A newspaper war? In 2018? One brews in Idaho

Just before I returned to Boise, Idaho after a year in the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford, something curious happened.

A newspaper war broke out.

An. Um... What now?

The ‘war,’ for now at least, benefits the consumers of local news in the Boise and Treasure Valley of Idaho.

For decades, the Press Tribune stuck to the second-largest county in the metro, while the Statesman primarily covered the largest county — which includes the capital city of Boise.

But then something happened.

The switchover happened in March, and went little-noticed among the general public.

Russell was quickly joined by reporters covering Boise City Hall, Ada County Government, Ada County crime & courts — as well as a new sports editor, photo editor and community engagement editor.

With the added staff in place it opened up home delivery to the larger Ada County area with a $10/month deal.

The Idaho Press is clearly determined to eat into the market share of the Idaho Statesman. Which may leave people going: “Umm… you’re doubling down on print?”

The Bee says it would have to quadruple its number of digital subs to make ends meet without print or ad revenue. If they have a similar plan for Boise, quadrupling the number of subscribers would be a big goal.

Implicit in the McClatchy strategy: Print is dead. We’re on to the next.

But what happens if 25% of your revenue comes from print advertising (and, presumably, an additional amount from print subscriptions and single-copy sales)… and someone comes along looking to steal your market share?

McClatchy’s model is currently built on the premise their outlet is the only print-heritage newsroom in a market. In Boise, that suddenly isn’t true.

The Idaho Press is working a very aggressive plan, is spending money to win market share. If it depletes the revenue base for the Statesman, it’s fair to worry that another round of cuts could come — in a newspaper that has trimmed its staff so many times that it now has fewer journalists than my former employer KTVB (it once wasn’t even close).

It doesn’t take many folks who decide to switch from Idaho Statesman print to Idaho Press to quickly drive down the Statesman’s circulation and print advertising base.

And, as noted in my disclosure above, the Statesman seems to be focused on scraping a lot of content from other places to do quick “read, confirm, write” type stories. It layers these on with perhaps one major investigative or in-depth piece per day. The Idaho Press, on the other hand, appears to be taking a more traditional approach with the “soup to nuts” product of days past.

The Idaho Press will also have a significantly later print deadline since they print the paper in their own building here in the metro area, instead of shipping it in from down the road. During Boise State football season, it stands to reason the Idaho Press will be the only printed paper with game coverage from the night before.

The Statesman still has some talented local journalists doing great coverage. With the addition of Idaho Press resources, residents in the area are better served — but that only is true if both outlets can survive without cuts.

For it to be a war, two parties have to engage. Will the Idaho Statesman be able to fight off the threat? Or could Boise become a one newspaper town — with the upstart from Nampa winning the day?

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