Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville to publish three days a week

The esteemed Mr. Sonner hit the nail on the head. Alabama and Auburn will drive the coverage and the page views. Coverage of teams like South Alabama, UAB, Samford, Alabama A&M likely will be cut drastically because they don't drive traffic to the web.
Who know what happens to prep coverage. They'll have to have some presence but I can't imagine management putting an emphasis on them other than recruiting. Somebody in Birmingham will be coordinating the prep coverage from what I'm told.

 

Also, the guy in Mobile will be in charge of editorial pieces statewide. Because a guy on the coast knows the pulse of folks 350 miles north in the Tennessee Valley.

I can't wait until they endorse Romney this fall because "a businessman is better for the economy." I'm going to borrow a brick from Bill Curry and drive downtown.

 

They cannot be looking at it as a city here, city there business anymore. It is obvious they see the website as the statewide delivery method with perceived influence similar to how Birmingham or the AJC or Jackson used to be delivered throughout Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.

This is one state and they have one coverage 'team' based in Birmingham assisted by the hubs. Nevermind that a city the size of Huntsville or Mobile with thousands of people needs more than 100 or so people (combined, maybe) to provide that coverage in a comprehensive manner.

 

That's about the way they've done it in Ann Arbor. UM football and basketball. They'll link to a lot of other sites for other stories in the Big Ten (IE: Michigan State).

For some of the minor sports or smaller colleges, they link to that college's athletic site.


As far as high school coverage, it's pretty much non-existent. Maybe 3-4 football or basketball games and the rest in a roundup. Most of the actual coverage is strictly Ann Arbor schools.

 

I understand it makes no sense to have all three papers with separate beat writers covering the same team.

But the place they will suffer the most is in other spots where they were previously the only dog in town.

 

It seems like there's a great opportunity for someone (Warren Buffett?) to go in those cities and launch new dailies.

 

The Patch.com model is one of the Internet's more conspicuous failures. The people doing this must not even READ newspapers.

 

I have a strong feeling that New Jersey is next. The model is there for a repeat.

 

Not to this degree but the Garden State appears to be perfect for Advance to do this again. Could also involve Harrisburg and Easton in Pennsylvania and Staten Island in New York. The cluster is there.
Harrisburg Patriot-News (Pennsylvania)
Express-Times (Easton, PA)
The Jersey Journal (Jersey City, NJ)
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ)
The Gloucester County Times (NJ)
Today's Sunbeam in Salem (NJ)
Bridgeton Evening News (NJ)
The Trenton Times ( NJ)
Staten Island Advance (NY)

 

Look to the Michigan cluster for the template.

 

Websites? Yes. Papers? No. We all know the financial problems with newspapers stem from printing and delivery costs. Any owner is going to deal with those.

 

Oh, I'm, not suggesting it will work. In fact, I think it will fail miserably.

All these papers have is their history and their brand, and they still think they can capitalize on them, even as they destroy them. They think their standing in the community, and relationships with local advertisers, will allow them to remain the go to place for advertisers.

They're wrong. Web advertising works when people are looking to purchase something. So, you buy google key words. Or if you're a hotel, and you pay to have your hotel show up in an add at the top of a search, it can bring in revenue.

But, people don't tend to click on banner ads when they're trying to catch up on news.

Web advertisers can very easily track the results of their ads. They know what works. You can't bullshit them. And, these sites will not be able to bring in significant revenue as a result.

Local advertisers will be able to find better places to spend their ad dollars -- both on the web, and in different mediums, like radio.