Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, suggests that "Newspapers are not dead yet, but their hoped-for rebirth as Internet ventures requires a new strategy to create value in their journalism." Scheer proposes that newspapers agree to a 24-hour delay in release of their content, free, on the Web.Yes, it's an idea worth considering. But in a competitive newspaper environment, as we have here in Tracy, would our competitors agree to such a standard? I doubt it.
Meanwhile, we continue to put our news on the Web site without the online advertising revenue to support it.
Any comments on Scheer's column?
1 comment:
I have to start with a caution: don't put too much stock into opinions of random strangers. You are running the paper, and only you.
Now, if I were running it, I'd look into classifieds and online ads as two main revenue pillars instead of propping up the value of paper subscription -- especially so ineffectively!
The problem here is, although paper subscribers continue to defect to online, you can't deter them by devaluing the online version (not the majority of them anyway). Getting the online version devalued won't stop hemorraging of the paper subscription. In the same time, it makes you less competitive online. So, by this logics, I wouldn't be doing anything of the sort.
Now, I do not know what the balance sheet of Tracy Press is. Maybe the online ads are nowhere near what is needed to run the shop. But then it's just what it is.
BTW, the issue is discussed at length in Editor & Publisher, I think. Not being a journalist, I do not follow the issue closely. But maybe you can find back issues of that.
-- Pete
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