“I’ve tried the e-thing, and it’s just not the same.”
“I’ve been reading The Blade probably longer than you’ve been alive, and I don’t like this.”
These are just two examples of dozens of telephone voice messages, emails, and letters I have received since my Page 1 column on Feb. 10 informing Blade readers that the newspaper was dropping print newspapers on Mondays and Tuesdays.
The digital-only days begin this week, so don’t head out to the mailbox or front porch Monday and Tuesday looking for your newspaper. Instead, turn to your computer, your tablet, or your cell phone. Everything you are looking for is there instead.
I write this with more than a little bit of sadness, as for me and many others, morning traditionally starts with turning on the coffee pot and walking outside in all the various weather conditions metro Toledo has to offer to pick up my printed copy of The Blade.
Now, I’ll be turning on the coffee pot and picking up my iPad.
About half the people who have reached out to me about this change are angry at The Blade. The other half are sad for the loss of “my paper.”
While it is true there will be some cost savings from dropping two print days a week, that is not what is motivating us to make this change. Market forces are.
We need to redesign our business model if we are to survive and grow. And we aren’t the only media outlet going through these growing pains.
When I signed on at the paper in 1979 our daily circulation was 220,000 and our Sunday circulation was 240,000. Through three-quarters of 2018, the most recent figures available though not yet audited, our daily circulation averaged 46,572 and our Sunday circulation was 77,530.
It doesn’t take a math whiz to see that trend will not result in a sustainable business. And we intend to stay in business. So we have to change.
We have been forward-looking, establishing three different digital publishing platforms — toledoblade.com, eBlade.toledoblade.com, and Blade NewsSlide, and apps for each that work specifically on smart phones.
Why so many? We are trying to provide our audience with alternatives to see what their preferences are for consuming news in the future. Because growing our audience will help our business thrive and will also deliver customers to advertisers.
But after writing that, I reread the letter Laurie L. of Sylvania wrote to me in such beautiful cursive writing.
“I’m in my mid-eighties and have no i-Pad, tablet, smart phone, on-line, etc. Since I can’t get out very much, I really look forward to the printed paper each day. It’s the first thing I do in the morning — read the paper.”
This letter and so many like it are hard to read. I’ve spent almost 40 years at this newspaper trying to serve people just like Mrs. L., who depend on The Blade to tell them what’s happening and warn them when bad things are on the horizon.
What I need to tell her and so many others is something you already know: Change is hard and change is not something most of us want to do, but we usually get through the change, and if not better for it, we learn to adapt.
My own dear mother is 87 this year and a Blade subscriber for as long as I can remember. She actually predates me at the paper, signing on as a “paper boy” in the late 1930s in Dunbridge, Ohio, where she was raised.
Now she lives in Florida in the winter and has to know what’s happening “back home,” especially who has died.
She’s on her second iPad and enlists her kids and grandkids when she has technical issues.
She didn’t want to join the digital age, she’ll tell you, and she loves the two daily papers delivered to her summer home in Bowling Green, but she’s learned to change the way she reads the news.
She’s proof to me that change is possible, at any age.
If you are hesitant to change, or angry about this shift in “tradition,” I urge you to call our circulation department at 419-724-6300 and talk to the good people there. All of our print subscriptions come with free access to all of our digital products.
The same Blade that you’ve loved to read for years, or loved to complain about for years, is still available for you to read, just in different ways, and you will pick which way works best for you.
I am appreciative of the fact that I work for the Block family, a family that is so committed to local journalism.
While many other media outlets have just thrown in the towel by slashing newsrooms to the bare bones and gutting local news coverage, the Blocks are committed to keeping journalism alive in the metro Toledo area.
Yes, I’m loyal to The Blade and its owners. They’ve given me a great place to work and a paycheck all these years, and have let me serve you in the best way I know how.
We’ll continue to do that in the years ahead. I hope you’ll stick with us.
Dave Murray is the managing editor of The Blade. If you have concerns or questions about what you read in The Blade or on its websites, send them to him at The Blade, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, Ohio, 43660, or email him at dmurray@theblade.com.
First Published February 24, 2019, 1:00 p.m.
