FEELING THE CHILL, TOO, BUT NOT FEARING DEATH: STUNG BY THE RECESSION, MOST LOCAL ETHNIC NEWSPAPERS SAY THEY’LL SEE IT THROUGH
By Julie Masis, Globe Correspondent
The Boston Globe
July 26, 2009 Sunday
As they witnessed the near demise of Boston’s dominant black-oriented
newspaper this month, editors and publishers of other local ethnic
publications said they too are suffering from declining advertising
revenues and have had to reduce staff and coverage.
However, representatives of most local Armenian, Indian, Jewish,
Korean and Japanese publications also expressed confidence that the
support of their communities will see them through.
For the Bay State Banner, that support took the form of a $200,000 loan
from the City of Boston, as well as a campaign by key members of the
black community to raise funds and backing for the 44-year-old weekly,
that apparently will keep it going. Publisher Melvin Miller announced
on July 6 that he had suspended publication, based on sliding ad
revenue, and was seeking a buyer. After accepting the loan from the
city last week, Miller said he would continue operating the newspaper.
Officials at other ethnic papers serving the region said they also
are facing tough times.
Khatchig Mouradian, editor of the Watertown-based Armenian Weekly,
said the 75-year-old publication has reduced its paid contributors
by approximately 70 percent in the last three months, and cut the
assistant editor’s hours from a full-time position to part time. The
paper’s Armenian-language sister publication, the Hairenik Weekly,
created 110 years ago, eliminated its assistant editor’s position,
and now only has only one full-time editor.
"Because the team is so small in Armenian newspapers," Mouradian said,
"removing one full-time position could really impact the paper."
The Armenian Mirror-Spectator, also based in Watertown and the
country’s first English-language Armenian weekly, has significantly
reduced its use of freelance reporters and photographers over the
last year, according to editor Alin Gregorian, and has missed some
community events that it normally would have covered.
Several subscribers to Waltham-based India New England, which publishes
twice a month and covers the region’s South Asian community, noticed
recently that two issues arrived in the mail simultaneously, and took
this as a sign that the newspaper is having troubles.
The paper had mailed two issues together as a cost-saving measure,
confirmed associate publisher Terence Egan. The publication has
only one reporter and one advertising-sales representative left,
after a reporter was laid off at the end of May, and has reduced a
bookkeeper’s hours to part-time, Egan said.
"There’s this view that ethnic media is somehow insulated. That’s not
the case," he said. "Many of our longtime advertisers are struggling
in this economy, and that affects us as well."
The weekly Jewish Advocate recently laid off a graphic designer and
lost positions in editorial, advertising and circulation, according
to Grand Rabbi Y.A. Korff, its publisher. The paper’s revenues have
declined by about a third compared with last year, Korff wrote in
an e-mail.
The Jewish Journal in Salem, the Korean American Press in Woburn, and
J magazine, a Japanese monthly published in Boston, also experienced
drops in ad revenues, and either laid people off or did not fill
positions after resignations, their editors said.
Despite these troubles, top officials at most of the ethnic
publications say it is unlikely they would go out of business.
The Armenian press has experienced declining circulation due to
the migration of readers and advertisers to the Internet and the
assimilation of second and third generations of Armenian-Americans,
said Gregorian at the Mirror-Spectator, but stopping publication is
not a real danger.
Armenian Weekly editor Mouradian agreed, saying, "I think the community
would not let that happen," and noting that the papers rely not only
on advertising, but also on donations.
Waltham resident Sharistan Melkonian, 40, said that three generations
of her family have grown up with Armenian newspapers, and if they
were to close "it would be very sad."
"It’s not the type of coverage you would get elsewhere," said Sevag
Arzoumanian, a graduate student who reads the Armenian Weekly’s
website regularly.
Indian-Americans said they feel the same way.
"I hope that India New England makes it through," said Newton
subscriber Kumar Nochur. "There is no other newspaper of its kind."
Despite the recession, India New England’s circulation has held
fairly steady at about 9,000, thanks to the growth of the region’s
South Asian community, Egan said.
"I guess that’s one of the good things for ethnic media," he
said. "There are unquestionably more South Asians in New England than
there were five years ago."
At the Jewish Advocate, publisher Korff said the paper has faced
the same challenges as mainstream publications, but circulation
remains strong.
"The drop in our print circulation is being well compensated for by the
increase in our online subscribers, who receive the exact same paper
but via the Internet," his e-mail stated. Unlike most publications,
the Advocate charges for its Internet content.
Meanwhile, some publications reported they are weathering the tough
economy and expecting growth in the future.
Advertising sales at the Hellenic Voice, a Greek weekly in Lexington,
are off 20 percent compared with last year, but executive editor
John Baglaneas said he wants to hire salespeople to make up the
difference. He said the paper expanded from 14 to 16 pages this month,
and plans to add more in the fall.
Brazilian and Latin American newspapers in the area also reported
business is going well.
The circulation of El Mundo, a Latin American weekly in Jamaica
Plain, has grown more in the last five years than in the previous 30,
said vice president Alberto Vasallo III, whose father founded the
paper in 1972. "We’re the largest minority group in Massachusetts,"
he said. "It’s a very sought-after market for advertisers." he said.
Ethnic newspapers are not losing classified ads to online competitors
that do not offer listings in foreign languages, said Ric Oliveira,
publisher of the division of GateHouse Media that puts out O Jornal
Brasileiro, distributed in Framingham.
"When Craig’s List came along, it didn’t impact us," said
Oliveira. "When you’re renting a home or an apartment, there’s a
certain comfort level when you can speak to your tenant in your
own language."