You’re running the correct newspaper playbook, up until a point. It’s not fun, but it’s the reality you’re faced with in order

Public offer: $5M for The Charlotte Observer

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2024-09-20 18:30:05

You’re running the correct newspaper playbook, up until a point. It’s not fun, but it’s the reality you’re faced with in order to provide financial returns.

I worked on the The Charlotte Observer management team from 2013 to 2015. I get it. There’s more cash left in these newspapers than people think.

But as with any distressed asset, eventually the economics stop working. Then what? I’d argue a great outcome is to get one final check and return it to local ownership.

Subscription: I believe we can convert 5% of the local population into paying subscribers. That’s 50,000 people. I’d charge them $10/mo. That’s $6M/yr. We’ll also create a premium tier for civic minded journalism supporters. 1,000 people at $1,500/yr. That’s another $1.5M. For a total of $7.5M in subscription revenue.

Current digital subscribers are about 23,000 (thank you Tony for the stat and story), so we’ll have some work to do. But in a city one-fifth our size, The Salt Lake City Tribune now has over 30,000 digital subs. It’s possible.