Invading Another Paper's Turf   

The Dallas Morning News goes after the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Arlington County, Texas.

Competitive battles between daily newspapers in the same city are down to a handful, but a different kind of fight has emerged in which one city's newspaper moves in on a nearby city's newspaper market.

This kind of competition can only happen where markets are reasonably close together, as in Dallas-Fort Worth, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Miami-Fort Lauderdale. The battle has already been joined in these markets, most recently in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Other dual markets where such direct competition is conceivable, although so far limited to the margins between the cities, include Washington-Baltimore, Seattle-Tacoma and Raleigh-Durham. And there are smaller markets, especially in the crowded Northeast, with considerable intercity competition.

Does it make economic sense for one newspaper to invade another's turf? Often not, although there can be peculiar circumstances that suggest otherwise. The Dallas Morning News recently established the companion Arlington Morning News, aimed at a cohesive suburban town adjacent to Fort Worth's eastern boundary, that conceivably could offer more opportunity for economic return than incursions in some other dual markets.

A long-standing article of faith in the newspaper business is that it does not make sense to plunge into a market already well served by an established daily.

For a long time, too, dailies in dual markets eschewed outright invasions of each other's terrain, although there has always been competition in shared suburban markets, like those south of Minneapolis-St. Paul or north of Tampa-St. Petersburg. A daily's grip on its core market was considered unassailable.

This began to change in the 1970s when the Miami Herald, responding to population shifts in its core market, sought to penetrate the Broward County market of the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, immediately north of Miami, and the Palm Beach County marke· of the Palm Beach Post, even farther north. The Sun-Sentinel's base remains a target, and the Herald's circulation there is about half the Sun-Sentinel's on weekdays and more than 40 percent on Sunday.

The Herald's circulation in Palm Beach County was about a quarter of the Palm Beach Post's 10 years ago, but since then the Herald has scaled back its efforts. The Herald circulation now is only about 8 percent of the Post's in Palm Beach County.

Later, the St. Petersburg Times launched an edition aimed at the Tampa Tribune, on the mainland side of Tampa Bay, and Minneapolis' Star Tribune did the same thing to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, based just across the Mississippi River from Minneapolis.

The St. Petersburg Times' circulation rose from about 3 percent of the Tampa Tribune's 10 years ago in the Tribune's home Hillsborough County to about 12 percent currently, according to the latest audits. The Tribune, which responded with a St. Petersburg edition, saw its circulation in the Times' home Pinellas County rise from about 3 percent of the Times' 10 years ago to nearly 10 percent.

In Minneapolis-St. Paul, where the two cities are not widely separated, the Star Tribune had 21 percent of the Pioneer Press' weekday circulation in the latter's Ramsey County base and 26 percent Sunday 10 years ago. These percentages have increased to 38 percent weekdays and 36 percent Sunday. The Pioneer Press remains a small presence in the Star Tribune's home Hennepin County, with about 3 percent of the Star Tribune's circulation weekdays and less than 2 percent Sunday, little changed from 10 years ago.

All of these invasions have been costly and likely lowered the profit margins of the newspapers involved. Whatever future expectations inspired these competitive moves – the Miami Herald may not have had any choice, given population shifts – a favorable return on investment probably will not turn out to be one of them.

The Dallas Morning News may have a better shot at profiting with its Arlington Morning News. Although the Fort Worth Star-Telegram certainly considers Arlington part of its core market, cheek by jowl as it is with Fort Worth, Arlington remains a separate community with a strong local identity. Arlington is prosperous and fast-growing, and the Star-Telegram's Arlington edition is said to account for about 20 percent of total circulation.

Of course now that the Morning News has made a large investment to create the Arlington Morning News, the Star-Telegram is sure to respond with higher investment of its own in Arlington. To do otherwise would risk presiding over a greatly reduced core market for the Star-Telegram. And, of course, if the Morning News successfully cherry-picks Arlington, what might it go after next?

Whatever the outcome, while it lasts the competition will be good for journalism, readers and advertisers. It will not be so good for profits. l