About 40 years ago, I was a member of the Rockford Newspaper Guild No. 5, which went on strike against the city's two daily newspapers, the Rockford (Ill.) Morning Star and the Rockford Register-Republic. Thanks to support from the ITU and the pressmen's union, we shut both papers down for 70 days. I had picketing duty for two hours each day, and one of the things I did to while away the time was to take an informal survey of what passers-by missed about their daily newspapers. The responses, in no particular order, were: the comics, the classifieds, the crosswork puzzle, the grocery ads, the sale ads, the astrology column, and so on. Exactly one person said he missed "the banner headline on the front page," and one other person said he missed "the front page news." In short, everyone said they missed their daily newspaper, but only those two respondents missed anything that the news/editorial department contributed to the mix.
I completely agree with Chris when he very accurately points out "that the mistaken notion here is that the primary product of the newspaper is journalism." At www.hometowntimes.com, we pull no punches in understanding that the community is what is important - and being responsive to the readers needs ... all needs of lifestyle, awareness, humor, events, personalities, deaths, sports, etc. ... are the vehicles through which any serious journalism or investigative reporting will find a home.
At hometowntimes.com, we’ve answered the question, “how does delivery of news make money?” by creating a proven, successful model that supports Chris's hypothesis and turns the conventional wisdom (or lack thereof) and failed business model for journalism and advertising upside down. While every news organization, reporter, and journalist is out there trying to find a revenue model from delivery of the news, Hometowntimes.com has created a business model and opportunity that aggregates millions of users nationally, providing the source of revenue to build the local community franchise, and create a successful business structure for creation and distribution of relevant localized journalism co-existing side by side in an online model that accepts the notion that advertorial content is as meaningful as hard core journalism, from the local readers' viewpoint and interest.
Steve Buttry commenting here: Something's off-kilter here on the comments. The comments by name are not the comments I made (my comments are the ones immedieately after the onese by my name.) I presume some other people have their comments separated from their names, too.
Hey all: This conversation has been interesting, and moved in a couple different directions across a couple different blogs. I just wanted to let you know I've got a follow up post on all of this here:
Thanks for all your thoughts and feedback!
quite interesting but I was seeking for more real views and first hand experiences from you Ramuji
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