News-Register part of a national newspaper initiative

The Aurora News-Register is excited to announce that the newspaper will be participating in a national initiative to consider changing the business model of local newspapers.
For the next several weeks, ANR staff and management as well as readers and advertisers will be involved with helping create a sustainable business plan for community newspapers.
“The current business model for the newspaper industry was developed in 1833 when Andrew Jackson was president, a model that said news should be dirt cheap,” said Teri Finneman, a journalism professor at the University of Kansas and co-author of the book Reviving Rural News. “That is no longer sustainable. Newspapers can no longer make it with that model. No other business could survive a 200-year-old business model. We have to change.”
Finneman, who has coordinated similar projects at other weekly newspapers in several Midwestern states, will lead the project after crossing paths with ANR Co-publisher Kurt Johnson at the Nebraska Press Association convention in April.
“The News-Register was selected because I saw the extreme enthusiasm and passion the staff has for serving their community and local news,” she said. “This is a great place to continue developing a national model.”
Two focus group sessions are planned to gather input from Hamilton County residents representing a variety of backgrounds, professions and perspectives. The first session will be conducted via Zoom on July 2, with a second, in-person focus group to meet July 11 in Aurora. The publisher of the Custer County Chief in Broken Bow, which participated in a similar project last year, will facilitate that session.
Finneman said the goal is to learn about the communities ANR serves and also find out what readers and advertisers want in their local newspaper.
For those who wonder why people in Hamilton County and the surrounding area should care, Finneman has an answer.
“Local newspapers are absolutely critical,” she said. “Local newspapers are watching your local government. Local newspapers are sharing the good and the bad. They are celebrating the youth and sharing the stories of people in the communities.”
She views local newspapers as essential in keeping people connected and sees a direct link from the loss of local newspapers to the divisiveness in the country.
“There is loss of cohesion due to the loss of local newspapers,” Finneman said. “Local newspapers are most critical for democracy and for our nation.”
Finneman called the state of local newspapers a “national crisis,” noting that “a few thousand newspapers closed in the last 20 years.” 
Northwest University, she reported, did a study and found 205 counties in the nation that are news deserts, which are defined as areas without any local news source. Another 228 counties are at a huge risk of becoming news deserts in the coming years.
ANR is one of many newspapers involved with the project. The initiative was piloted in Kansas at the Harvey County Now newspaper, where it proved to be a success. 
As for the changes that readers and advertisers may see in the News-Register by the end of the project, Finneman said it’s too soon to say.
“We need to collect information and find out what they want,” she explained. “We want their support and input as we create an action plan.”
Having studied Finneman’s research findings and visited with other publishers involved in the project, Johnson said he believes the time is right to engage the community in an effort to consider changes in the ANR business model.
“The News-Register is locally owned and Paula and I both believe in being focused on the local community, which includes all of Hamilton County,” Johnson said. “The history of this newspaper dates back to 1873 and during that time, especially the last 10 years, the world around us has changed in the way people get the news and information that’s relevant in their lives. Part of our role as owners is to ensure that this newspaper remains relevant and profitable, which is why we’re working on a sustainable plan.”
Johnson encourages people to think about the roles their local news and newspaper have in their lives.
“How do you see this newspaper in five or 10 years?” he said. “This focus group project will help determine how we move forward as well as help other small papers asking the same questions.”
Click the link below or scan the attached QR code to participate in the survey and tell us what you want in the News-Register.

https://tinyurl.com/AuroraNewsSurvey