Rolling with the punches: P&C leader talks post-COVID rise
Moultrie News Oct. 23, 2024
Bedeviled by three months of significant revenue deficits at the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020, the Post and Courier had to find a way to reverse course in spite of the dark clouds enveloping the newspaper industry.
"We did two things," said Post and Courier President & Publisher P.J. Browning during her appearance at the Oct. 17 Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce Luncheon. "We decided to expand — so you go big or you go home. And we said, 'You know what? We're going to buy a new press.'"
The 2008 Magnum color press imported from Sweden is currently based at the news company's 4500 Leeds Ave site in North Charleston, as it signifies P&C's commitment to keep South Carolina's communities — large and small — properly informed.
The newspaper's goal to broaden its reach has seen the Charleston-based P&C expand into every corner of the Palmetto State, with newsrooms in Beaufort County, Myrtle Beach, Pee Dee, Columbia, Spartanburg, Rock Hill, Greenville and North Augusta.
With newspapers rapidly vanishing at the rate of two per week, Browning recounted her team's efforts to circulate news in a burgeoning number of news deserts.
But expansion meant more than pouring investment dollars into new projects in that it also involves adapting to the different ways readers are consuming the news.
"If content is king, platforms are King Kong," continued Browning. "So, today we just can't tell a story in print. We have to tell that story on TikTok, on Instagram. So, reporters today and the photographers, they're constantly thinking 'How do I tell that story on all the various platforms.'"
The focus on augmenting audience reach both digitally and in print has produced notable dividends in the form of 238,000-plus print/digital subscribers, 415,000-plus newsletter subscribers and 932,000 social media followers.
Attendees at the Chamber event were also made privy to P&C's newfound philanthropic endeavors. A prime example of this saw the fourth-generation, family-owned media enterprise raise funds in support of small community newspapers that lacked the capital to churn out crucial news.
Those stories can be found in P&C's "Uncovered" series, detailing investigative reports lifting the curtain on sundry forms of corruption and injustice.
By generating $500,000 in fewer than 100 days, per Browning, P&C met its goal of securing the necessary dollars in assisting 18 local papers in sharing stories "that needed to be told," observed the well-traveled publisher who began her career 40 years ago in Springfield, Missouri.
A robust portion of those monies, she disclosed, went toward obtaining FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests needed to access information that wouldn't normally be available.
"Today what we want to be is a trusted brand. We want to make sure that we're delivering the kind of news on the platform that you want to read us on," affirmed Browning, a resident of nearby Awendaw. "We want to be able to deliver the news that you want to read."
