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WITH NINE CITIES WITHIN ITS BORDERS, THE WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON, PA., MARket, like other hyphenated markets, presents certain innate challenges in buying local media. Principally, many media entities in the region have opted to focus on localism, much of which centers around the mountain range that dominates the area. The Poconos, which has quietly developed into a New York City bedroom community, has been known for years as a popular resort travel destination for tourists eager to enjoy a getaway in the mountains.
The region, located just two hours from New York and Philadelphia, boasts other natural outdoor attractions, including the Susquehanna and Lackawanna rivers; federal, state, county and local parks; and watershed areas. Local leaders have tried to promote the region as viable for high-tech firms, though its population is mostly older and blue-collar. While Nielsen Media Research ranks the market 52nd in the country, in terms of revenue it's no. 78, according to BIA Financial Network.
In another example of the market's segmentation, there are four daily newspapers that serve the cities of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, which are about 10 miles apart. In the market as a whole, there are about 15 dailies, a number of weekly suburban papers and several alternative papers serving specific segments.
Of the two dailies serving Wilkes-Barre, Knight Ridder's Times Leader boasts the larger circulation. The paper's daily circ for the six months ended March 31 is 44,913, a decline of 5.8 percent from the same period in 2001, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Sunday circ dropped 6 percent to 62,838.
The newest paper, The Citizens' Voice, was born out of a strike in 1978 at the Times Leader. The daily circ of the Citizens' Voice for the six months ended March 31 was 32,736, down fractionally from the same period a year earlier; its Sunday circ for the period rose slightly, to 29,562.
The Citizens' Voice was completely employee-owned until it was purchased by the Scranton-based family that owns the two Scranton dailies in Lackawanna county, The Scranton Times (daily circ 30,784, down 1.6 percent; Sunday circ 74,632, down 1.4 percent) and The Tribune (daily circ 33,057, down 1.2 percent).
The afternoon Scranton Times, founded in 1895, has remained in the Lynett/Haggerty family for the past four...