Kurt Johnson
Kurt Johnson grew up in the newspaper business and has spent his career at daily and weekly newspapers. His parents Loral and Elna Johnson owned weekly newspapers including the Imperial Republican, Wauneta Breeze, Grant Tribune Sentenial, Holyoke, Colorado. His two sisters now own Johnson Publications. His two older sisters bought
Johnson Publications when his parents retired.
Johnson has been a part of six different newspapers throughout his career including 12 years
at daily newspapers and the last 17 years as owner of the Aurora News-Register in Nebraska. He
has seen the business change over the years but the biggest changes have taken place in the last
decade.
“The Internet just changed things more than I think anybody anticipated and now Facebook
and social media, it just really has been a game changer,” Johnson said.
What hasn’t changed is the core product, Johnson said.
“Telling stories and documenting history in your local community, all of the things we say we do and we’re proud of. That has not changed,” Johnson said. “But from a business standpoint, newspapering has changed just dramatically. It’s just hardly even comparable.”
He said in the way he focuses his time and priorities week to week, it seems like making the same dollar is harder.
“It takes a lot more effort than it did five or simply 10 years ago,” he said.
Like many weekly newspapers, Johnson said the Aurora News-Register has a digital strategy in terms of selling web advertising and selling online subscriptions. The Aurora News-Register has two Twitter feeds, one news and one sports.
“We’ve learned the lesson of trying not to give away the farm,” he said. “We try to drive people back to our core product behind the money wall.”
Johnson said for sports, they go live from the games for people who aren’t able to be at the game. Beyond that, he said they try to plug that week’s newspaper as much as possible.
“We are not probably as aggressive as some with our digital strategy. I’ve heard some say that as much as 10 percent of their base revenue is digital,” he said.
Johnson said the newspaper has had good success with web advertising sales but there are advertisers who prefer the print product. When it was just a print product, it was an easier business model to staff and figure out how to work that formula from week to week, he said.
“It’s part of an ongoing evolution I guess would be part of the answer,” he said.
One area of the business that has fit well in its model is a commercial print division including a web press that prints several area weekly newspapers. The division also includes a high end digital color printer.
“That put us into the game of the kinds of campaign mailers and multimedia type products that we weren’t able to do before,” he said.
They also create vinyl signs so when a new business comes to town, they have the one-stop shop mentality to offer. Over time, the commercial operation has gotten more focus which has been part of strategy to counteract what the market is doing and try to figure out what people need.
Taking action
Like other community newspapers, the Aurora News-Register looks at ways to catch the attention of its readers and have an informative role in the community. In addition to regular Facebook and Twitter updates, Johnson said they do things like updating obituaries online as soon as they receive them instead of waiting for the print edition. The full obituaries will go in the print edition but it is a way to serve readers in a timely way.
The day Johnson was interviewed, he said one of their reporters was in Washington, D.C., covering local veterans on an honor flight.
“She’ll be tweeting all day,” he said.
He said the plan was then to include her coverage in a special section on Veterans Day. He said it made sense for her to be tweeting information with no one else providing that information locally.
He said they also cover meetings like the local school board and the county board and are able to provide the information to residents.
“We’re the only media in the room every week for one to four hour meetings,” he said.
The News-Register for the most part has had steady circulation from year to year. Johnson said he has seen a slight decrease in print circulation but they have also been able to pick up some online subscriptions. When it comes to providing content online for free, he said they try to limit how much they give out
“We are careful there of not trying to tell the whole story on Twitter because if it’s a sports event and they want to know the final score, that may be all they want. But we realize there are more die-hard sports fans who want the whole story and that’s an audience that we will have,” he said. “In terms of breaking new and in general what’s happening, we are the news source in Hamilton County. I just say that pretty boldly because I think that’s true. I know it’s true. We have area dailies and TV that come for big events but the day to day, we are the local source, so we try to be mindful of that and be very thorough in our reporting and let people know what we’re working on.”
Is print really dead?
The newspaper’s print product is the business’s primary source of funding. When asked about the belief that print is dead or on its way out, Johnson said he is convinced it is not.
“The concept of print is dead today, I absolutely do not believe and I can point to different events, stories I’ve covered, editorials the kind of feedback I’ve gotten,” he said.
He looks to the different generations as to what the future of print newspapers will look like. He said the current generation’s decision makers are very much in tune to the print product of newspapers. He suspects that might change as the millennial generation advances into more of those decision making roles.
Johnson said the other big question for the future of journalism is the business model, if there comes a day when a newspaper isn’t the best buy from an advertising standpoint.
Johnson is 54 years old and said he and his wife are a ways off from selling but does think about what the end game looks like. As publisher, he writes and helps manage a four-person newsroom as well as helping on the ad-sales side.
“It helps define my day, my week and my priorities, making sure we have staff and resources focused on bringing in the next dollar because it’s just not as automatic as it was 10 years ago,” he said.
Strategy
The Aurora News-Register’s overall news strategy is focused on being 100 percent local. It does not have an AP feed.
“Hyperlocal is part of that formula that I absolutely believe in. I think it’s the salvation of community newspapers and even small dailies,” he said.
Johnson said owning a large metro daily would be hard because there are so many to get news in metro areas, and the business model on that scale of competition is a challenge.
“So I’d rather be fighting the battle at the community newspaper level, and frankly I’m glad I’m fighting it in Aurora and Hamilton County, two very supportive communities for us as a business and as the local newspaper,” he said.
Johnson is proud of the content his staff produces week to week. Most recently they publish a piece called “Workforce in Hamilton County” that recognized local workers. He said it was an expanded version from a women’s only piece several years ago.
“We go out to every single business in the county and ask if they want to recognize their staff,” he said adding that there was a lot of support for the spread on the advertising side of things.
This year’s angle was the night shift for the lead story and it included challenges for hiring for the night shift and people who work the night but then have to take care of their families during the daytime hours.
“There’s a lot of recognition of where people are and in a small town, that’s pretty cool and it’s interesting. It’s a good product,” he said about the six-week project.
Johnson said he and his staff are also planning for a solid Veterans Day section. He said that will also take about six weeks to complete but is well worth the time, effort and energy to have a solid news piece to anchor the project.
“We’ve just had to be a little more creative about doing those kinds of projects,” he said.
Like other weeklies, Johnson is always looking for new ideas or ideas that they can personalize for the community.
Johnson said he feels fortunate to be living and working in a progressive community. He has also served as a past president of the Nebraska Press Association and has appreciated the opportunity to discuss ideas with others in the community newspaper business.
