From the Publisher: Times-Dispatch Makes Progress in a Challenging Era

This month's installment of how the

Richmond Times-Dispatch is faring during a time of reinvention presents five questions that I often receive.

Does the recent conversion to the narrower newsprint mean the newspaper will eventually disappear?

No!

On the contrary, cutting costs is part of getting through the toughest recession since the Great Depression. Newsprint is one of our largest expenses. We've been able to trim the raw material and keep the content from the old format, with as few disruptions as possible. And we've averted any further elimination of positions, though we also are relying on furlough days to save expenses.

Our colleagues at other Media General newspapers that made the change well before us say it's been a non-event. Some people think the new size is easier to use. (Watching movies from the '40s and '50s, you'll see the wider newspaper folded over so it can be read at the breakfast table. I guess you can say we're getting to the point where no folding is necessary.) The one rub has been the comic pages, which changed to keep the strips as large as possible.

The newsprint decision was made last year as the recession started to toughen. It took a while for the Hanover County production teams, working with an outside vendor, to reconfigure our presses for a different size of newsprint. Now that the new-size

T-D is here, our focus continues to be what we publish on those pages. And we've found a way to bring back a stand-alone Metro section on Mondays.

You're in a tough business. What's the prognosis?

Consider this weather report: Cloudy to partly cloudy, with those omnipresent scattered thunderstorms. (Lots of humidity, or is it humility, in the media business). Expect sun later on.

Our business is so public that the impact of our changes is going to be magnified. But we're not alone in facing economic challenges or shifts in consumer behavior. Many other businesses and industries are rethinking their cost structures and missions.

Recovery projections have been pinned to the beginning of next year. While it won't be robust, an economy that's at least stable will further boost us and the advertisers who help us pay our bills.

In the meantime, we're experimenting with a number of advertising packages that place ads in print and online, with the goal of delivering to advertisers more customers from a broad audience. Here's a comment from an advertiser who participated in our Labor Day special: "We had a huge retail weekend! Labor Day sales were up over 50 percent. Customers, new and old, commented on our ads and their visibility. I have found over the years that volume takes care of many things. This could be true for the newspaper industry as well." Amen.

Why are you optimistic?

Each day I'm reminded of the importance of our role. In spite of many changes over the past decade, The Times-Dispatch remains the No. 1 single source of news and information about Greater Richmond and Central Virginia. While staff reductions have caused us to pull back from some areas, we are sharpening our coverage in core news, especially local, state government, and business news as well as college and high school sports.

We also remain the primary communications channel to consumers -- the single most used advertising choice for local merchants and chain stores. Readers actually look forward to finding out about goods and services they can purchase and searching our pages for deals and sales. They know the Sunday newspaper provides much of this information, including the large number of advertising inserts.

Consumers trust the advertising we provide over all other sources, which is particularly important when you consider all the possible choices we see for online classified ads. Our online classified program provides a secure environment for both buyers and sellers. We see so much negative publicity when it comes to other classified advertising sites on the Internet. In addition to this, our online advertising opportunities are made even more effective because of powerful national alliances with companies such as Yahoo! and Zillow.

The final source of optimism is our people. Each day, I see how hard they are fighting for good results. I've used "resilient" in describing their effort. We have pride in what we do.

People still use newspaper advertising?

You bet.

Earlier this month, the Newspaper Association of America shared data from MORI Research that showed newspapers are still the leading medium consumers use for planning, shopping, and purchase decisions. The report, "How America Shops and Spends," compiled this 2009 ranking that showed newspapers are well ahead of other media for checking advertising:

• Newspapers -- 41 percent.

• Internet -- 21 percent.

• Ads in the mail -- 14 percent.

• Television -- 8 percent.

• Catalogs -- 8 percent.

• Magazines -- 3 percent.

• Radio -- 2 percent.

Particularly encouraging was the finding that four out of five shoppers surveyed said they "took action" as a result of newspaper advertising, and the same rate had been spurred to action by a newspaper insert in the past month.

The report also summarized why newspapers are shoppers' top choice:

• Best medium for bringing attention to sales.

• Most valuable for planning shopping.

• Less intrusive way to receive ad information.

• Ads appear in the most believable and trustworthy product.

• Consistency in packaging and delivery allows consumers to look forward to this type of ad.

But I thought you were focused on multimedia now?

We are. Having a strong newspaper is part of that focus. But now that so many people seek information online, we find that our Web site dominates that space as well. When it comes to finding out about local news, information, weather, sports, leisure activities, and all types of classified advertising -- no sources are more relied upon and visited more often than TimesDispatch.com and Richmond.com.

When it comes to this combined "multimedia" audience, we have been consistently among the top newspapers in the country when it comes to market reach. Currently, the multimedia audience of The Times-Dispatch and TimesDispatch.com ranks third among U.S. daily newspapers. Almost seven out of 10 adults in Central Virginia read our media over the average week. A majority of these adults look at us in print or online virtually every day.

Until next month's installment, thank you for reading The Times-Dispatch and TimesDispatch.com.

Tom Silvestri is president and publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch as well as leader of the Richmond Media Group. He can be reached at 804-649-6121 or .