, then it also lacks the frequent color postings of the Banner. I have teased about aspects of the Banner‘s content, but I have also noted that it has clear advantages over a dead-tree publication like the Register.
Less the advertiser, and less the source of plentiful local content: whither the Register? Being part of a local chain surely helps the Register, and must make it easier for the paper to keep publishing.
There is a way to a better paper, if only someone would embrace it. (I’m not holding my breath.) The Register would do better as a feisty, inquisitive newspaper. Some advertisers might flee, but others would commit themselves to a publication that actually piqued readers’ interest.
Whitewater merchants, with their income and prosperity at risk, are a good judge of what will be read. When the pick the Good Morning Advertiser, they signal not their preferences, but the preferences of their customers.
NOTE: In this post, I am describing the weekly shopper the Good Morning Advertiser. Although I abbreviated the name of the advertiser as GMA, in fact GMA is a different entity. I have indicated throughout both the original way that I posted, and my corrections.