Paywall, emphasis on wall

SWACgirl notes the News Virginian's announcement of a $5/month subscription to access content.
Thanks for the warning, guys.
Local newspapers are in a trap. They bring together local and national news in a package for readers to easily read.
National news is readily available for free on the internet.
If you like local news, does that provide enough value to pay a monthly fee? Or do TV stations, alternate media and other sources give you what you need to know?
I grew up reading the Baltimore Sun. Now they limit me to 15 articles a month, so I limit my viewing of their stories. There's always ESPN and MASN to catch up on sports.
It would be nice to be better informed on local issues, but you have to make choices.
If they choose a paywall, I choose to stay on the outside.

Forever on the server farm

At my first newspaper job, they traced their lineage back to 1798.
Reporters come and go, but the newspaper rolls on.
It's different in the blogging world.
Individual voices pop up and, after a time, they may decide that their time is done.
Don Surber made it to seven years before pulling the plug this week. Jules Crittenden lasted that long before ending his run in 2010.
It's hard to find something to post about, several times a day, day after day, for years. Hard to make it interesting for those readers out their on the internet, and hard to stay motivated.
Being obsessive-complusive helps.
It's hard to believe Dustbury's been doing this 16 years. Instapundit's been filling the web for over 10 years.
Some one-man shows may last long. Some may shut down after good runs, and bloggers move on to other interests.
The old links may turn up 404s, or they may live long on a server farmer somewhere.
Waiting for someone to discover the wisdom of a past post.

The news, it's a secret

NRO's MediaBlog reports on plans in Pittsburgh to charge $36 a year for exclusive content on the website of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
And Rupert Murdoch's trying to figure out ways to charge for news.
Good luck with that.
Suppose there's an exclusive story. It's big. You want to read it, but don't want to spend the money.
Search Google or Bing or whatever. Some news organization outside the firewall with run a brief synopsis of the story. Somebody with access inside the firewall will put it on their site, to drive traffic their way.
A firewall is only as strong as the weakest link. If it really matters, it will get outside the firewall. If it doesn't matter, you can wait until it's released to the non-paying public.

Good thoughts from Instapundit

Instapundit highlights the battle between Jeff Jarvis and a Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist. Who has more readers?
For almost eight years, I worked at a newspaper with a circulation just over 25,000. But how many people read my weekly sports column? Probably 500 to 1,000, if I was lucky.
Didn't really think about it back in the day (before the internet). But a newspaper is a collection of things various people are interested in, organized in a convenient package. Some like news, some sports and boxscores, some obits, and some (shutter) like the ads.
I attracted sports fans and people I knew in town. After one column, two ladies from my church asked what I meant by "rotisserie baseball." They weren't exactly sure what that column was about, but they read it because I attended their church.
One football season, I was assigned to cover a game between two schools in a neighboring county. We wanted to expand our coverage there. I checked with circulation and found we delivered seven papers across that county. Doubt that game story got much readership.
Our traditional media (newspaper and TV) probably have less reach than they realize or want to disclose. You can track readership on a blog, and see who's coming there from Virginia and who's visiting from Belgium.

Obamanomics in action

Politico reports that the White House press corps didn't follow President Obama to Chicago for his speech to the AMA. There was not enough interest in a charter flight for the press. Why?
1. They could cover it on TV.
2. There were people already in Chicago who could cover it.
3. They didn't want to fly to Chicago to sit in a room away from the president, watch the speech on TV, and return home without interacting with someone they were writing about.
4. They were promoted to blogger, watching the President from the comfort of their homes.
It's probably a decision that could have been made years ago, but the press sees it as a milestone due to their financial troubles. They would have paid thousands of dollars a seat so the dateline would say CHICAGO or to get a standup shot along the River.
In tight economic times, you have to think really hard about what you spend your money on. The press is learning the hard way. Maybe the administration can watch and learn also.

Aggregating bloggers

The Other McCain officially debuts his new news site, NTCNews, today. He's got headlines. He's got feeds from other sites. He's got links to other bloggers and what they're thinking. Visit early and often.
And go ahead and hit the tip jar. Because he's not using his past associations for one more season in the new media sun.
McCain not only aggregates news site. He collects bloggers to his news team. I'm part of his email list to help promote all of our blogs. (must be because we both drove '84 Chevettes) Bloggers from across the country, with different perspectives and different strengths.
I used that aggregation last week, turning an idea into a cool graphic thanks to another member of the team. And had highest visit day by far and got my first link from pajamasmedia.
I visited Paco Enterprises, and found a post Monday from his linking bloggers from Tim Blair's comment family. From Australia to the United States, commenters turned bloggers trading insights and helping them gain traction in the vast internet.
As newspapers fade and people try to figure out how to make money on internet news gathering, look for these informal associations to lead the way.
UPDATE: Made the right sidebar at the Other McCain.

Aftermath of a firing

David Steele, formerly of the Baltimore Sun, describes being losing his job via phone call during covering the Orioles' game last Wednesday.
My reporting career included a dozen free-lance articles for the Baltimore Evening Sun in 1990-91. I've been in the press box at Camden Yards - a beautifully open airy place to watch a game - along with the second place Steele lost his job - old Baltimore Memorial Stadium.
Another interesting fact for me - two general sports columnists were attending an afternoon mid-week game in April. Along with a columnist/blogger, two or more sports writers and photographers. Obviously the Baltimore Sun needs to have a lot of information about the Orioles each day, but the days of multiple reporters attending the same game for the same newspaper appear near an end.

Why Kerry wants a newspaper bailout

NRO's Corner reports on Wednesday's hearing about the future of newspapers. Why is John Kerry holding this hearing?
If you're a politician, who would you rather talk to? Nice newspaper people in a big office building or bloggers in their basements? We promise to pick up the papers on the floor, except when it's endorsement time.

Do the hustle

The Other McCain blasts the Mainstream Media for lacking hustle on the Carrie Prejean picture story. But can you teach an old dog new tricks?
How do most stories get into a newspaper? Somebody has a story they want to tell and they want the best megaphone. In this case, the person with pictures of Carrie thought a blog would be a better megaphone than say, the L.A. Times. As long as the pictures got publicity, why should they care who gets credit for being first.
Individual reporters can hustle with their sources, so they are first on the list to get information when it's ready to go. Local newspapers publish all the local news, so when something big happens, their reporters should have it before someone swooping in from the mainstream media.
Besides, there's a firehose worth of information out there, and the media can only put a trickle on their news space. They have to use filters. We don't have to use the same filter. We can search the internet and find stories that interest us, and promote them outselves if we'd like.
The mainstream media used to have the biggest, and often, only megaphone. Not anymore.

Try weekly

Almost 25 years ago, I worked for this guy(a Randolph-Macon grad) and sat next to this guy in the newsroom. Thanks to the internet, I can see what they're up to. And thanks to the internet, their job security isn't what it once was.
My former boss looked at the newspaper industries' bleak bottom line. They have readers, but not enough revenue. What to do?
The paper we worked at was a tri-weekly, covering a ocean-side South Carolina county. There were dailies to the north (Myrtle Beach) and south (Charleston), but we had our county covered with our local news. We were all working hard to move to bigger and more prestigious papers and advance our careers.
But that was then. Now, the problem for newspapers may be too many dailies. How much of the Staunton and Waynesboro papers are local content, especially the Monday and Tuesday editions? Some dailies could cut back to three days per week and possibly be stronger on the local news and advertising sides.
The troubles with this plan are obvious, however. Newspapers have made capital outlays and have staffs for producing their product seven days a week. Expenses would still be higher than 3/7 of current levels if they only produce three papers a week.
Plus, if people don't have a newspaper waiting on the front step each morning, will they lose the habit? Will they find the computer a better place to get all their news and forget advertising even exists?
In the spirit of the Obama administration, we see a problem and there must be change. Will it work? Who knows? Just gotta try something.

Doesn't really matter

Maryland Senator Ben Cardin discusses his proposal to help the dying newspapers. Two questions:
1. How many people are influenced by the political endorsements?
2. How many newspapers are solely community-based, not part of a chain?
If both numbers aren't zeroes, they are pretty close.

BNN smackdown

Will bloggers be able to keep the feet of politicians to the fire like newspapers think they do? From a short time reading blogs, I'd say yes.
The criticism is bloggers write from a point of view, likely conservative or liberal. The newspaper people are supposedly neutral, and thus a better fit to play the role of watchdog.
But when there's lots of bloggers, several will usually focus on the same issue. With their different viewpoints, an incorrect or biased view will almost immediately be smacked down. It won't last long enough to become conventional wisdom.
As a Republican watching the pro-Moran and pro-McAuliffe sides go at it, there's nothing that will surprise the well-informed reader. Besides giving Bob McDonnell's team plenty of opposition research, these bloggers are combing over past records and future promises. The debates between sides are much more vigorous than a few political reporters at a few big papers looking at the same information.
With these bloggers, the reader knows where the bias comes from. And there's always someone looking to make a name for themselves, who will work harder and dig deeper if there's something there.

A sad day

The Staunton News Leader has announced it will no longer print its paper in Staunton, but use the press in Harrisonburg instead. So now, the Waynesboro paper is printed in Lynchburg, the Charlottesville paper is printed in Richmond and Staunton will be done in Harrisonburg.
The newspaper presses are the coolest things. It's what makes a newspaper a newspaper to me. But I guess if they usually run just two hours a night for a nightly press run, sharing a press makes sense. (I know there's maintenance and setup time, but the basic job is pretty quick).
When I started working at the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, once a week we had to wait for the press to roll to check on the finished product. About 30 minutes after the last page left the newsroom, you'd hear the warning noises as the press warmed up to run.
We'd get a pile of fresh papers brought to the newsroom, and we'd look at the headlines and ads to make sure there were no major mistakes. Something the L.A. Times could have done recently.
Then it was time to go home, carrying a fresh newspaper that would still be considered fresh seven hours later when the town woke up for the day.

Look at the bright side

With all the talk about daily newspapers struggling and starting to fold, people forget to remember the positives. Fewer newspapers printed mean fewer trees cut down to be used for newsprint. And fewer miles traveled by the delivery people, since most carry for just one paper. When I worked at the Bluefield WV newspaper, I remember leaving before the press run and seeing a parking lot full of cars waiting to distribute the news.
Less gasoline is being burned in Denver and Seattle. Isn't that what we want? Or is cutting back good only when someone else suffers?

Bloggers and Elvis

From on High sees one today, and Spark it Up saw one Tuesday. Newspaper writers saying how we'll miss them when they aren't important anymore.
The world is changing, just like it did when Elvis Presley and Rock 'N Roll came on the scene in the 50s. Back then, the establishment didn't like Elvis' swiveling hips and said youth was being corrupted. Didn't stop the young from going to Elvis and those who sang like him.
People enjoy newspapers, just like people enjoyed music before Elvis. They just aren't on the center stage.

Advice for bloggers

The Other McCain gives his latest tips to bloggers on doing a better job. I have to follow him because:
1. We both started out as small town sports writers in the South.
2. We both drove '84 Chevettes.
But there's no pictures of me in a Speedo in existence.

Thanks for the memories

The Washington Post asks today, "Can bloggers fill the gap left by a shrinking press corps?"
One of the things mourned is the loss of institutional memory when there's fewer reporters on the scene. Why can't these holders of institutional memory continue on as bloggers? Or impart their memory to younger bloggers like they helped younger reporters in years gone by?
There's always been transitions in news coverage; it's just happening faster nowadays. Should Bob Gibson have stayed with the Charlottesville Daily Progress to keep their memory intact? He's probably still a great resource to his old newspaper at his new position.
If those with institutional memory consider it of such value, there should be a way to earn money on that value in the new media environment. Look to the solutions of the future, instead of just whining that the past ways haven't endured.

Required reading

NRO's Media Blog highlighted a blog tracking the parent company of USA Today and Staunton's own News Leader.
CNN Money had a story about the blog, but no link. I had to Google for find the blog. Hope our local reporters can more easily find this important link.

Newspaper news

One of bloggers' recent blogs of note was newspaperproject.org. They are trying to exchange ideas to keep newspapers vital and vibrant in the coming years.
So, do newspapers have a future? Yes. Unfortunately, 100 years ago if you asked if there was a future for people who clean horse poop off the streets, the answer would have been yes also. The future has fewer opportunities for newspaper reporters, likely less glamourous than the ones they've become used to.
In sports, it means goodbye traveling with the pro teams across the country and hello to more high school and youth coverage.

Saving the newspaper biz

Time looks at finding a future economic model to save newspapers. Good luck.
The focus is readership is up, just on the free internet sites instead of the newsstands and subscriptions. So the business side is drowning in red ink while readers from around the world are picking and choosing what they'd like to read.
Now, we went through a similar media transition after World War II. Television grew up quickly and radio went from being the star to a niche product. I wasn't around then, but how did the radio stations survive?
One way was probably monopoly ownership, something not allowed by the government now. I worked for the newspaper in Bluefield, WV. The man who owned the paper in the 1920s started the first AM radio station in Bluefield, and when TV came along he owned that too. If you own all the platforms, you can survive a dip in one.
The trouble for newspapers is, how do you control your content in a world of the worldwide web? The New York Times tried Times Select, and people found they could live without the Times' columnists. Or another paper who carried a column posted it, so you could find what you want for free.
Newspapers offer a wide variety of information, a little of something so everyone has their part. But the future likely looms in narrow-casting (like the Wall Street Journal or college sports websites), where you find one thing you do well and focus like a laser on it.