Richmond Times-Dispatch searches for answers
MEDIA WATCH Greg Pearson

About four weeks ago, 40 top managers of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, including Publisher Tom Silvestri and Executive Editor Glenn Proctor, took a five-hour bus tour of Chesterfield County. On board the bus were County Administrator Lane Ramsey and some of his high-level staffers to answer their questions.

" We don't learn anything about Chesterfield sitting in a building in downtown Richmond," acknowledged Silvestri, during an interview with the Chesterfield Observer. "We need to find out what's going on. There's a lot about Chesterfield that we don't know because we aren't there...[and] we need to get [our] people out of their comfort zone."

According to sources on the bus, the RTD wanted to know "what reporting appeals to Chesterfield residents" and "top management was obviously concerned about its low circulation in the county." Daily circulation in Henrico is about 8,000 papers higher than in Chesterfield.

Several county leaders have told the daily paper's upper management that many in the county feel the paper's reporting on Chesterfield is not accurate and fair. Silvestri acknowledged that he had heard those comments, calling them "unfortunate."

"It does bother me when a Chesterfield resident tells me, 'When I read your paper, you talk down to me'," said Silvestri. "That's not the Times-Dispatch I want to lead."

Some county leaders believe the negative reporting stems from not having enough reporters living here. Others think it's the old "rural and redneck" image that lives on despite considerable research to the contrary. (We have sent Silvestri a copy of a 40-page, 2006 Claritas research study that reports Chesterfield's relative affluence compared to Henrico.)

This is the second bus tour of Chesterfield in the past two years, the first one being for reporters and editors. As part of Silvestri's outreach program, the daily paper is putting more emphasis on the suburban counties. Trips to Henrico and Hanover are planned for the future.

"If you live in Chesterfield and see nothing but Richmond stories [in the daily paper], you probably wonder if we are interested in Chesterfield," he said. "We should be interested in Chesterfield and the other counties. As a regional paper, we should do more reporting there," said Silvestri.

What to report is a delicate balance since, according to Style Weekly, RTD staffers have been told that the paper is being "cut an average of 48 pages a week." Finding more space for county news isn't that easy when the number of pages being printed has been reduced.

Some former RTD reporters believe the reporting was better some 15 years ago before Media General stopped publishing the Richmond News Leader, its afternoon paper. "The reporters of the two papers had to compete against each other to get the story first," explained one former reporter. "Today, the competition is mainly TV, and the reporters don't think much of local TV news."

The battle for advertising dollars is about circulation. As the suburban population moves further away from Richmond, the prospects of attracting subscribers tend to diminish. And then there's competition from the Internet where news and information is typically free - a particularly attractive option for younger readers who haven't acquired the "hold the newspaper" habit. The printed paper is far more profitable than online versions.

Like other daily newspapers, the RTD is fighting an uphill battle to keep its circulation. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the industry's bible, the RTD's Chesterfield circulation on weekdays declined by almost 700 in 2005 (39,173) from 39,863 in 2004. That circulation drop occurred even while the number of households - and potential subscribers - increased by almost 2,000. Sunday circulation, however, increased almost 600 copies to 53,364.

Gloom and doom continues within the daily newspaper industry. Those who broker sales of newspaper companies say the values of daily newspapers are still declining while the values of weekly newspapers are rising.

Since 2004, the stock price of Media General has dropped from the low $70s per share to the high $30s. The diversified media company owns 25 daily newspapers, more than 100 weekly newspapers, 30 television stations and interactive media.