
America’s doomed small newspapers - robg
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/08/13/americas-doomed-small-newspapers/
======
astine
I have a friend who is working for a failing newspaper. He really wants to
write for a print newspaper, and is a talented journalist, but I'm not sure
how it's going to work out for him in the future.

On a related note, if I were to found a newspaper, I would call it the
'muckraker'. The business model should be obvious from just that.

~~~
Maro
Why doesn't your friend start a blog? If he's good, he can pick up readers in
a few years and become self-employed. Or he can think of a different model...

I think that there is a real opportunity for the people producing the actual
contents as paper newspapers are going digital: journalists don't have to hop
from one corporate job to the next, they can attempt to be independent. This
is of course always true, but change favors the small players, so his chances
are better than at any other time.

~~~
brandnewlow
I have some friends in this person's position. Reasons they give for not
wanting to set out on their own:

1\. They want to write and report, not sell advertising and there's no ad
network out there that can get them real money ($10-15 CPM) as opposed to
"internet" money ($2-3 CPM).

2\. They want to be seen and read, now. Giving up a byline in a print
newspaper for a blog that will take years to ramp up is a bit daunting and
intimidating.

A great example of someone doing a fine job of this is
<http://capitolhillsfax.com> He's the authority on Illinois state politics. A
good number of his posts are members only. Membership costs 365/year or $1 per
day.

~~~
tptacek
My soon-to-be-brother-in-law is a journalist-type; he's working for the Reader
as their web guy, but he's been placing freelance pieces for years. He's got a
blog at the reader and has been doing a good job with it.

Maybe an option here is to find a blogging spot under a local paper's
masthead. You might be able to build up a readership in your spare time, and
then take them with you (away from the paper) when you get your sea legs.

~~~
brandnewlow
Moser? If so, your soon-to-be-brother in law is one heckuva writer. Dropping
you an e-mail now...

~~~
tptacek
I'll tell him you approve! =)

------
ZachPruckowski
As you move out of urban and suburban areas, it seems like it gets harder and
harder to make news matter. In exurban and rural areas, there's not really
going to be a lot of news within the (geographic) area people care about. It's
too fragmented.

For instance, the fight between the mayor two-towns-over and the county
government isn't really of interest to the rest of the county most of the
time. I don't care about a murder that happened 30 miles away. News generation
is probably a function of population density - in less dense areas, there's
not a lot going on that needs to be reported on, so to fill even 4-6 newspaper
pages, you've got to cover hundreds of square miles, and so each article isn't
"local" for a large percentage of the population.

------
jzdziarski
Perhaps also is the fact that many newspapers are no longer newspapers but
editorial-papers... maybe some are failing because nobody wants to read
everybody's opinion, but is actually interested in finding some actual news.

~~~
tptacek
Newspapers have always been editorial-papers. Track down articles from your
local from the first quarter of the 20th century. I just commented about doing
this with the Trib. There's no objectivity to be found, or even feigned
detachment.

------
tptacek
Wyman's article ends with recommendations that read like a prescription for a
fun startup.

~~~
jnovek
Wyman's problems and suggestions read to me like a collection of the latest
hip trends, and made me feel like he was someone who knows little about how a
newspaper -- especially a small town newspaper -- works.

~~~
tptacek
Which impression would have been dispelled if you had either (a) read the
article or (b) figured out the Bill Wyman Google search that excludes The
Stones.

Wyman's been a professional journalist since '90-ish, at The Reader, Salon (as
en editor), the AJC, and a bunch of other places. Hard to miss, since every
other graf in this piece is an anecdote about his career working at regional
papers.

------
utnick
i would think that small niche newspapers are the only ones that aren't doomed

~~~
robg
Depends on how well they're run, no?

I'm waiting for the big newspapers to start selling supplements to the smaller
papers. There's no reason the Hartford Courant couldn't tack on an
International and National section with the NY Times brand featured, then they
could focus exclusively on local stories. Heck, force the Times and the
Journal to compete for the right.

Point is: If you're local, why not go hyperlocal?

~~~
ZachPruckowski
It would seem like an AP or Reuters membership/subscription would already
solve most of this problem. Lots of college newspapers, including top-rated
ones, do exactly this, and pay the AP fees to re-run those stories.

~~~
robg
I'm thinking of a fully formatted and printed section. The wire stories must
still be integrated into the local papers. The AP would still be needed,
perhaps, but it could be filler.

I used to deliver newspapers as a tween. Most days we had sections we had to
insert (Food, Science, Arts, Comics). I don't see why a National/International
section needs to be any different. Then the brand for the local paper becomes
_everything_ local. You flip to the Hartford Courant section and you know it's
about your hometown areas. One side benefit is the Times section could have
the national advertisements while local advertisers could be almost ensured
local coverage.

------
snewe
Link to original article: [http://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/five-
key-reaso...](http://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/five-key-reasons-
why-newspapers-are-failing)

------
edw519
I haven't read my hometown newspaper in years, but I visit their website once
a week. The problem isn't the reporting, it's the site. It's awful, looks like
some kids threw it together in 1997.

I think they'd be better off to just scrap the site and post the stories on an
ad supported blog. Focus on what they do best.

~~~
tptacek
There's like 8 grafs in this piece about that problem, using the WSJ and LA
Times as examples.

~~~
zach
Of course, the LA Times moved to a complete redesign this week, so that could
have been more timely.

FWIW, the LA Times has some sharp Ruby hackers in their web department -- in
fact, they just hosted the LA Ruby Users Group meeting at their building this
Thursday.

