Print media: Community Free Press hits streets, Parent and Family sells

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|ret|by Eric Olson

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|ret|SBJ Reporter

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|ret|eolson@sbj.net

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|ret|Springfield's print media landscape has been shifting with publications starting up, changing hands and changing staff.

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|ret|Community Free Press

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|ret|Community Free Press, a free weekly publication, hit area newsstands in December. Published by B Publishing Group Inc., CFP covers Springfield arts and entertainment and community issues, according to its publisher Breck Langsford.

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|ret|B Publishing Group is a spin-off of MD Publications, which Langsford's father Les started 27 years ago. MD Publications, which shares its offices at 3057 E. Cairo with B Publishing Group, publishes automotive trade journals such as Transmission Digest and Undercar Digest.

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|ret||quot|I wanted something new,|quot| Langsford said, adding that he thinks he has a niche to fill for Springfield.

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|ret||quot|There are a lot of (people hungry) for another source of reading in our community,|quot| Langsford said. |quot|The letters and the suggestions I get from people confirm that there is room for another newspaper in Springfield.|quot|

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|ret|Langsford said he's received as many as 65 letters in one week since starting CFP.

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|ret|Also, Langsford said, the weekly community papers published by Community Publishers of Missouri Inc. for the towns of Bolivar, Buffalo, Marshfield, Nixa and Republic create |quot|a doughnut around town,|quot| leaving a hole in the center.

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|ret|While the city has daily news coverage through Springfield News-Leader, Langsford said, daily papers are losing market share.

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|ret|According to the Newspaper Association of America, readership of daily newspapers has steadily declined since 1964, when 80.8 percent of the adult population read the daily paper. In 2002, the most recent year available, daily newspaper readership was down to 55.4 percent.

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|ret||quot|To me, people are tuned out on dailies,|quot| he said. |quot|They get all that news on TV. We're just trying to provide an alternative.|quot|

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|ret|Community Free Press targets readers 25 to 54 years old, and its advertising sales are targeted to small business. Langsford said CFP prints 8,750 copies weekly, and he projects it will have 12,000 copies on the street weekly within 90 days.

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|ret|Bolivar Herald Free Press

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|ret|After a nearly yearlong switch to magazine publishing, longtime community newspaper editor Jim Hamilton returned to the news desk Jan. 1 when he accepted the editor position at Bolivar Herald Free Press.

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|ret|Hamilton was Buffalo Reflex editor for 24 years before moving to Springfield! Magazine in January 2003, where he was touted as next in line to head the business by publisher Robert Glazier. Both Hamilton and Glazier quickly realized it wasn't the right fit.

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|ret||quot|(Hamilton) was trying to adapt from a news gatherer, news reporter background to a magazine editing position and he never could quite find his way,|quot| said Glazier, who is 76. |quot|He kept saying, I just don't think these shoes are going to fit.'|quot|

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|ret|Hamilton missed having a staff of reporters versus working with freelance writers, so when Bolivar Herald Free Press publisher Dave Berry informed him of the opening at Bolivar, he jumped at it. Berry's company, Community Publishers of Missouri Inc., owns both the Buffalo Reflex and Bolivar Herald Free Press.

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|ret|Hamilton left Springfield! Magazine in mid-November to return to the place he got his start in community journalism. Hamilton was Bolivar Herald's news editor in 1976 and 1977, when the paper was owned by Jim Sterling, now a professor at University of Missouri-Columbia's School of Journalism.

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|ret||quot|I wasn't as happy with the magazine business as the newspaper business,|quot| Hamilton said. |quot|I feel like I'm back where I belong.|quot|

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|ret|Glazier said his son Greg is now set to succeed him, when he's ready to step aside |quot|at about 100 or something like that.|quot| Greg Glazier currently handles the magazine's business and technical operations, working in an office in Golden, Colo.

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|ret|Parent |amp| Family

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|ret|More than two years after Meyer Communications acquired Springfield Parent |amp| Family magazine from Springfield Business Journal Publisher Dianne Elizabeth, it has sold Springfield Parent |amp| Family to Springfield News-Leader.

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|ret|Meyer Communications owner Ken Meyer struck a deal with News-Leader publisher Tom Bookstaver, but terms were not disclosed. Several phone calls to Bookstaver's office were not returned at press time.

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|ret|At the time of the sale, Meyer Communications was printing 30,000 copies a month, up from 21,000 copies a month as of mid-2001.

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|ret|Ken Meyer said additional staff would have been required for his company to continue publishing it. He chose to find a buyer instead.

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|ret||quot|It was growing beyond what we could handle without a great deal of extra overhead and so forth,|quot| said Meyer, whose company also owns Springfield radio stations KTXR and KWTO. |quot|Since we're broadcasters, we decided to concentrate on that.|quot|

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|ret|Asked about the News-Leader's plans for Parent |amp| Family, Parent |amp| Family General Manager Kent Ayers said, |quot|You'll just have to wait and see.|quot|

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|ret|Springfield Parent |amp| Family was distributed to area schools and passed out to children in kindergarten through sixth grade, in Springfield, Nixa, Ozark, Republic, Strafford, Marshfield, Willard and Rogersville, according to Dan Vaughn, Meyer Communications general manager of publications.

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|ret|Meyer Communications continued distribution in McDonald's restaurants and added Blockbuster Video, Toys R' Us, Springfield Family YMCA and several day-care centers, Vaughn said.

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|ret|Meyer Communications will continue to publish its other free papers: Campus Express and Family Marketplace. Vaughn said Campus Express distributes 19,000 papers six times a year to local universities, and Family Marketplace, a monthly shopper, sends 45,000 copies to area grocery stores and select homes.

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|ret|There were three full-time and three part-time employees dedicated to Parent |amp| Family, along with a few freelancers, Meyer said.

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|ret|Meyer would not divulge the profitability of the publication. |quot|It was not losing, but on the other hand there were other ways to make better money,|quot| he said. |quot|We came out all right. I don't release figures like that. Quite honestly, I'm not in the habit of losing money.|quot|

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|ret|The February issue was the last published under Meyer Communications.

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