The Future of News is Fit to Print

Dan Robrish, Editor and Publisher of the Elizabethtown (Pa.) Advocate

Future of journalism theorists, brace yourself:

Meet former AP reporter Dan Robrish. For the past 14 months he’s been the ‘Editor and Publisher’ of the The Elizabethtown Advocate, a small weekly publication serving the community of Elizabethtown, Pa.

Today he, along with his newspaper, are on the verge of turning a profit.

The kicker? He’s done it all without a website, pretty much by himself, and in a community he was a stranger to not six months prior to launch.

“In a lot of small towns newspapers still make sense,” Robrish said. “Websites are so easy to start up they just kind of filter into the noise [that's already on the web].”

Granted, The Elizabethtown Advocate does have a Facebook page, but you’ll be hard pressed to find links to print edition articles. Pictures of the front page? Sure. A place for the community to chime in and add updates? Definitely. A stream for headlines? Not quite.

“I do plan to have a website, but I haven’t had time to build it,” he said. “But I seriously doubt I’ll ever make money off the site.”

Robrish is adament that “one of  the stupidest things newspapers have ever done” is publish their print articles on the web for free. Whenever his website does go live Robrish sees it playing more of a public service function – hosting public documents that support his reporting, offering spot coverage of breaking news and informing the community about closures and related events.

The 600-circulation weekly has admittedly hit a few snags along the way. Mainly – and now the only obstacle between the paper and financial viability – is approval to mail subscriptions at the periodical postage rate (which is considerably cheaper than standard mail AND allows the paper to publish valuable legal notices).

When Robrish first set foot in the 12,000 population Elizabethtown in August of 2009 he already had a newspaper in mind. The town had all the elements to make it work – an Amtrak station, a stable employment base (including a college, retirement community, and candy factory), a downtown district littered with independent businesses, and an information gap left by the recently defunct Elizabethtown Chronicle.

Competition

Robrish wasn’t the only one thinking of launching a local paper. Around the time his feet were hitting the ground in Elizabethtown, the Columbia Register – a newspaper start-up less than a year old – in neighboring Columbia, Pa. was shutting it’s doors.

Not discouraged, Robrish launched his project with a slightly different angle: he wasn’t going to build a staff, wasn’t going to print full-color (as the Register did), and was going to do the majority of the work himself. In the process he managed to scoop up seven coin-operated vending machines from the defunct paper – about half of which have successfully been reset to dispense his 50 cent weekly.

“I pretty much do everything but sports writing,” he said.

The Advocate employees just one freelancer on a regular basis and a handful of other contributors from time-to-time. Robrish taps into the local college and high school – which fortunately has a journalism program – for other content and photography work.

Online there are a handful of sites that cover Elizabethtown including 2 citizen journalism projects - one maintained by Department of Communications at nearby Elizabethtown College and another completely independent – plus a blog ran by former Elizabethtown Chronicle editor Jeff McCloud. While Robrish respects the sites he doesn’t see them as viable competition or a threat to his future as a news outlet.

“I’m not aware of any small news outlet turning a profit with a website,” he said.

Financing

“In the short-term [financing has] been a big problem,” he said. “But long-term I believe it’s going to be considerably more profitable [than an online publication].”

When Robrish left the AP back in 2009 he had about $25,000 in his back account. Turns out that wasn’t enough to get the fledgling business off the ground. Now – after months of intense labor, delving into retirement savings, and taking out a loan with mom and pops – he’s on the verge of the first inklings of a pay-off.

On the phone his excitement was noticeable. He talked of eventually building a small staff and moving to full-color printing for advertisements.

“Sooner or later I’ll go to full-color advertisement,” he said. “I think the ads will stand out from the black and white print, adding value.”

Until that time comes, however, Robrish will continue to make thrifty business decisions and cover the town he’s come to call home.