LJWorld.com

The Hesston Record's list of subscribers was dwindling. So was the number of advertisers, the other lifeblood of a newspaper.

And Publisher Bob Latta faced a choice: Close down the 70-year-old weekly, or find some new way to survive.

He thinks he may have found a way.

Starting last month, the Record no longer prints every week. Instead, Latta has developed an online edition of the paper that will be available on a paid subscription-only basis. The print edition will come out every other week.

"Hopefully, it will work," Latta said. "If it doesn't, the community will lose its voice and hometown publication. From that standpoint, it's got to work."

It's an experiment that has gotten the attention of Latta's readers and advertisers, as well as media experts in Kansas.

Deanna Yutzy, assistant manager for Hesston Food Market, said she didn't know what the change would mean for her business and its advertising.

"We've always had a weekly ad," she said. "We don't know what it's going to do. We've talked to other businesses that have had (online advertising), and they said they're doing OK."

New age

Hesston might seem an unlikely location for such an experiment. The town 36 miles north of Wichita has just 3,500 people, many of them retired.

"I think there's a lot of awareness of the Internet," Latta said. "A lot of people have computers and are comfortable with them, perhaps more than the normal town. I don't have anything to base that on, but it's my impression. It's also my hope."

Newspapers have approached the dawn of the Internet age with some trepidation. While many newspapers across Kansas and the nation have started Web sites during the last decade, industry leaders are still trying to figure out how to make money from cybernews.

Some Kansas newspapers, such as the Chanute Tribune and Emporia Gazette, have tried charging Internet users for content. Most papers, like the Journal-World, offer their news online for free.

Latta's move, however, is the first known Kansas case of a publication moving from primarily being a print publication to an online publication.

¢ The Hesston Record

"It wasn't out of any big foresight," he said. "It was out of necessity."

He said circulation had declined from 1,200 to 1,000 in recent years. Advertising has declined as local residents increasingly drive to Wichita and Newton to do their shopping. The cost of starting up a printing press each week was getting harder and harder to afford.

And it wasn't like Latta could cut staff. He's owned the paper since 1985 and is the only full-time employee -- the only reporter. He employs three half-time workers to sell ads and help lay out the paper.

"I wear many hats," he said.

Going online, then, is a last-ditch effort.

Taking advantage

Others are watching to see whether Latta's experiment is successful.

"I think the future will tell us that," said Jeff Burkhead, president of the Kansas Press Assn. "Bob, to his credit, didn't just close the door. He's doing what he can to stay in business and provide his community an information source -- and taking advantage of the technology to do that."

Hesston residents will decide whether the Record survives in its new incarnation. And their reactions are mixed.

"Personally, I think that's very good," said Dwight Roth, who teaches sociology at Hesston College. "I'm very much into online material."

Yutzy, the assistant manager for Hesston Food Market, isn't so sure.

"What's the point?" she said. "If it's going to be on the Internet, unless there's something we need to know, we're not going to get on there to read the paper. I think it's sad, and I think it's maybe the beginning of the end for the Record."

Latta said Internet publication will have advantages. For one, readers won't have to wait until Thursday to get their Monday news -- updates will go online as soon as they're ready.

And if the Record goes out of business, he said, residents will lose a local resource for community news: births, deaths, school honor rolls, sports teams, letters to the editor and community announcements.

"I really don't think Hesston or most any community wants to give up its hometown paper," Latta said. "Our niche is Hesston and USD 460 ... there's nobody else that's focusing on that niche. If we weren't there, they wouldn't get that coverage and type of news."

The results of the experiment should be evident soon, he said.

"Probably when the revenue rolls in," Latta said, "and it either pays all the bills, or it doesn't."