Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville to publish three days a week

Philly, Baltimore, New York. It's the copy cat syndrome and in this profession, it's the norm.

 

Notice, however, only one chain has tried it. The key words: so far. We'll see how well it works in Alabama and New Orleans.

 

I do think a lot of media companies were waiting for somebody else to do it first.

 

That's what I'm trying to figure in all this. Where's the revenue being generated?

Are they keeping three print editions in hopes of absorbing 80 percent of the ads in those?

Are they expecting tons of advertisers to purchase online ads?

Are they expecting lots of online subscribers to pay for content?

If you kill your primary revenue source, you have to get it from somewhere, eh?

 

A pretty thoughtful take on what quality has already been sacrificed, what is to come and why web ad revenue is a scary place to look for salvation.

http://weldbham.com/secondfront/2012/05/29/no-news-is-bad-news-advance-shake-up-leaves-three-alabama-cities-without-daily-papers/

 

They are killing days when ad revenue is negligible.

 

I think many believe that Gannett was going to be the first one to do this. But you can bet the suits in many organizations are going to be watching. NOLA found out after Katrina, when they didn't have the print product available in many areas, that people enjoyed the on-line version of the news.
On paper, this product model has potential. However, it may be too late to put it in full use.

 

How too late?

 

That's a strong column, dixie. He describes how online ads generate (a little) money better than I have been able to do when I discuss this issue.

And his underlying concern is the same as mine: the sun is setting on the least popular — but most important — "community" news reporters used to routinely cover.

 

You're right, and that's the thing that I think people miss. Many think "hyper-local" will be our savior, when anyone who monitors web traffic knows that's not the case at all.

 

With the risk of outing myself to some fellow co-workers who might be on this board -- We got an email this morning from our GM about this whole thing. When I saw the subject, my heart fainted. Luckily, the email was a positive one, stating community journalism is still going strong and we would not be cutting back at all (at least within the next few years..it did hint at a more online presence in 5 years).

 

All publishers say this at first.