3 ms·

$10/year as a subscription to an online service, probably not. Especially when it's a paywall. But 25c for a copy of an actual paper newspaper once a week? Sure

$10/year as a subscription to an online service, probably not. Especially when it's a paywall. But 25c for a copy of an actual paper newspaper once a week? Sure, a lot of people will. Businesses will buy 5 copies to put in their reception area. It's weird how the online vs print business models change (source: I ran a newspaper for a while).

ghaff 6y ago
In my town, I doubt you'd sell all that many. There aren't many significant business--and what there is are essentially a spillover from the adjacent small city in one part of town. We did have a small paper for a time that was quite good but the publisher got ill and it shut down. And to the degree there are other chain local papers in the area, our small rural town is essentially ignored.
- marcus_holmes 6y ago
  Yeah, the economics for hyper-local is still not great. I do wonder what the minimum population that could support a newspaper is. That might make an interesting spreadsheet model someday.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    Population is one variable. There's also some sort of concentration/community factor. e.g. there are college papers (although that works mostly because there's a lot of free labor). But I could imagine a coherent urban neighborhood working better for hyper-local than a spread-out largely residential small rural town.
    - marcus_holmes 6y ago
      I agree, but I think it's the other way around. The urban neighbourhoods I've lived in are all very much a part of the city rather than actual communities themselves. Whereas the rural village I grew up in, that was an actual community. Though not much news ("headline: Bessie the cow escapes her field again" ;)
mschuster91 6y ago
25c won't even remotely cover the cost of distribution alone, and I doubt that post-Corona many businesses will have a need for reception areas any more.

3 ms·

$10/year as a subscription to an online service, probably not. Especially when it's a paywall. But 25c for a copy of an actual paper newspaper once a week? Sure

by marcus_holmes 6y ago

ghaff 6y ago
In my town, I doubt you'd sell all that many. There aren't many significant business--and what there is are essentially a spillover from the adjacent small city in one part of town. We did have a small paper for a time that was quite good but the publisher got ill and it shut down. And to the degree there are other chain local papers in the area, our small rural town is essentially ignored.
- marcus_holmes 6y ago
  Yeah, the economics for hyper-local is still not great. I do wonder what the minimum population that could support a newspaper is. That might make an interesting spreadsheet model someday.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    Population is one variable. There's also some sort of concentration/community factor. e.g. there are college papers (although that works mostly because there's a lot of free labor). But I could imagine a coherent urban neighborhood working better for hyper-local than a spread-out largely residential small rural town.
    - marcus_holmes 6y ago
      I agree, but I think it's the other way around. The urban neighbourhoods I've lived in are all very much a part of the city rather than actual communities themselves. Whereas the rural village I grew up in, that was an actual community. Though not much news ("headline: Bessie the cow escapes her field again" ;)
mschuster91 6y ago
25c won't even remotely cover the cost of distribution alone, and I doubt that post-Corona many businesses will have a need for reception areas any more.