The Day The Newspapers Shut Down Their Sites

Where I am, even local television doesn't really cover THIS community. All of our news comes from the state capital 50 miles away. We would remain the only place to get coverage of OUR area.

 

Yes, On Wisconsin, there is a place and a need for both.

Here's the thing about the "dead tree edition" we put out each day: Not only is it the preferred choice for advertisers, its the ONLY choice for a still sizable number of people who don't have Internet access in their home. I'm talking about senior citizens and people who are poor but still can pass around a newspaper to check how the neighborhood kid's sports team is doing.

I know many people who are in that boat, and they're still part of our communities. Until someone proves otherwise to me, we still need a print edition for them (and for many others who prefer it rather than looking at a laptop during breakfast).

 

Then they better be willing to pay for it. A lot more than $.75 an issue, too.

 

Wrong. Want an example? The other night I was watching part of an NBA game, from a team in a Hearst market, no less, and didn't stick around for the finish. I ended up getting the final score off my iphone. Then the next time I turned on my computer I checked out the box score, wire story and highlight clips on yahoo. What am I missing by not reading the Hearst gamer or notes? Even if there was that one-in-a-million chance the team's beat writer broke major news, guess what? Fair or not, the major Web sites will be on it within minutes anyway.

I'm not saying I like any of this. I don't know who first conceived the notion of taking a newspaper's core product and giving it away, but that person has earned a spot among the most boneheaded decision-makers in the history of capitalism. But we're not going to be able to put the toothpaste back in the tube, and at this stage, withholding your content from the Web well only serve to marginalize your product even further in a cluttered media landscape.

 

If you can't tell the difference between the AP gamer, and the beat writer's gamer, then the beat writer is doing it wrong.

 

When this little website suspension trick doesn't work, newspapers will try their next trick. They will hold their breath until they turn blue.

 

That's ONE example.

Maybe I want to read the story about the LOCAL mayor taking bribes from LOCAL businessmen. Or the LOCAL basketball team in the state playoffs. Or even perhaps, the LOCAL trailerpark that was battered by tornadoes. Can I get those on my Iphone?

Will CNN.com report on that for me?

 

How about a local message board where the comments-board yokels get to tell you what they saw.

I wish I was joking, but I suspect that's where things end up.

 

How many drinks have you had celebrating the RMN's demise today?

 

The problem with that is a lot of the online readers are out of market. They can't pick up a copy of the paper. They live in San Bernadino, and they check the website for the news in their old home town.

 

So? Local advertisers aren't really interested in reaching people who can't shop in their stores.

 

Don't see how thinking this is a stupid idea correlates with dancing on a newspaper's grave.

This is a bad idea and any newspaper that does it will quickly find out how easily it is forgotten. It's rather striking that newspapers are the ones that created their current business model and now want to blame their customers for going along with it.

The solution is beyond me -- apparently beyond everyone the way things are shaking out. But it certainly isn't this.