The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Fall 12-2010 The Experiences of Mississippi Weekly Newspaper Editors as They Explore and Consider Producing Internet Editions Cassandra Denise Johnson University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Journalism Studies Commons, and the Mass Communication Commons Recommended Citation Johnson, Cassandra Denise, "The Experiences of Mississippi Weekly Newspaper Editors as They Explore and Consider Producing Internet Editions" (2010). Dissertations. 528. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/528 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi THE EXPERIENCES OF MISSISSIPPI WEEKLY NEWSPAPER EDITORS AS THEY EXPLORE AND CONSIDER PRODUCING INTERNET EDITIONS by Cassandra Denise Johnson Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2010 ABSTRACT THE EXPERIENCES OF MISSISSIPPI WEEKLY NEWSPAPER EDITORS AS THEY EXPLORE AND CONSIDER PRODUCING INTERNET EDITIONS by Cassandra Denise Johnson December 2010 This dissertation focused on the challenges Mississippi weekly newspaper editors faced when deciding to have an online edition and the issues these editors encountered when they adopted a Web newspaper. The study expounded on four areas – the operational changes weekly newspapers have had to make to produce Web editions, the different type of newsroom staff that are needed to create both editions, the content that is going in the online edition, and the financial pressures that editors work through to keep the newspapers profitable. The study was modeled after similar studies from three organizations – the Pew Research Center, the Bivings Group, and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI). The researcher conducted a sequential mixed- methods research process involving a survey, interviews, and a case study among Mississippi weekly newspaper editors. This current study suggests that Mississippi weekly newspapers have not experienced the innovation with Internet newspapers that participants in the aforementioned studies had. In fact, results indicate that Mississippi weekly editors can be divided into three categories based on their experiences with Internet editions. A large group of weekly newspaper editors still do not have an Internet edition, nor do they intend to ever have one. The biggest group of editors has scaled back Internet versions that are merely cut-and-paste replicas of their printed newspapers. The smallest group has ii found creative ways to present news content online and to make money from the Web editions. Mississippi weekly editors also insisted that daily newspaper editors should follow their pattern of producing news if the daily editors want their newspapers to survive. Results also explain that Mississippi weeklies are not doing any more than they ever have in the way that they produce news and that weekly newspapers are in a better position than daily papers to survive financially. Based on these findings, directions for future scholarly research in this area are presented. iii COPYRIGHT BY CASSANDRA DENISE JOHNSON 2010 The University of Southern Mississippi THE EXPERIENCES OF MISSISSIPPI WEEKLY NEWSPAPER EDITORS AS THEY EXPLORE AND CONSIDER PRODUCING INTERNET EDITIONS by Cassandra Denise Johnson A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: ____________________________________David R. Davies Director ____________________________________Gene Wiggins ____________________________________Kim LeDuff David R. Davies ____________________________________Cheryl Jenkins ____________________________________Fei Xue Susan A. Siltanen ____________________________________ Dean of the Graduate School December 2010 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Anyone who has embarked on this journey knows that it takes God to endure it. So obviously, He gets the credit and glory. I am also indebted to my wonderful husband, Christopher, whose tireless efforts and support made it possible for me to sacrifice time away from family and friends and a few years without full-time employment. I love you, honey. I am also blessed to have had an advisor whose relentless encouragement over the course of this research helped make this dissertation a reality. Your patience, Dr. David R. Davies, is forever appreciated. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................1 Research Questions Organization for Remainder of the Study II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ...................................................7 Literature Review Community Journalism Research Internet Newspaper Research Online Content Newspaper Interactivity Community/Relationships Uses, Effects, and Access Political Studies Financial Aspects Reporter Role Summary III. METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................32 Methods Summary IV. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS .................................................40 Survey Analysis Interview Analysis Summary v vii V. CASE STUDY ANALYSIS ………………….......................................109 Inside The Wayne County News Newsroom Summary VI. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS…………………….…132 Summary of Findings and Conclusions Limitations of the Study Recommendations APPENDIXES .................................................................................................................148 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................160 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Correlation between Staff Computer Skills and Reader Computer Skills .............52 2. Correlation between Number of Years Online and Staff Computer Skills ............53 3. Correlation between Editors‟ Opinions of Importance of Online Editions and Editors‟ Concerns about Readers‟ Computer Skills ..............................................54 4. Correlation between Average Years Online and Editors‟ Beliefs about Online Edition Being Vital ................................................................................................55 5. Correlation between Whether Newspapers Will Ever Be Solely Online and Editors‟ Opinions of Being Solely Online……………………………………….56 6. Breakdown of Weekly Editor Interview Participants ............................................58 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Ranking of Most to Least Important Skills Mississippi Weekly Editors Believe Reporters Must Have to Work on Online Editions ................................................45 2. Ranking of Areas Mississippi Weekly Newspapers Are Training Staffs for Online Editions ......................................................................................................46 3. Ranking of Newspaper Topics Getting the Most to the Least Coverage in Mississippi Weekly Print Editions .........................................................................48 4. Ranking of Newspaper Topics Getting the Most to the Least Coverage in Mississippi Weekly Online Editions…………………………………………….48 viii 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION “Today’s newspapers are in a situation where they must embrace new technologies in order to stay relevant and survive” (Bivings Group, 2008, p. 2). The San Jose Mercury Center is credited as being the first newspaper in the United States to produce a “full-content” Internet edition, meaning it was the first daily newspaper to publish its full editorial and classified advertising content on the Web in 1993 (Lewis, 2005, p. 4). Mercury Center chairman and publisher Jay T. Harris called their move to an online format “bold and forward-thinking” (Business Wire, 1996, n.d.). Several other electronic strategies of disseminating news to consumers had been attempted prior to then, but it was not until the San Jose edition, entitled Mercury Center, that a newspaper officially could say it was publishing a complete edition online. With the Center‟s success, other newspapers across the nation lagged in producing online editions. Today, thousands of newspapers publish a Web version of their newspapers. For Mississippi, the first online weekly newspaper surfaced in some form about six years after the Mercury Center edition. A decade later, nearly every daily newspaper in the state produces an online edition to accompany its print version, and most weeklies are experimenting with the innovation. In fact, of the 102 total newspapers in the state (daily and weekly), 75% of them now have online