According to an article written by the Associated Press and published on the Forbes website, the Register Guard (the newspaper for Eugene Oregon) is just one of many newspapers that are facing harrowing financial setbacks. Most newspaper companies are finding that their printed newspaper circulations are dwindling while their online newspaper page views are rising. This is happening all over the world, not just in Eugene.

Still, the way that the Eugene newspaper is handling the financial setback is interesting. In the face of impending budget cuts, Eugene's Register Guard is spending money—a little more than two million dollars—to change its printing presses so that they can print a smaller version of the area's most popular newspaper. The new Register Guard will now feature pages that are only eleven inches across—one and a half inches smaller than their previous format.

The smaller format of Eugene's newspaper is intended to help make things like the classified section easier to read. It will also make it easier to feature pictures along side the text of sale ads. The Chief Officers at the Register Guard say that changing the page format will also allow the newspaper to play to its biggest strength: local news. The wired in news pieces will be condensed, some as much as ten inches. They are also considering cutting back on paid opinion pieces to allow more space for letters to the editor.

Should other newspapers follow Eugene's lead? The Chief Officer makes a good point: national news and sports news is "commoditized" it is easy to find, whereas local news is harder to get a hold of. Maybe if more city newspapers followed in Eugene's footsteps, they would see their circulation figures rise once again.

There are a lot of reasons that newspaper circulation is shrinking. Eugene is not alone—cities all over the country are reporting fewer newspaper subscriptions. The biggest reason for this is the ease by which people can find their news online. Most newspapers put their stories online for free because of the backlash they get when they require readers to purchase subscriptions or sign up for memberships. Bloggers and personal websites will often report on local news and the spreading of information via social networking methods like twitter and text message are all hurting the newspaper industry.

Eugene is known all over Oregon as being an industrious and creative city. It is one of the most liberal cities on the West Coast and this new approach to newspaper printing is more evidence of the city's ability to rise up in the face of adversity. We predict that, before long, other local city newspapers will be following the lead of Eugene and the Register Guard. Who knows, this new, locals heavy approach to news reporting could improve the circulation statistics of newspapers all over the country! Remember, reading the news online is not the same as sitting down with the paper (which is how we know that newspapers will never truly die out).
 

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