The Progress and Growth of Sonoma Media Investments and the Press Democrat, by Steve Falk and Rick Green
Our speakers for October 21, 2021, were Steve Falk, CEO of Sonoma Media Investments (SMI), and Rick Green, Executive Editor of the Press Democrat and SMI’s Content Manger. Steve’s background includes having been the president and editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. His long career in the newspaper business started with delivering papers in Lancaster, PA. Rick Green started with the Press Democrat this year after many years with Gannett in places as diverse as Ohio, Palm Springs, Des Moines, Cincinnati, and New Jersey.
Steve updated us on the progress of SMI and the Press Democrat. Business is booming at SMI, despite the general malaise in newspaper publishing in the U.S. The PD’s readership is the highest it has been in 11 years! Each week 413,489 adults read one of SMI’s publications. 327,573 North Bay adults read the Press Democrat, either online or in print. Dramatic gains in online subscriptions have resulted in over 15,000 subscribers. The PD’s subscribers access the “paper” in a variety of ways, including articles and alerts on social media, print and digital subscriptions, articles through email, and single copy purchases. SMI’s overall media reach includes 206.6k Facebook followers, 74.5 Twitter followers, and 67.7k Instagram followers. Steve also mentioned that the PD has over 65 journalists driving the news delivery train.
Rick Green joined the PD in February after Gannett was purchased by a hedge fund and changed its priorities. The PD, however, is growing its newsroom, and recently added new investigative reporters. His job is to elevate the paper. The PD is good, but it needs to get better, and the way to do that is to elevate staff.
COVID-19 took its toll on SMI’s papers. It lost $6,000,000 in advertising revenue during the height of the pandemic. Despite this, the PD did not lay off a single employee, although there were some pay reductions.
Thank you, Steve, and Rick for the update. We last saw Steve at Sunrise shortly after the purchase of the Press Democrat. At the time it seemed like a risky venture, so it is good to know that things are working well. Congratulations and keep up the good work!
