New Media Trend: Laid-off Reporters Start Free Online News Site

It's tough out there for reporters. Especially reporters who worked at large local papers that have downsized dramatically. If you like the city -- Denver, Seattle, Newark (yes, Newark) -- you don't have much in the way of options for finding another local paper to work on. (Sure, there's the Denver Post, the Seattle Times, but Newark?)

There's a growing trend of former employees of defunct or downsized papers who gather together and start publishing their own free newspapers online. For example, former Rocky Mountain News reporters have established their own site. A friend in Hyde Park, NY, started a new online site after the paper for which he wrote a regular column ceased publication.

The latest example, courtesy of the New York Times: "Cast Out, but Still Reporting" about former Newark Star-Ledger reporters.

There are a couple of interesting elements about this trend:

• These are established, experienced reporters -- and they are working for free.
• They realize that the interest in local news did not go away -- even as business problems plagued their newspapers. In other words, there are structural problems with the old model -- perhaps too much debt taken on, as with the Tribune Co. or GateHouse Media.
• That said, there are structural problems with these new online sites. Namely no advertising revenue (yet), no subscription fees, and no payroll. Hardly sustainable.
• These new sites will put pressure on other papers in their markets (Denver Post, Seattle Times), making it less likely those newly single-paper markets will flourish as much as their publishers proclaimed.

The question is: how long can these new efforts last when no one's getting paid.

Meanwhile, as for PR functions, it it important to consider these new outlets, though I don't know how many are offering up business sections vs. local municipal news.

More Bad News for Newspapers, Part VI

The bad news continues...and, in a sign of the times, the news made it to page B7 in The Wall St. Journal -- not even front page of the Marketplace section, although it was above the fold: "McClatchy Cuts Jobs; Star-Ledger May Shut."

The Star-Ledger is a good paper, well respected, and it covers New Jersey closely. It will be more than shame if it does shut down. A year ago, even a month ago, there might have been a Wall St. hotshot with enough ego to want to keep the Star-Ledger going. But now, in the wake of the turmoil on Wall St., I don't think that's even within the range of an unlikely possibility.

More Bad News for Newspapers, Part IV? Part V?

It's difficult to keep track these days. Another day, another piece of bad news for the newspaper industry.

I write this, as always, as someone who loves newspapers, and wants to see them succeed.

But things are pretty bad, and the New York Times continues its coverage of an industry in decline. Check out "Newspapers Could Be Bargains, but Few Are Buying" by Richard Perez-Pena.

This time out, Perez-Pena reports that a lot of newspapers are being shopped around, but no one's really interested.

Or, to pick up the quote from Ken Doctor, a newspaper analyst with Outsell, "A year ago, the conventional wisdom was, 'Yep, there are problems out there, but there's still significant value. Now it's 'Run away."

The latest paper hitting a wall is the Newark Star-Ledger by David Carr. Owned by Advance Publications, which is owned in turn by the billionaire Newhouse family, the Newark Star-Ledger is, in the words of of Donald E. Newhouse, president of Advance, "cannot be sustained by us or anyone else...This is the reality we face. The perfect storm. And it shows no sign of letting up."

That could be a negotiating tactic with the unions -- and Advance is asking unions and non-union employees to make concessions. But the Newhouses tend to be good owners, a case Carr makes.
The Newark Star-Ledger is a good paper.

But that may not be enough to keep it going.