5 ms·

America’s doomed small newspapers

15 points by robg 17y ago

utnick 17y ago
i would think that small niche newspapers are the only ones that aren't doomed
- robg 17y ago
  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 17y ago
    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 17y ago
      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.
tptacek 17y ago
Wyman's article ends with recommendations that read like a prescription for a fun startup.
- brandnewlow 17y ago
  We should grab a beer sometime...Mr. Oak Park.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    Or a coffee, since I'm also Mr. Office Over Monadnock Intelligentsia. =) Any time. Contact info's in my profile.
- jnovek 17y ago
  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 17y ago
    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.
astine 17y ago
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 17y ago
  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 17y ago
    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 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 17y ago
      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.
jzdziarski 17y ago
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 17y ago
  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.
edw519 17y ago
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 17y ago
  There's like 8 grafs in this piece about that problem, using the WSJ and LA Times as examples.
  - zach 17y ago
    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.
snewe 17y ago
Link to original article: http://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/five-key-reasons-why-newspapers-are-failing http://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/five-key-reaso...
ZachPruckowski 17y ago
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.

15 points by robg 17y ago

utnick 17y ago

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

robg 17y ago
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 17y ago
  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 17y ago
    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.

tptacek 17y ago

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

brandnewlow 17y ago
We should grab a beer sometime...Mr. Oak Park.
- tptacek 17y ago
  Or a coffee, since I'm also Mr. Office Over Monadnock Intelligentsia. =) Any time. Contact info's in my profile.
jnovek 17y ago
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 17y ago
  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.

astine 17y ago

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 17y ago
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 17y ago
  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 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 17y ago
    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.

jzdziarski 17y ago

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 17y ago
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.

edw519 17y ago

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 17y ago
There's like 8 grafs in this piece about that problem, using the WSJ and LA Times as examples.
- zach 17y ago
  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.

snewe 17y ago

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

ZachPruckowski 17y ago

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.