Media Frenzy

By Rob Holbert Managing Editor

Well, at least he won’t have to interview Taylor Hicks again.

One of WALA’s top reporters is getting hitched and getting out of town. Adam Ghassemi is headed to Portland, Ore.

Ghassemi will be a reporter for Portland’s ABC affiliate KATU-TV, and his last day with WALA will be June 12.

The move is a big one for Ghassemi, taking him up 38 spots in media market size.

He also tells us he has gotten engaged to Crystal Wall, director of Marketing and Public Relations for Century Bank.

“She is a beautiful, wonderful woman, and I’m lucky she accepted,” Ghassemi said.

Ghassemi, who is originally from Memphis, has been at the FOX affiliate since June 2005. Prior to that, he did a stint in Duluth, Minn. Among other things, Ghassemi has been WALA’s designate “American Idol” reporter for the past couple of seasons. He has also covered some big local stories, including the recent tragedy when four children were thrown from the Dauphin Island Bridge.

“I truly couldn’t have asked for a better place to call home over the past three years. I’ve been able to cover many big stories. Plus, it’s going to get hard getting used to not being referred to as ‘that guy who covered Taylor Hicks,’” Ghassemi said.

We wish Adam great luck with his new town, new job and new bride.

Havens joins the P-R

The former editor of the University of South Alabama’s student newspaper, The Vanguard, is coming home as a reporter for the Press-Register. April Havens served as Vanguard editor in 2006-2007 and has been working for Miami Today for the past year. Miami Today covers business in the south Florida metropolis.

Havens will be helping out at The Mississippi Press in Pascagoula – also a Newhouse publication – for the time being.

Jones in at The Vanguard

Speaking of the University of South Alabama student newspaper, Ashley Jones, a Communications major, has been selected to lead the paper in the coming academic year. Jones replaces Jason Shepard, who served as editor for the 2007-2008 academic year.

Glen Aikman, who has been advertising manager for the past two years, will return in that capacity next year.

Small papers holding their own

Despite all the headlines proclaiming the end of the world is neigh, life may not be over for those of us in the newspaper business just yet. At least for the little guys.

According to an article that ran May 9 in the online publication MediaPost, many smaller newspapers are actually holding their own or even growing at the same time many of the big boys are trying to find ways to stop the bleeding.

“There’s no question that small-town daily newspapers are faring better than most regional and national papers, which tend to dominate the headlines,” the article says. “According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, comparing October 2006-March 2007 to the same six-month period a year earlier, the total Sunday circulation of newspapers with circulations less than 20,000 was down a modest 2.7 percent compared to 4.6 percent for newspapers overall, and an average decline of 7 percent at 12 leading metro dailies, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Boston Globe.”

The story even cites a few smaller papers that are growing quite well, including the Dothan (Alabama) Eagle, which has increased daily circulation 5 percent and Sunday circulation 4 percent.

So why are small newspapers holding their own while the conglomerates are in a tailspin? The simple answer is: they’re staying local. Local news can’t be duplicated on the Web as easily and local advertisers are less likely to pull ads quickly.

Small papers are even starting to see more interest from national advertisers eager to capture a loyal readership and local presence.

It’s nice to read, as Lagniappe was founded on the principal of offering extremely local content. And so far, we seem to be seeing that trend here, as we experience another year of solid growth (thus far! Knock on wood!).

That’s not to say we don’t see the Internet coming. We’ve worked hard in the last couple of years to make sure our Web site is worth visiting and we even started selling advertising there this year. We’ve also added a blog (blog.lagniappemobile.com) and hope to see it become a place that’s more and more popular for our readers.

But we’re glad to see other small newspapers aren’t being destroyed by the conglomerates or suffering from their revenue woes.

Rob Holbert is Lagniappe managing editor. Contact him at rholbert@lagniappemobile.com.

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