Where's the link to the data that other small papers are doing fine?
--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, marioa...@... wrote: > > From Recovering Journalist: "Jumping to the Wrong Conclusion" (a > professional POV) & a Comment following it (Somewhat testy - lol): > > http://tinyurl.com/77zc3h > > > > New York Times media columnist David Carr, who is staking out a position as > a staunch defender of the primacy of the traditional newspaper, has come up > with a doozy: a small weekly community newspaper in New Jersey that claims to > be thriving. In fact, Carr says, The TriCityNews of Monmouth County "is > prospering precisely because it aggressively ignores the Web." > > > > Well, not precisely. In fact, probably not much at all. > > The TriCityNews' owner and publisher, Dan Jacobson, is proud of his > print-only stance, Carr reports. "Why would I put anything on the Web?" Carr quotes > Jacobson as saying. "I don't understand how putting content on the Web would > do anything but help destroy our paper." > > Carr and Jacobson have jumped to the wrong conclusion about what makes the > TriCityNews a success. Indeed, many small community papers, with and without > Web sites, are doing just fine, and will continue to do so even as larger > newspapers founder. > > That has nothing to do with print, or the Web. It has everything to do with > the fact that these little papers cover their communities closelyâ"and have > little or no competition in doing so. Web or not, their readers have almost no > place else to go. > > The well-publicized storm that's roiling the newspaper business isn't really > affecting many of these smaller players. When we talk about newspapers in > trouble these days, we're primarily talking about metro dailies, which are being > pummeled on all sides by competition from national news sites, bloggers, > craigslist, hyperlocal sites, Yelp, and others. There are generally myriad other > ways to get most of what's in most dailies. Want international news? It's > everywhere. National news? Ditto. Sports? Ditto, plus ESPN. Entertainment news? > Same thing. > > The one franchise the big metros can still defend, usually, is local newsâ" > and even there, they're probably spread too thin. In fact, they're spread so > thin that they're often undercut by small community papers like ... the > TriCityNews, which covers news and arts in the area around Asbury Park like the dew, > as the saying used to go. > > In fact, the TriCityNews has staked out an even narrower niche, as an > alternative community weekly with an edge. (Its almost non- existent Web site shows > a copy of the paper sitting atop a toilet.) So it's a little offbeat, and > doubtless a nice alternative to Gannett's Asbury Park Press, its nearest daily > competitor. And the Asbury Park Press is no slouch at local coverage itself. > > That unique local angle is what makes the TriCityNews a success, whether or > not it has a Web site. (Ironically, because its alternative audience probably > skews young, it may actually be limiting itself by not reaching that audience > online.) Indeed, it's tiny (10,000 circulation), keeps its editorial costs > low, offers affordable advertising and has annual revenue that's probably a > rounding error for a paper like the Asbury Park Press. Comparing its situation > to the problems of big dailies is really apples and oranges. > > Long after metro dailies wither away, small community and alternative papers > like the TriCityNews are likely to continue in print (and on the Web), > because they're providing unique, focused content to their narrowly defined > audiences (and advertisers). If there was a way to get the same stuff from an > online (or print) competitor, these papers would face a lot of the same structural > pressures as their larger cousins. And they're still feeling the same pinch > from a lousy advertising economy, nonetheless. But their success really > doesn't have anything to do with whether they're distributed in pixels or dead > trees. It's the nature of their content that makes the difference. > > So contrary to what Carr and Jacobson believe, the secret to the > TriCityNews' success probably isn't that it fiercely eschews the Web. It's that it's > fiercely local. > > > > Comments: Not so fast, gentleman. To call Tri-City a community paper is an > error and doesn't do justice to community papers like the 2 River Times and > The Hub which truly "cover" the community. > > Mr. Jacobsons version of community coverage is to borrow stories from these > papers, slam the local daily paper and other weeklies, and launch personal > attacks on it s reviewer when there is a negative article about one of his > advertisers. > He doesn't cover meetings, thereby relying on second hand accounts of what > went on in the "tri-city" towns and tends to beat the same old dead horse > topics which are the only ones that he is familiar with. He's never met an > advertiser or developer he didn't want to shill for. > Tri-City wishes it was the NY Press or Village Voice, in reality it is a > freebee, that one finds stacked on top of the trash can in the local pizzeria > (how fitting). It keeps the circulation costs low, however! > To call it a newspaper, whether it makes money or not, sullies the name of > legitimate papers everywhere. > > > > **************One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, > Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now. > (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new- dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025) > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:asburypark-dig...@yahoogroups.com mailto:asburypark-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: asburypark-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! 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