[MGP-Forum Announce] Is it better to build, not buy, metro news organization?

[Lisa Williams]

Interesting, Steve --

There's no way in a million years I could buy the local weekly where I 
live -- but when I did the math on how much it would cost to, say, print 
an eight page tab and mail it to every house in town I was shocked, 
really, at how cheap it was -- even doing it for a year is a tiny 
fraction of a percent of buying an actual news organization.  Even very 
modest levels of advertisement would make it break even.  I'm tempted to 
do it just to keep people off balance :)

I had the total nutcase idea when I started H2otown that I should figure 
out how to make H2otown last 100 years.  The only way it works is much 
the way you describe.  When I look around my town, the things that have 
been around for that long aren't for-profit companies.  They're 
fraternal organizations and churches, because these organizations are 
set up in a way to keep going even when people move or die.  Much of my 
thinking about building H2otown had nothing to do with newspapers and 
everything to do with the Elks Club, whose history and bylaws I studied 
to inform what kind of rules I'd adopt and activities I'd encourage 
among people who happened along and wanted to participate.

Maybe in the future news isn't something you pay for but something you 
belong to -- and not just in the write a check during the quarterly 
pledge drive kind of way.

Lisa
steve at coanews.org wrote:
> I think building new community news organizations is usually the way  
> to go, but it
> depends on the situation.  But I think it is important that they be non-profit
> incorporated, as we have seen what has happened to for-profit  
> alternative daily 
> newspapers - they have been bought up by one corporation, and in many  
> cases that
> corporation has removed the unprofitable local content that was once  
> available.
>
> Being non-profit also means that one person or group of people won't  
> be creating a
> community website in order to create a golden egg for later in life =  
> selling out when
> the time is right.
>
> Sustainable long term community media should be non-profit and independent.
>
> -I do still respect community media projects that are for-profit (I  
> think coastsider.com
> falls in this category), but I do not think it is the long term  
> solution to our
> privatized media system.
>
> Just my two cents,
> Steve
>
> Quoting Bill Densmore <densmore at densmoreassociates.com>:
>
>   
>> Doing some catching up, we just came across MGP2006 alum Barry   
>> Parr's Oct. 12, 2006, blog posting about the future of the Los   
>> Angeles times. Parr, the Jupiter Research analyst who also is a   
>> pioneer local online news community operator with Coastsider.com,   
>> suggests it is now better to build, not buy, a metropolitan news   
>> organization. Is he right?
>>
>> See:
>> http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/parr/archives/2006/10/dismantling_the.html
>>
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>
>
>
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-- 
Lisa Williams
lisa at cadence90.com
Google Talk: lisatmh

Places I blog:
Lisa Williams' Blog: 
http://www.cadence90.com/wp/

H2otown, a citizen journalism site for Watertown
http://h2otown.info

OPML Fan, a blog tracking developments in OPML and the OPML Community
http://blogs.opml.org/thisislisa/