How Newspapers Work

by Bob Wilson
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Inside this Article
1. Introduction to How A Newspaper Works
2. Newspaper Growth
3. What Exactly Is News and How Does It Work?
4. Editorial Pages
5. Newspaper Production
6. Newspaper Distribution
7. See more »

Newspaper Distribution

Photo courtesy of the The Herald-Sun

Newspaper distributors pick up their bundles at The Herald-Sun in the early hours of the
morning.
Responsibility for getting the newspaper from the press to the reader falls to the distribution
division. Large newspapers publish two, three or even four editions, all of which must be ready to
leave the newspaper plant at a certain time. The first edition, sometimes called the bulldog
edition, goes to the outer limits of the newspaper's circulation area. This may be several
counties or even an entire state. Later editions contain progressively fresher news and go to
smaller areas. The final edition, which goes to press after midnight, contains the latest news but
covers the smallest geographical area, usually a city.
Any subscriber to a daily newspaper knows that it plops onto the driveway in the wee hours of
the morning. Independent contractors called carriers buy copies of the newspaper at a discount
and deliver them, using their personal vehicles. When afternoon newspapers were common,
those vehicles often were bicycles. The first job for many American youngsters was delivering the
afternoon paper in their neighborhood.
The circulation department draws the routes that carriers follow. This department is also
responsible for rack sales, newspapers that go into coin-operated dispensers. The circulation
department maintains subscribers' billing records, stops and starts deliveries upon request, and
uses service runners to deliver missing papers.
Because a newspaper's circulation, the number of people who receive the paper, has a
substantial impact on its advertising rates, an independent agency called the Audit Bureau of
Circulations examines and certifies circulation numbers. This assures both the advertising
division and advertisers that circulation claims are valid.
In 18 hours of highly coordinated work carried out by numerous divisions, what newpaper people
call a "rough draft of history" has moved through computer systems, imaging machines and
presses that would amaze Gutenberg, to its final destination -- the readers. After 3:30 a.m., few
people remain at a newspaper plant. All the other divisions have gone home. The presses have
fallen silent, perhaps undergoing maintenance for the remainder of the night. The sudden silence
will not last long. In less than four hours, the newspaper, as it must do 365 days a year, will rouse
from its short sleep and start all over again.

HOW A NEWS PAPER WORKS

Newspapers are the original form of broadband communication, a distinction not always
recognized in the age of the Internet. Long before we had computers, television, radio,
telephones and telegraph, newspapers were the cheapest and most efficient way to reach mass
audiences with news, commentary and advertising. Newspapers, from their beginnings as hand-
printed "broadsheets", have been a true random-access medium -- readers can move easily and
quickly through the different sections of a newspaper, returning to them days or even weeks later.
And because a newspaper's "software" consists of a common language, it possesses a universal
and timeless quality. For example, a newspaper published before the American Revolution is as
readable today as it was in 1775!

In this edition of How Stuff Works, we'll take a behind-the-scenes look at the increasingly complex
business of running a newspaper, using The Herald-Sun of Durham, N.C. as a real-world
example. We'll examine how the news is covered and reported, how it makes it into the
newspaper and how the newspaper makes it to the press and then to your neighborhood and
racks across the circulation area. We'll also look at the newspaper as a business and discuss
how it balances making money with serving an important communications role in our society.
While that newspaper from 1775 is still readable, there is one great disparity between a
newspaper of 1775 and its modern counterpart. The 1775 newspaper was published under the
whim of a British colonial government with little tolerance for the free expression of ideas --
particularly radical political ideas. The First Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights added to
the American Constitution in 1791, forbids laws abridging freedom of the press. In an era of
kings and emperors, this was a heretical unleashing of individual freedom and a frightening
challenge to state authority. It remains so in many nations today.
The principles and practices that govern today's newspapers -- journalistic objectivity, concise
writing, national and international news -- emerged after the American Civil War. This was the
Golden Era of daily newspapers, golden not only in their enormous number and diversity, but also
in the profits that allowed press barons like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer to live
on a regal scale. Never before or since have newspapers wielded so much influence on American
politics and culture. Hearst, part of whose newspaper empire survives today, was so powerful that
he is credited (or blamed) for the outbreak of war with Spain in 1898.

NWES PAPER GROWTH

Newspaper Growth
With the growth of television news in the 1960s, newspapers confronted their first formidable
competitor. Today, ABC News claims that more Americans get their news from ABC than from
any other source -- and it's probably true. The United States' 1,600 daily newspapers continue to
serve millions of readers, but newspapers are no longer the country's dominant mass medium.
How to survive and even flourish in a culture more attuned to electronic media than to printer's ink
is the most serious issue facing the newspaper industry as it enters the 21st century.
It is safe to say that newspapers are not about to follow the Morse telegraph into oblivion.
Newspapers are a portable, convenient medium. No one lugs a computer monitor to the breakfast
table to get the morning news. And, newspapers are proving surprisingly adept at reinventing
themselves for today's readers by emphasizing good design, color photography and detailed
stories that report and interpret current events. As a Manhattan reader might say of the
venerable New York Times, there's a lot of life left in the "Old Gray Lady."
If you take the time to see how a newspaper reproduces itself every 24 hours, you will find it
fascinating! Many different individuals and departments contribute to a process that resembles a
river with numerous tributaries. Among these streams are five with daily importance to a
newspaper's readers -- news,editorial, advertising, production and distribution. Let's look at
how these streams merge into a Niagara of words and images flowing through a computer
network and onto huge rolls of paper racing through thunderous presses, all while most of us are
sleeping.

What Exactly Is News and How Does It Work?

Photo by Bernard Thomas

Reporters hard at work in the newsroom at The Herald-Sun
Curiously, for a publication called a newspaper, no one has ever coined a standard definition of
news. But for the most part, news usually falls under one broad classification -- the abnormal. It is
human folly, mechanical failures and natural disasters that often "make the news."
Reporters are a newspaper's front-line eyes and ears. Reporters glean information from many
sources, some public, such as police records, and others private, such as a government
informant. Occasionally, a reporter will go to jail rather than reveal the name of a confidential
source for a news story. American newspapers proudly consider themselves the fourth branch
of government -- the watchdog branch -- that exposes legislative, executive and judicial
misbehavior.
Some reporters are assigned to beats, or an area of coverage, such as the courts, city hall,
education, business, medicine and so forth. Others are called general assignment reporters,
which means they are on call for a variety of stories such as accidents, civic events and human-
interest stories. Depending on a newspaper's needs during the daily news cycle, seasoned
reporters easily shift between beat and general-assignment work. (New reporters once were
called cubs, but the term is no longer used.)
In the movies, reporters have exciting, frenzied and dangerous jobs as they live a famous
pronouncement of the newspaper business: "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."
Although a few members of the media have been killed as a result of investigations into
wrongdoing, newspaper work for the great majority of reporters is routine. They are our
chroniclers of daily life, sorting, sifting and bringing a sense of order to a disorderly world.

All reporters are ultimately responsible to an editor. Depending on its size, a newspaper may
have numerous editors, beginning with an executive editor responsible for the news division.
Immediately below the executive editor is the managing editor, the person who oversees the
day-to-day work of the news division. Other editors -- sports, photo, state, national, features and
obituary, for example -- may also report to the managing editor.
However, the best known and in some ways the most crucial editor is the city or metro editor.
This is the editor that reporters work for directly. The city or metro editor assigns stories, enforces
deadlines and is the first to see reporters' raw copy on the composition system or computer
network. These editors are called gatekeepers, because they control much of what will and will
not appear in the next day's paper. Often working under the stress of breaking news, their
decisions translate directly into the content of the newspaper.
Once the city or metro editor has finished editing a reporter's raw copy, the story moves from the
composition system via the computer network to another part of the news division, the copy
desk. Here,copy editors check for spelling and other errors of usage. They may also look for
"holes" in the story that would confuse readers or leave their questions unanswered. If necessary,
copy editors may check facts in the newspaper's library, which maintains a large collection of
reference books, microfilm and online copies of stories that have appeared in the paper.
The copy desk chief routes finished stories to other editors who fit local and wire service stories,
headlines (written by the editor -- not the reporter!) and digital photographs onto pages.
Newspapers are increasingly doing this work, called pagination, with personal computers using
software available at any office supply store. Microsoft Windows, Word and Quark Express are
three programs that, though not designed for newspaper production, are easily adapted for it.
Before we see what happens to the electronic pages built by the copy desk, it will be helpful to
understand how other divisions of the newspapers contribute to the production cycle.

Editorial Pages
A newspaper publishes its views on current events -- both local and national -- on its editorial
pages. This is where editorials, unsigned commentary that reflects the collective position of the
newspaper'seditorial board, appear. Editorials are not news, but rather reasoned opinion based
on facts. For example, editorials may criticize the performance of public officials such as the
mayor, the police chief, or the local school board; conversely, editorials may praise others for
their civic contributions. Whatever the topic, newspapers hope their editorials will raise the level of
community discourse.
Two ways this occurs are familiar to any newspaper reader -- letters to the editor and op-ed
articles. Letters are always among the best-read section of any newspaper, for this is where
readers express their opinions. Some newspapers limit letters to a certain number of words --
150, 250 or even 300 -- while others publish letters of virtually any length. Op-ed articles (a
contraction of opposite-editorial page) usually run 850 to 1,000 words. Newspapers make space
for letters to the editor and op-ed articles freely available as part of their contribution to civic
dialogue.
The editorial pages are under the direction of an editor outside the news division. Newspaper
people call this "separation of church and state," meaning there is a line between news and
opinion that must not be crossed. To do so strips a newspaper of its most valuable asset
-- credibility. For that reason, editorial page editors at some large newspapers report to
the publisher, who is the chief executive officer of the company, and not to the executive
editor. Other newspapers may have their editorial page editor reporting to the executive editor.
Whatever the organizational model, though, neither department can tell the other what to publish
in the newspaper.
The number of pages beyond a minimum that most newspapers set is is determined not by the
news division, but by the amount of advertising sold for that day. (Regardless of advertising,
however, newspapers add extra news pages for big local stories such as tornadoes, sports
championships or other major events.) The advertising division places ads on pages before they
are released to the news division. As a rule, newspapers print slightly more advertising than
news. Ads may account for 60 percent or more of weekday pages, but in the larger Sunday
edition, it is not unusual for news to take up more space than ads. The ratio of ads to news must
be high because newspapers cannot stay in business without advertising revenue. Editors call
the space left for them a "news hole." The advertising division and the news division have no
influence over each other's content.
Three types of advertising dominate modern newspapers:

• Display ads -- With photos and graphics, display ads can cost thousands of
dollars depending on their size. These ads, generally placed by department stores,
movie theaters and other businesses, may be prepared by an advertising agency or
the advertising department itself. They are called run-of-press ads and they produce
the most revenue.
• Classified ads -- Classified ads, often called want ads, appear in a
miniature typefacecalled agate. These ads come from individuals trying to buy or sell
items, businesses seeking workers, or tradespeople offering a wide variety of services.
"Classies" are affordable, popular and highly effective in reaching tens of thousands of
potential customers.
• Inserts -- Inserts, the third form of advertising, are favored by large national
chain stores likeBest Buy and Circuit City. These colorful booklets are trucked to
 newspapers in huge bundles for distribution with the Sunday edition. Inserts produce
less revenue than run-of-press advertising. Newspapers charge for distributing inserts,
but otherwise have no control over their content or print quality.

Newspaper Production

Photo courtesy of The Herald-Sun

Modern presses are huge and noisy but expensive and essential to the success of a
newspaper.
The production division does the heavy lifting of newspaper work. Within this division's
departments are specialists who run and maintain the presses, typesetters,image
scanners and photographic engraving machines. Some workers are assigned to the day shift,
others to the night shift.
Beginning around1970, newspaper production divisions began a historic shift away from the
labor-intensive technology ofLinotype typesetters and other "hot type"machines used in relief
printing. This was the same technique used by Johannes Gutenberg in the 14th century: pressing
a page of paper directly onto a block of type. The invention of "cold type" based on photographic
processes sped production and cut the high overhead costs of relief printing. Also, cold type
worked better with new offset printing presses coming into use.
Most daily newspapers have moved to some form of offset printing. This process etches the
image of a newspaper page onto thin aluminum plates. (Pages with color photos or type require
extra plates.) These plates, now bearing a positive image developed from a full-page
photographic negative, then go to other specialists for mounting on the press. The process is
called offset because the metal plates do not touch the paper going through the press. Instead,
the plates transfer their inked image to a rubber roller, which in turn prints the page.
Although newspaper presses are big and noisy, they are remarkably gentle on newsprint, the
paper in newspaper. The presses have to be gentle -- expensive newsprint streaming off huge
rolls must wind through a press without tearing. These complex machines, which can cost $40
million or more and stand three stories tall, are called web presses because they use streaming
paper instead of individual sheets.
In addition to putting ink on paper, the press also assembles the pages of a newspaper in correct
sequence. All this occurs so quickly that a modern offset press can spew 70,000 copies an hour
onto conveyor belts that speed the copies to the waiting distribution division.
Newspaper Distribution

Photo courtesy of the The Herald-Sun

Newspaper distributors pick up their bundles at The Herald-Sun in the early hours of the
morning.
Responsibility for getting the newspaper from the press to the reader falls to the distribution
division. Large newspapers publish two, three or even four editions, all of which must be ready to
leave the newspaper plant at a certain time. The first edition, sometimes called the bulldog
edition, goes to the outer limits of the newspaper's circulation area. This may be several
counties or even an entire state. Later editions contain progressively fresher news and go to
smaller areas. The final edition, which goes to press after midnight, contains the latest news but
covers the smallest geographical area, usually a city.
Any subscriber to a daily newspaper knows that it plops onto the driveway in the wee hours of
the morning. Independent contractors called carriers buy copies of the newspaper at a discount
and deliver them, using their personal vehicles. When afternoon newspapers were common,
those vehicles often were bicycles. The first job for many American youngsters was delivering the
afternoon paper in their neighborhood.
The circulation department draws the routes that carriers follow. This department is also
responsible for rack sales, newspapers that go into coin-operated dispensers. The circulation
department maintains subscribers' billing records, stops and starts deliveries upon request, and
uses service runners to deliver missing papers.
Because a newspaper's circulation, the number of people who receive the paper, has a
substantial impact on its advertising rates, an independent agency called the Audit Bureau of
Circulations examines and certifies circulation numbers. This assures both the advertising
division and advertisers that circulation claims are valid.
In 18 hours of highly coordinated work carried out by numerous divisions, what newpaper people
call a "rough draft of history" has moved through computer systems, imaging machines and
presses that would amaze Gutenberg, to its final destination -- the readers. After 3:30 a.m., few
people remain at a newspaper plant. All the other divisions have gone home. The presses have
fallen silent, perhaps undergoing maintenance for the remainder of the night. The sudden silence
will not last long. In less than four hours, the newspaper, as it must do 365 days a year, will rouse
from its short sleep and start all over again.

The selling process

The selling process of newspapers in India involves various steps like:

1. Prospecting and Evaluation:

This is the stage where potential customers are found and evaluated. It is first
necessary to identify that the potential customer has the willingness, ability and
authority to buy the product. This would involve first generating sales leads. In the
case of newspapers customers could be Financial Institutions, IT employees,
students preparing for their CAT examination MBA students and other institutions
like Hotels, Airlines etc. Most of the times when a company or offices are approached
with subscription offer the gatekeepers are encountered who are actually the
receptionists and security guards and they don't have the authority to buy the paper
but pose a challenge to the final sale from happening.

2. Pre approach:

In this stage the process of approaching the client is decided. This involves deciding
on the approach establishing objectives of the sales call and preparing for a
presentation. We need to analyze what are the product features in which the
customer will be interested and focus on those during the presentation.

This stage involves deciding whether it will be enough to do a simple cold call or to
set up an appointment which is needed in case we want to set up a stall. Like in the
case of setting up stalls in IT companies where a larger section of our targeted
population can be met it becomes essential that we first fix up an appointment with
the facilities manager asking his permission to set up the stall.

3. Approach:

This stage involves getting in initial contact with the customer by meeting him and
generating interest in the product. Once the salesmen we are with the customer they
would make a presentation making him aware of the characteristics of the paper, the
discount and the magazines that are on offer.

While selling to Financial Institutions sales representatives focus on presenting the

various Business magazines that the customer will get if he subscribes. While
pitching to younger customer salesmen focuses on the monthly magazines which are
more enticing to them. While making presentations to corporates the focus is on the
operational efficiency and convince the Facilities Manager that the implementation
will be starting in 2 weeks time from when the employees start signing up for the
subscription.

4. Handling Objection:

The most common objection which is encountered during the selling is the fact that
most customers who are regular readers of others newspapers are very loyal and are
unwilling to change. This is the time when distinguishing features of the products
need to be highlighted for example Business Standard highlights the fact that it
has has various sections like the BS 200 which gives the complete analysis of the
200 companies that were traded the most on the stock exchange the previous week.
This section on the paper is something unique only to Business Standard. Also 'The
Compass' which is a small segment in the Business Standard Newspaper assists
people in making their investment decisions as to which sector they should invest
their money in was also of interest to people who were more investment focused.

And of course the magazines which are offered are another reason why most of
these customers get ready to buy the subscription. Also the supplements like Brand
Line, Life by Business Line, and The Smart Investor by Business Standard are
highlighted to entice the consumers to purchase the subscription.

Some of the customers are worried about the implementation time this is where
sales person had to tell the customers about how we will be ensuring that they get a
regular supply of their business standard by interacting with their vendors and start
the delivery of their newspaper to their home in 2 weeks.

5. Closing:

At this stage the customer is more or less aware of the product and has made up his
mind to either go ahead with the sale or not. If the subscription are attractively
priced most customers prefer to go for the plan offered and want to first get a look
at the service being provided. Thus most people will either back out at the middle of
the presentation, while others stick around to try and see what they are getting for
their money. By the time salesman pops the final question whether the customer
wants to pay by cash or cheque the customer usually has made up his mind.

Sales Management

1. Sales Planning:

It is the first step in the sales management process Sales planning guides the
organization in achieving its objectives in a systematic manner leading to profitability
and success.

In case of newspaper industry plans are formulated keeping in view the overall sales
strategy and objectives of individual organizations. Since circulation is the main thing
in the news paper industry, all the planning is intended to increase the circulation
base of newspaper .The main source of revenue for a newspaper company is the
advertisements and they can charge more for advertisements only if their circulation
base is higher. This circulation base is increased by eating into the competitor's
circulation. The head office decides the targets for all branches in the country and
this is communicated to marketing manager of branches across the country. The
marketing manager of the branch then allocates targets for every sales executive in
the branch. The marketing manager asks each sales executive to target a particular
segment. Segment can be hotels, educational institutes, corporate offices, IT
companies, students preparing for competitive examinations like CAT, XAT etc.

2. Organizing and Directing Sales efforts:

Most of the newspaper companies hire graduates who are well versed in local
languages as selling newspaper require interacting with vendors and intermediate
agencies. They generally do not hire MBAs or Post Graduates as they are more prone
to attrition. The attrition rate is very high in this industry especially in the second
rung companies.

Time Management: Time management is very important as the executives have to

visit morning centers at around 5 to 5.30 a.m. in the morning to meet the vendors to
ensure the timely delivery of newspapers. Morning centers are places where all the
newspapers are dropped and vendors come here to collect newspapers for their
locality. Most of the activities happen between 3.30 a.m to 5.30 a.m. Within this
short span they have to meet the vendors and ensure they are regularly supplying
the newspapers.

3. On the job training:

The sales force is briefed about the newspaper and supplements and then they are
sent to the field for training. In this industry the training is mostly on the job where
executives have to go and sell the subscriptions to the customers.

4. Compensation Plan:

Generally combination salary plans are followed in newspaper industry. This type of
plan includes a combination of salary, commission and other type of incentive plans.
As sales people get regular income in the form of monetary incentives, they are
continuously motivated and it also provides sales person with the advantage of both
a fixed salary and variable income. Every executive is given a minimum target to
achieve and on exceeding this target they are given an incentive.

5. Evaluating Sales Force Performance:

The performance of sales force is measured in terms of the number of subscriptions

generated by each sales person. At the end of the month they collate how many
subscriptions have been generated by executives and on the basis of subscriptions
generated salary is computed.

Distribution Process of Newspaper Industry

* The newspaper sales involve distributing highly perishable products under severe
time constraints.

* The printed newspapers have to be dispatched to various distributors across the

region. Transportation is normally through private contract carriers within local area,
public transport in case of longer distances and through couriers in other cases.

* The newspaper distributor has the rights to distribute the newspaper in his area.
The revenue of the newspaper distributor is based on a commission on the sale of
every newspaper. The circulation is normally through salesmen appointed and
salaried by the distributors, who in turn pass it on to hawkers.

* Hawkers, vendors and book stall owners are the last link of the supply chain before
newspaper reaches readers. The hawkers' remuneration is also normally based on
the commission system and is generally the highest in the entire supply chain.

* Responsiveness and efficiency play an important role in newspaper distribution

channel. Responsiveness includes supply chain's ability to respond to wide a range of
quantity demanded (due to demand fluctuations) and meet short lead times. On the
other hand efficiency is the cost of making and delivering the newspaper to the
readers.