

Ask HN:  Won't Local Newspapers Still Survive? - keltecp11

Hacker News has been REALLY busy lately with all the noise about newspapers 'dying'.  However, local newspapers seem to be doing quite well.  I opened up my local publication this morning and saw it was filled with advertisements and seemed quite healthy.  I can't imagine a day when Mom and Dad would ever stop cutting out pictures of little Jimmy playing soccer.  It seems to be part of our upbringing.  Is it the same for you?
======
noodle
hyperlocal newspapers will always do well, but that is because the bar is
effectively lower for them. where i grew up, the local newspaper was run by
one person, and it wasn't their only job because the profits couldn't sustain
them. content was always coming in and was a self-sustaining cycle -- stories
about the little league, usually submitted by the little league itself or a
coach or something, will bring in eyes of the league participants to the
paper.

they'll probably always be profitable, but they won't be churning out jobs.

~~~
wglb
Mine as well. I think there are two people there.

So just wondering--if this goes in reverse, is there a space for extremely
local newspapers that cover just a tiny portion of a city or suburb? Implying
that economies of scale are not scaling anymore.

~~~
noodle
i think that its possible. i don't believe that many of the local papers are
run as effectively as possible -- most are probably not run by business-
oriented people, but by people who are popular inside the community (or at
least, ours was and so were the ones in the general area).

they probably do scale, it is probably more likely that the same problems
we're seeing with larger papers are happening with smaller ones. they're not
keeping themselves modern with respect to technology and business practices.

------
trickjarrett
Depends on your definition of Local. Most City newspapers are owned by
conglomerates, the Orlando Sentinel is part of the Chicago Tribune and as a
result is bankrupt. We're all waiting to see what they do but it's not doing
well afaik.

As for the local newspapers that aren't part of the bigger machines, yes they
should fair just fine so long as they keep costs down and adopt to the online
markets available to them.

------
knieveltech
Local dailies that run a combination of world, national, state, and local news
are hosed. That segment of the industry is in a tailspin. Ad revenue slips,
then a round of layoffs to try to cap costs. Fewer people means fewer
articles, shoddy reporting, or both. Quality of the paper declines. Ad revenue
slips, then a round of layoffs to try to cap costs...

