Gardening coverage gets the axe. Can you pick up the slack?

Newsmakers have been making the news lately. Budget cuts and layoffs at major media outlets have staffs scrambling to report the issues of the day. And it seems like home and garden coverage is suffering the most.

Correction. Home coverage. Goodness knows you hardly see a relevant garden feature in the news these days. So far, I’ve been lucky. My local paper still devotes almost a solid page on Saturday to garden articles most weeks.

That’s not the case in many other markets. When I travel for business, I always pick up a local paper. What irks me is when you open the Home/Garden section and find a plant-related story that was pulled from a national wire service. Too often the article is offering plant recommendations and tips that don’t jive with the local climate. (And then we wonder why newbie gardeners come into stores so confused. Sheesh.)

But, being a media person myself, I know why they just pull something from the wire. It all comes down to time and money. Or lack thereof.

I don’t expect things to improve any time soon. The folks at Garden Rant recently reported that the garden writer for Slate was laid off. Then comes word from The New York Times that Meredith Corp., the company behind Better Homes & Gardens and other specialty titles, has cut 7% of its workforce and is shuttering Country Home magazine.

Hmm. Now we’ve got both national and local media outlets struggling to come up with garden coverage. If they decide to cover this realm at all. Who’s going to pick up the slack?

In many cases, retailers are filling the gap. Sloat Garden Center, a multi-store chain in the San Francisco area, is one business that does a great job sharing information online. The store’s blog and Garden Guru column position the company as a much-needed expert in the gardening world.

Before the spring rush hits, take a look at the gardening news your customers are getting from local sources. Is it good? Is it enough? Could you do better?

-- Sarah

Comments

[trey]

Excellent post! This is exactly what we need to do in the garden business. As a matter of fact I believe that depending on your town, it may make the difference in whether your store survives!

Become the local expert and clearing house for all things to do with the garden. The box stores are already doing it, but it seems "corporate". HUGE OPPORTUNITY for the smaller players.

[trey]

FYI
I just wrote a post that links back to this article. http://thegoldengecko.com/blog/?p=702

[SM on behalf of Ellen Barredo]

Yes, loss of garden writers, it is happening here in St. Louis as well, another round of people exiting the Post Dispatch. Our local free paper, the Journal, had already trimmed out gardening.
But here in St. Louis we have the Gateway Gardener! This is the time for Independent Garden Centers to get behind their local Garden Magazines by placing ads spaced throughout the year! Many professionals from the St. Louis area provide written content on gardening and companion activities free of charge to Robert Weaver, the Editor, He then produces and distributes the magazine monthly. He can be reached at 314-968-3740. robert@thegatewaygardener.com www.gatewaygardener.com. He is truly dedicated to this venture! Kansas City has the Kansas City Gardener and does a fine job!
Ellen Barredo
Bowood Farms
St Louis, MO 63108

[greg draiss]

Providing content free of charge?

How would you like it if a competitor provided garden products free of charge?

This is insane. We complain as an industry because it is hard for us to get paid for dispensing information, box stores nibbling away at GPMs and yet some of us have the time to sit down and provide FREE content to a publication who then profits from the ads and your knowledge base.

Try that with a plumber or doctor.

You are contributing to the death of garden writing by providing free content.

I am sure the editors of the magazines that host this blog would love it if we offered to do their jobs for free.

Journalism is as much a profession as is horticulture. I happen to do both for a living.

If you are not willing to charge fair rates for providing content then stop taking money from our pockets who not only garden for a living but "provide content" for a living as well.

Greg Draiss

[Kathy Jentz, Washington Gardener Magazine]

Alen to Ellen's post. We local regional gardening publications are struggling to survive and are the biggest proponents of local garden centers and nurseries. We are also the ones out there building your future customer base.
As newspapers die or cutback on their garden coverage, that leaves us to step up even more into our niche. Time will tell what other shake-ups come out of this trend.

[greg draiss]

I have an idea for Washington DC and St. Louis!

A consumer garden magazine in which I will offer free ad space to anyone wanting to place an ad. There are a lot of unpaid garden writers looking for work who could place full page ads at no charge!

Get The Picture?

Greg Draiss
Will Not Write For Free!

[Jeff Fekete]

We have a thriving garden correspondent in Sacramento - Farmer Fred Hoffman is our expert on News Talk 1530 KFBK and Talk 650 KSTE. The editorial product is outstanding and local. Fred is still on the air because local, regional, and national garden and ag advertisers recognize that both Fred and the general interest program lineup of which he is a part, attract both casual and serious gardeners whether they are highly skilled or simply a homeowner trying to keep their lawn green and their plants alive affordably and safely. The persistent print mindset among some marketers in a mobile and online world is perplexing. Thank you for the thought provoking blog topic. Fred's web site is www.FarmerFred.com.

Jeff Fekete
Home and Garden Marketing Specialist
Talk 650 KSTE/News Talk 1530 KFBK
Sacramento, CA

[greg draiss]

Thank you for providing excellent product in the face of corporate cut backs.

Quality sells and should not be given away!

Greg Draiss
Will not write for free!

[Ellen Barredo]

Time for Change - Service - Volunteerism

All terms being used in 2008 and now... even at our own industry IGC Show in Chicago last August.

I may never have entered this industry if it were not for the volunteer garden writers, writing for the local paper, in the very small rural town I grew up in. I always turned to the garden column to read it. I didn't even know what they were talking about half the time ..I was very young.
Many People work every day for FREE in order to support a community group, a board of an industry group,a school, a food bank, barn raisings, in hospitals and nursing homes. All in the effort of betterment of the community and it's people.
You should give it a try, a small freebie to an industry group on a cutting edge topic might create a demand for your paid services!

[greg draiss]

I volunteer as a mentor for Capital District Community Gardens in Albany, NY. A non prof that takes blighted lots and turns them into working gardens.
I do a two hour (volunteer) news broadcast on PBS for blind listeners. It is a 40 mile drive fom my home just to get there!

What we are talking about here is not volunteering but exploitation. Soliciting writers for content then selling ads to advertisers for profit and in return not paying for content is not volunteering it is exploitation.

Take a look at craigslist. All sorts of "job" offers where the "pay" is the experience of working with an up and coming fashion designer, music act etc. with no promise of future renumeration.

Imagine being able to say "I took that picture on the cover of "JJ Woombotz" debut million selling CD" and having nothing but the bragging rights to it.

Everyone should volunteer, donate etc. which I do a lot of. I will not volunteer for a profit seeking venture.

There is a huge difference between helping thy neighbor and lining the pockets of someone who is too cheap to pay for content in a magazine. If the deal was a split of future profits and sweat equity ownership, along with editorial rights, or a free ad OK . But that does not sound like the case here.

BTW-I have gotten paid work as a result of volunteering. When that happens I give a large cut right back to said charity.

Greg Draiss
(This is getting as contentious as Garden Rant! But I stand by my opinion on this one
I WILL NOT WRITE FOR FREE!)

[Rochelle]

Greg,
I hear you on the 'will not write for free' front...I have done a lot of writing for free over the last six months, in an effort to establish a readership on my blog. I hope to soon be in a position to make something from all my efforts by being able to approach advertisers with an affordable option for advertising that can deliver a sizable readership of quality, interested, educated, potential clients. While I find it discouraging that garden and more specifically garden design coverage seems to take less and less of a prominent role in in our media world, I am trying to look at it is an opportunity for people like ourselves to create interesting niche content and still make a living - but perhaps under a different delivery model.

[Shirley Bovshow "EdenMaker"]

Depending on the media outlet, writing a "free post" in exchange for high visibility is considered a PR opportunity. This does not mean a habit of career-long "free writing or appearances."

I have benefited from some of these opportunities that to some might seem "exploitive" because I was not paid at the time.

I did a lot of "free appearances" on HGTV as a "guest designer" but as a result, I got a paying show of my own on the Discovery channel, my landscape business thrived and my career has taken a wonderful direction because of it.

It all depends on the "trade off" value.
Shirley

[Rochelle]

I mentioned this post in a post at Studio g