A Model for the Future?

There seems to be a way to mix technology and original news gathering. Patch seems to get it, while the rest aggregate, er, steal.


-- Deanna Glick

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P-I Print Edition Dies*

(or, maybe not*)

National Public Radio reports in its broadcast that the last print edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is expected to hit newsstands next week as P-I owner Hearst pursues an online-only experiment.

Listen online to the NPR report

*NPR's text online differs from broadcast language in saying the print edition "may cease publication." No corroboration from P-I owner Hearst.

(Twitter This)

-- Deanna Glick

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At Least One of Them Gets It

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine

Of course, the headline caught my attention:

Bloggers Can't Fill the Gap
Left by Shrinking Press Corps

The Washington Post Columnist Marc Fisher goes on to write about the empty halls in the Virginia state government offices in Richmond.

But the real eloquence comes from Gov. Tim Kaine:

"The smaller the press corps gets, the more you see personality stories rather than pieces about what is at stake for people. Smoking in restaurants is always going to get covered, but now, when we make big changes in mental health or foster care, nobody covers it. That has a real impact: It would be hard for campaigns to get even more superficial, but they might."

At least one politician gets it.

(Twitter This)

-- Deanna Glick

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It's Everyone's Business

EDITOR'S NOTE: Several new voices will be joining Know Newspapers during the next few weeks. This post is from the first of those contributors ...
Deanna Glick.

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If you think going without news on the internet for a week is bad, imagine a society in which that news is no longer gathered en masse by the sources of most of that information. That is the point of all of this. That is the issue.

Taking things for granted is so American. As are complaining and debating. But so are solutions. So I’m going to pick up the ball this petition got rolling (which so many critics seem willing to drop) and join in the pursuit of a solution.

I have talked to myriad colleagues over the years and in recent days and weeks about the news business. Not about the creative process. Not about reporting. We’ve been talking about that dreaded thing that involves making money and that journalists as individuals seem so, well, bad about -- Business.

So, how about this: A consortium. What if we formed a coalition, all of us, readers and writers and photographers and editors? We could even invite reps for the big guys like Gannett, E.W. Scripps, and MediaNewsGroup, though it might be difficult for them to work together and remain within the bounds of antitrust law.

Many of my colleagues and I have done the same as you surely have. We've floated potential solutions during our conversations only to ponder "what if?" Meanwhile, each business/newspaper/media conglomerate continues to go its own way, which oddly enough has been leading them all into a downward spiral.

No company or individual has come up with a successful model. Everyone continues to give their news away via the internet, same as they did when they first went online years ago.

No one of us can do it alone. Look at what happened to arguably the best newspaper in the country, The New York Times when it tried to charge people for content. Didn’t work.

But what if we did what every newspaper organization can't do? What if we all worked together to help rescue them? This wouldn't be an effort to rescue the owners, but rather a focused pursuit of a cure for what ails a dying industry.

I realize it flies in the face of any business model for competitors to help each other. But newspapers were never intended to be like any other business. They're the Fourth Estate. The watchdog. And this is about survival.

In the end, even the critics of the effort we are now calling Know Newspapers would find it difficult to oppose the outcome. Let's make this bigger. Let's make this a movement. Because doing nothing is the same as lobbying for the demise of an informed and productive society.

— Deanna Glick

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