Are weekly newspapers becoming once-a-week dailies?

Weekly newspapers are in danger of becoming once-a-week dailies if they continue to hang on to old news for up to six days before publishing it.

News at all levels is filtering down to the masses through the internet and social media, leaving a situation where many weeklies are only serving up fresh news from the day before publication, and struggling to fill the back pages with readable content.

It’s vital for the newspapers to react to this and make sure their content isn’t stale.

The weekly paper has often been the organ by which whatever passes through the grapevine could be confirmed. In every town and village throughout the land, there is a motto that if it was in the [insert local paper name] it must be true.

But today we have better quality grapevines, in the form of social media and blogs, and they’re not forced to keep a weekly deadline. Stuff happens. Stuff gets discussed. Stuff gets published. All on the same day.

When the weekly newspaper hits the shelves, we’re becoming increasingly disappointed. We’ve heard it all before. Are we just checking for the local things we might have missed or are we really getting a good read?

Weeklies need to do two things to make their journal worth the ever-increasing cover price:

1. They need to have ‘control’ over local news. They should publish it as it happens, through the web and social media. This is where many weeklies have fallen back by letting dailies and regionals beat them to the book. When it appears six days later in print, everyone will recall where they saw it first. Does holding onto it add any value to it? No.

2. They need to change their content. Nobody wants to buy old news. Use the internet for news as it happens. Summarise it by all means, but they should be using their weeklies to add value to what has happened in the week. In-depth interviews, analysis and exclusive pictures. Instead, we’re seeing the opposite, Weeklies are being filled with out-of-town press releases and dull snaps.

Wise up weeklies, tell us something we don’t already know, we’ll pay for it if we enjoy it.