4 ms·

This won't save them, the local newspaper is doomed. Local papers have always functioned as a sort of news aggregator. They aggregate local news together with n

This won't save them, the local newspaper is doomed. Local papers have always functioned as a sort of news aggregator. They aggregate local news together with national news and serve you that as a sort of localized feed of information. It's similar to Reddit; the NYT and national news are like /r/worldnews (purely in topic, not content) and local papers are like your city's subreddit. Letters to the Editor are like comments. Theyre actually so similar that Reddit et al are killing them. Reddit even often has local reporting from Redditors; I find out about lots of happenings directly from Redditors. I think national news will likely survive in some form because of the investigation required (and the legitimacy granted by an organization like the NYT reporting on it), but local papers are going to go the way of the pay phone.

jdeibele 6y ago
To chime in: The local newspaper went from being delivered 7 days a week as a folded newspaper to being delivered 4 days a week in a tabloid form that's about 60% the size of the old format. We cancelled then, and probably a lot of other people did, too. We recently subscribed for 1 year as a gesture to "save our local newspaper". As part of that, we get the Sunday paper for free. Our last one is still in the plastic wrapper just inside the door. 4 days after we got it, none of us (2 parents, 2 high school students, 1 college student) have bothered to open it. Our local paper is part of the Advance chain. Their website is terrible and it doesn't seem to be updated very often. Probably they have some sort of PDF format that is hard to use or even worse a custom app that basically acts as a magnifying glass on a small section of the page. What I want from a local paper: local stuff. I don't care about their opinion on national issues and The NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, etc. are just a click away. In another universe, newspapers could have capitalized on the fact that they had <subscribers> by making free online ads, discussion forums, etc. Yes, there'd be some moderation issues but it's a lot easier if you've got paying customers. Don't want to subscribe? Can't comment. Can't post an ad. Maybe can't respond to an ad. They pissed that all away by making their content free. Now their content is basically worthless and there's nowhere for them to go.
- cutemonster 6y ago
  > They pissed that all away by making their content free Sounds as if you're saying they should have added paywalls? (Sooner than want most maybe did?) But at the same time, you mention ads?
musicale 6y ago
Truly local newspapers, which cover local news and run ads from local businesses, don't seem to be doomed. One of the biggest hits that newspapers have taken is not from the likes of google or facebook but rather craigslist/ebay/etc. which replaced classified ads.

jdeibele 6y ago

To chime in: The local newspaper went from being delivered 7 days a week as a folded newspaper to being delivered 4 days a week in a tabloid form that's about 60% the size of the old format. We cancelled then, and probably a lot of other people did, too. We recently subscribed for 1 year as a gesture to "save our local newspaper". As part of that, we get the Sunday paper for free. Our last one is still in the plastic wrapper just inside the door. 4 days after we got it, none of us (2 parents, 2 high school students, 1 college student) have bothered to open it. Our local paper is part of the Advance chain. Their website is terrible and it doesn't seem to be updated very often. Probably they have some sort of PDF format that is hard to use or even worse a custom app that basically acts as a magnifying glass on a small section of the page. What I want from a local paper: local stuff. I don't care about their opinion on national issues and The NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, etc. are just a click away. In another universe, newspapers could have capitalized on the fact that they had <subscribers> by making free online ads, discussion forums, etc. Yes, there'd be some moderation issues but it's a lot easier if you've got paying customers. Don't want to subscribe? Can't comment. Can't post an ad. Maybe can't respond to an ad. They pissed that all away by making their content free. Now their content is basically worthless and there's nowhere for them to go.

cutemonster 6y ago
> They pissed that all away by making their content free Sounds as if you're saying they should have added paywalls? (Sooner than want most maybe did?) But at the same time, you mention ads?

musicale 6y ago

Truly local newspapers, which cover local news and run ads from local businesses, don't seem to be doomed. One of the biggest hits that newspapers have taken is not from the likes of google or facebook but rather craigslist/ebay/etc. which replaced classified ads.