3 ms·

Only thing missing in this is the local newspapers lacking local news point. I honestly don't read the St Paul Pioneer Press for reviews on the iPad - there are

by ecaron 15y ago

Only thing missing in this is the local newspapers lacking local news point. I honestly don't read the St Paul Pioneer Press for reviews on the iPad - there are much more relevant places for me that information from more intelligent sources. I read the local paper to know what's happening locally. Can you imagine a newspaper without any AP stories in it? So clean. So relevant. So free of redundancy from the kind of information I already digested 12 hours earlier... Excuse me while I go get a scissors and get to work.

chc 15y ago
Except that producing your own stories is more expensive (unless you want to hire middle schoolers), and you need something to put in the space between the advertisements. I agree that a newspaper that actually fills its niche well is desirable, but it's unfortunately a tough business model. Frankly, I kind of suspect that local news will eventually be dominated by passionate bloggers. They don't have the overhead that a newspaper does, so they can deal with smaller budgets. Every community in my area has at least one local blog, and honestly, they're great for local news.
- knieveltech 15y ago
  If the kind of local news you enjoy is event coverage then yeah, local bloggers are great. Uncovering government corruption? Not so much.
- cpeterso 15y ago
  I imagine there must be some interesting business models (or sustainable non-profit model) for harnessing local bloggers and print media. I follow an awesome local blog about my city government. The blogger is SUPER passionate and documents all the local issues and city council meetings. My local newspapers cover few of these local issues, issues that problem more directly affect people than the national crisis of the week. Fortunately, a local paper hired (?) the blogger to write (or syndicate) her content for their paper (dead tree and website).
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
RegEx 15y ago
I know of an example. In East Texas, a local "Who's who" type of magazine completely dominates the slowly failing local newspaper, and it only runs once a month. All the content is unique to the region, and the people here love it (enabling the magazine to charge a ton for advertising)

by ecaron 15y ago

chc 15y ago

Except that producing your own stories is more expensive (unless you want to hire middle schoolers), and you need something to put in the space between the advertisements. I agree that a newspaper that actually fills its niche well is desirable, but it's unfortunately a tough business model. Frankly, I kind of suspect that local news will eventually be dominated by passionate bloggers. They don't have the overhead that a newspaper does, so they can deal with smaller budgets. Every community in my area has at least one local blog, and honestly, they're great for local news.

knieveltech 15y ago
If the kind of local news you enjoy is event coverage then yeah, local bloggers are great. Uncovering government corruption? Not so much.
cpeterso 15y ago
I imagine there must be some interesting business models (or sustainable non-profit model) for harnessing local bloggers and print media. I follow an awesome local blog about my city government. The blogger is SUPER passionate and documents all the local issues and city council meetings. My local newspapers cover few of these local issues, issues that problem more directly affect people than the national crisis of the week. Fortunately, a local paper hired (?) the blogger to write (or syndicate) her content for their paper (dead tree and website).

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

RegEx 15y ago

I know of an example. In East Texas, a local "Who's who" type of magazine completely dominates the slowly failing local newspaper, and it only runs once a month. All the content is unique to the region, and the people here love it (enabling the magazine to charge a ton for advertising)