All That's Fit to Print

By Erik Hare

Last September, I wondered about the effect of a real estate slowdown and changes in the real estate market on community newspapers.  We’re blessed with quite a few of them in Saint Paul, the largest of which is the Highland Villager.  At the time, I noted that about half of the ad space was taken up by ads by REALTORS and specific developments.  Between these community newspapers and bus benches, a fair amount of our civic infrastructure seems to be dependent on the real estate market.

Six months on, things have already changed.  A number of bus benches around town have ads for things other than REALTORS, such as the one pictured with an ad for the Downtowner restaurant.  While I’m glad Mo has a place to promote his excellent neighborhood café, there’s a similar change at hand in the Villager.

A quick scan of the March 26 – April 8 issue shows that in 48 pages there are only about 4 pages total taken up by REALTORS, and another half page with one development.  That’s down considerably in a short time.  Fortunately for the Villager, there are other stores and restaurants who have taken up the slack.  More interestingly, there are about 2 pages total devoted to remodeling companies and their products, a sure sign of spring.  Like the home show, they are ready to take up the slack as people stay put and don’t trade up in the home market as much.

But this could be a sign of more than a real estate slowdown.  REALTORS like Teresa are turning more and more to an on-line presence that is carefully targeted and reaches people who are looking for real estate more directly.  Which effect is more important?  It’s hard to tell for sure.  What we can say is that our civic institutions (and our civic furniture) aren’t as dependent on real estate as they once were.  Time will tell if this is a big problem for them, or if they continue to branch out to different markets.

As anyone involved in real estate knows, transitions are tricky at best and potentially devastating.  We’re seeing a few things take place all at once that are clearly going to change the relationship between real estate and our community newspapers.  Hopefully, we can all ride this out and find other ways of getting what we need in life.  In the meantime, we can still get our community news on a comfy bench while we wait for the bus.  The more things change, the more they stay the same. 

It’s worth keeping an eye on because our community papers help make Saint Paul what it is.  But so do our REALTORS like Teresa.  We’ve all got to make a living, but we also need to know what’s going on around us.  Here’s hoping it all works out for everyone.