This is the first Weekender at the SMDP, and the start of some good things.
Our efforts have been focused on digital offerings in recent years, but it’s time to look at the print edition and bring it up to date.
For some time, we’ve discussed changing our printed issue from six to five days a week. We listened to readers, news industry professionals and our team and decided we can deliver a great product focusing on Real Estate, events, and seasonal content relevant to the unique blend of locals and visiting readers.
There is no way a print newspaper can compete with the internet for immediacy or convenience. Still, print has other qualities, both quantitative and qualitative.
With most people accessing digital content on their phones, paper becomes a better medium for charts, graphics, and images. Newspapers also expose readers to a breadth of content that is often filtered out in social media’s self-referential bubbles.
It’s often thought that paper’s physicality is a detriment compared to the convenience of a small screen in our pocket but for many, print remains a fundamentally better experience.
Think about clicking through an online puzzle on your phone vs. noodling on a crossword in the paper at home. Consider the impact of great art and how it resonates on a 3x6 screen or spread across a page.
Reading a physical paper is a ritual. Whether it’s blocking out traffic while riding the bus or easing you into your morning with a cup of coffee, enjoying print products, such as magazines, books, and newspapers, has an emotional resonance.
Thus, we’re designing the paper to be an oasis from the over stimulation of the digital world. It will show Santa Monica’s personality with more space and more images.
We’re also going to give each edition a little more focus. We will start your week off on Mondays with some perennial hot topics like crime, homelessness and education, as well as recaps of stories you may have missed. Tuesdays will highlight the attributes of local life that make Santa Monica special including our beaches, environment and local personalities. The focus will be on business, tech, tourism and non-profits on Wednesdays. Thursdays will get you ready for the weekend with food, art, events and entertainment coverage. The Weekender edition will be anchored by more real estate coverage while exploring the seasonal subjects that roll through town.
The topics won’t be the only ones in an edition, but they’ll form a predictable pattern. We hope that the new format will make the information we provide more usable, digestible, and enjoyable for readers.
Many of the changes we’re making will take time to execute and the post-pandemic ethos of doing more with less doesn’t work here. We aren’t cutting our staff, our coverage, instituting a paywall, nor are we raising the price on advertisers or readers. We will continue to stick to our core reporting principles of covering what’s important, starting conversation in town and producing just as many stories albeit with some now becoming digital exclusives due to the merger of the Friday and Weekend editions.
It’s a journey, so keep an eye out for more meaningful changes in content, design and coverage in the weeks to come.
Matthew Hall, SMDP Editor
