The Battle of Bonita

By Rick Compton

Just a few years ago -- a dozen or so -- nobody really thought much about Bonita, the slumberous district loosely defined as the five miles east of the Gulf straddling the Collier-Lee County line. Its renown, closely held by locals, was limited to the small but hot parties at Doc's Beach House and the small but hot wings at Buffalo Chip's.

In terms of the media, Bonitans were served by a weekly community paper, and their TV antennas groped skyward at signals arched over them from Fort Myers' stations to Naples' spenders. Newspapers from Fort Myers and Naples sold a few copies in Bonita, but not enough to generate much excitement. In those earlier days, the advertising budgets, smaller even than Doc's parties and Chip's wings, simply couldn't support much excitement.

Then came Bonita Bay, and Lely Barefoot, and Perkin's, and DeVoe, and Gold's Gym, and Picture Warehouse. Old, soured land deals revived into new upscale developments. Lawyers and doctors looking for places to start growing practices opened offices. Citizen committees formed, and Bonita was incorporated. Suddenly, a lot of stuff was for sale. And where there is much to be sold, there is a lot of advertisement dollars.

But Bonita's value as a market is not just in the ad dollars there. It is where The News-Press has chosen to draw a line, and where the Naples Daily News has chosen to establish a beachhead squarely in News-Press territory.

Ordinarily, border skirmishes between newspapers are not causes for much attention. But Southwest Florida is evolving into one marketplace for media. It has been that way for some time for electronic media: broadcast television ignores municipal lines, and fewer than 10 percent of radio stations pitch themselves as exclusively serving one county or the other. Nationally, there are few sizable markets -- if any -- that electronic media view as one, and print media view as two.

Here, the traditional market gap between Fort Myers and Naples is being filled with the emergence of Bonita, projected to double in population in the next 20 years. With no gap between the markets, it is hard to make an argument that two markets exist for print media only.

So the battle in which these papers find themselves may be for Bonita, but the war indeed may be for Southwest Florida.

The Shot Heard 'Round The Region

"As we continue to gain market share, in 1987 we were able to get control of the Bonita Banner from the Chicago Tribune," says Corbin Wyatt, publisher and president of the Naples Daily News. The Banner is a 40-year old, twice weekly community paper. Today, it is partner-published with the Bonita Daily News, a specialized weekday edition of The Naples Daily News containing Bonita-specific stories.

Wyatt goes on to cite Bonita-area circulation figures: a gain from 38 percent of the daily readers and 43 percent of the Sunday readers in 1992, to 51 percent daily and 52 percent Sunday readers now. (see Audit Bureau of Circulation figures).

The expansion into Bonita is logical for the Naples Daily News. Geographically, there's nowhere else to go -- to the south and east, there is a minimal population that isn't likely to expand into a substantial market.

The News-Press, on the other hand, has entrenched its holdings at the Lee-Collier County line. "The News-Press is a Lee County newspaper," says Fritz Jacobi, News-Press publisher. "Look at our distribution: 98 percent, if not 99 percent, is in Lee County.

"Approximately seven years ago, there was a plan adopted by our paper called the Lee Focus Plan." Jacobi explains that then, with bureaus in Bonita, Cape Coral, and Hendry and Glades Counties, only about 10 percent of the News-Press circulation was outside Lee County borders. The Lee Focus Plan was based on ad support. With only a couple of thousand subscriptions in Collier and Charlotte, the advertisers who supported his paper wanted its emphasis to be on Lee County. The News-Press withdrew accordingly. "I don't see a reversal of that decision at this time," Jacobi says.

His corporate managers at Gannett, The News-Press' parent company, reflect the depth of that decision, and express the opinion that Southwest Florida will remain two markets for print media. "I think the newspaper that does the best job of serving its municipally-defined market will succeed," says Mike Coleman, Senior Group President of Gannett's South Newspaper Group. "The area north of Bonita Beach Road is clearly Lee County, and I see The News-Press winning." (Representatives from E.W. Scripps, the Daily News' parent, did not respond to three requests for telephone interviews.)

To facilitate Coleman's winning, The News-Press has maintained a bureau in Bonita producing Bonita-area news, ads sales and a weekend product called the Bonita Extra. The News-Press bureau there employs 30 people.

"What we have done is grown our staff as that market has grown," says Jacobi. "As we've added news pages, we've added reporters." This past year, he reports, he's added 10 staffers and a special Bonita section. "As the market grows retail-wise, we have continued to grow that staff."

Wyatt claims that the Daily News' Bonita bureau, with 36 people, collects two-thirds of the available ad revenue in that market. "We are certain the Banner and the Daily News have greater volume of advertising revenue than does the News-Press."

New businesses are opening almost daily in Bonita. Jacobi, when asked about his strategy for capturing these new businesses, responds, "Are we expected to hit a certain percentage of all new openings? Sure, but we've not set any kind of penetration figure per se."

Wartime Propaganda and The Benefits of Fallout

Meanwhile, neither paper's executive is willing to admit he is interested in building the region's dominant paper. However, their printed materials contradict these spoken positions. While Jacobi espouses that his is a Lee County newspaper, his sales package entices advertisers to "Now reach ... North Naples customers seven days a week." Of course, North Naples is more than five miles south of Lee County.

And although Wyatt, referring to the Daily News and the Banner, jokes that, "We're just two small little newspapers trying to compete with this avaricious giant to the North," his sales material includes markets studies and promises that reach into Estero, more than five miles into Jacobi's declared space.

Jacobi says, "Can either of us emerge as a large regional newspaper? I don't see that happening."

Wyatt says, "I don't think either paper will drive the other out."

But as one paper encroaches on the other's territory, it is hard to imagine that either will stop fighting as long as it continues to win ground -- until all the ground is won.

The competitive efforts have not gone unnoticed by advertisers themselves. Terri Legris, president of advertising and public relations agency Legris & Associates, answers with a crisp "No" when asked if one paper will ever dominate Southwest Florida. "Both will keep moving forward," she predicts.

Kristie Reinert is director of marketing for Watermark Communities Inc., one of the largest advertiserrs in the region. "The News-Press came out with an affordable option, a zoned edition called the Bonita Extra," she says, explaining that it offers "incredible incentives" for advertisers who wish to speak to 40,000 readers between Corkscrew Road in Estero and Immokalee Road in North Naples. She also points out the Bonita-specific edition of the Naples Daily News. "The Naples Daily News changed their name to the Bonita Daily News," she observes of the product. She sees both papers' actions as a commitment to the market.

Bill Waites is a partner at Spiro & Waites Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations. "For Bonitans," he says, "they will find more and better coverage of issues there. I think we will get better results because they are competing."

Waites sees other benefits, including discounted advertising rates, and bulk ad contracts that allow businesses shorter periods than the standard one year in which to evaluate if a paper can deliver the customers.

Legris disagrees, and hears no promise of lower rates. "I've seen the rates consistently going up," she says. "The News-Press went up in October, and [rates increased on] December 1 for the Naples Daily News."

Nancy Keefer, executive director of the Bonita Springs Area Chamber of Commerce, believes that Bonita has benefited from being a battleground, that both papers have been very sensitive to civic issues and community affairs. "They're very community minded," she says, "and they've been very supportive of Bonita." It's also notable that both Wyatt and Jacobi participated in this year's Leadership Bonita, a chamber-sponsored event designed to introduce business types to the community.

Philip Meyer, Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, also takes the viewpoint that competition will bring out better community coverage. "I love working in a situation like that," says the author and 23-year veteran reporter. "My finest moments as a reporter were in competitive situations. It keeps you honest and makes you a kind of aggressive, vigorous reporter."

However, Legris hasn't seen any benefits. "Probably the opposite," she says. "It has diluted the market." she talks about clients in Bonita who wish to sell to customers in Naples and in Fort Myers. "I have to buy both papers to make sure I get the full exposure."