DFM bloodletting continues

Not everyone can be a coal miner.

 

Thankfully, these two have a well thought out backup plan:

“We’re starting a website. It’ll be a community-funded independent sports website where we’ll be doing all the stuff we’ve been doing for years — articles, videos, photos. We also hope to work with photographers who lost their jobs.”

“We’re hoping to launch in a month or so. We’re close to having funding for the first year. After that, we’ll go to the community for ongoing subscriptions. We’ll sell ads and merchandise as a source of revenue, and we’re bringing someone to take care of the business side of things. We’ll be using a lot of freelancers, too. In our eyes, it’s an experiment. Maybe it’ll work maybe it won’t work. We’ll see.”

I can't wait to get my hands on some of their merchandise.

 

A newspaper's job is not "to take care of our kids and our athletes."

The newspaper, even when it was employing these two, wasn't doing that.

Let's stop pretending like the mission of newspapers has changed, or that the "corporate ownership model" is to blame.

Newspapers have always existed to give their owners influence in the community, and to sell ads to grocery stores and car dealerships.

If writing about Timmy's exploits on the baseball field helped accomplish those goals, that was great, but it was never the goal.

 

Hmm.

But you can only sell the ad space to grocery stores and car dealerships, or create influence in the community for your owner, by generating a readership.

And that you do by providing a service to the community, whatever it is. Gotta attract those eyeballs somehow.

Even if only writing about the sporting exploits of the local kids.

So chicken / egg.

The problem with newsgathering these days - online or off - is the riddle of the business model.

Corporate ownership certainly hasn't solved it.

 

I'm not sure we disagree. I just object to the guy's portrayal of his work as if it was some sort of community service.

 

I don't think we disagree.

Folks say and write and post a lot of nonsense the week they lose a job.

Having had and lost so many myself over the years, I incline not to hold them to any of it.

 

I do not drink coffee. I urge the rest of you to abstain. Instead, use the money you save to donate to cancer research. I realize this will mean that people who repair coffee machines would lose their livelihood if this movement is successful, but what the hell, it is not like they are oncologists losing their jobs.

 

Judging by the hundreds of reactions to the news of their release, from major league baseball players to olympic gold medalists, to every day readers, it almost seems like their work was sort of a community service.

 

C'mon man. Though I'm sure they were underpaid, this wasn't charity work.

Kids, and families of kids, like seeing their name in the paper -- an actual paper. We all understand that. And, kids that make it big, will still remember the first time they saw their name in the paper, what paper it was, and maybe even who wrote it.

That's all great. But, acting like the paper is no longer going to take care of our kids and our athletes is a joke.

If the community was interested in this coverage enough, they would make it worth the paper's time and money to invest in covering it. And, we'd see that manifested in both subscriptions, and in local business buying ads, and looking for placement in the sports section, adjacent to preps coverage.

Making the paper into the bad guy here is silly.

 

I would like to know what circulation is but that is a secret. But on my mother's block there were three subscribers. One just died and the family is about to sell the house. The owner of the second is in her 90's and is now at the nursing home. So on this block they will be down to one.

 

What percentage of NCAA Division I athletes did coaches become aware of through newspaper clippings? In non-football sports, isn't the No. 1 way college coaches become aware of athletes is through major club sports? How do college coaches become aware of football players to recruit? Might high school coaches be the No. 1 source?

 

Our local Jaycee basketball coach, who ran one of the top programs in the state, used to use our coverage in recruiting. He would show prospective players how much they would be in the paper back when we did full blown season previews and covered and shot every home game. I didn’t get anyone to the next level, but it did get him some players.