If You Were To Start A Newspaper Today

The circulation is generally not much of a factor -- you have to look at the retail market. Why does Greenwich, Conn., support a 10K daily yet cities with two and three times the population have no daily at all? There is no "typical." Revenue is dependent on lots of things -- economic health of the area, amount of competition ...

As for staff costs, here are a few plans:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ratcliffe/?p=381

http://www.stillanewspaperman.com/2009/03/30/saving-local-investigative-journalism/

http://www.chitowndailynews.org/Ravings_from_the_editor/The_2_million_newsroom,22987


http://newsinnovation.com/2008/10/27/to-be-efficient-start-from-zero/

 

Thanks Frank - those links are very informative. The estimated $180,000 per reporter jumped out at me. One thing I had not considered was all the costs associated with various legal issues related to investigative journalism.

 

Geoff Dougherty's "$2 million newsroom" only needs six "editors" for the entire city of Chicago.

I can't wait to see the quality that comes out of that.

 

That pretty much describes my current shop. We have five full-time employees and one part time ad sales position. A couple of us recently got raises which was shocking considering the majority of our ad revenue comes from the Oil & Gas industry.

 

What is your papers annual ad revenue - ballpark

 

Can I just ask...ARE WE STARTING A NEWSPAPER??

 

If the numbers work.

 

Not if I'm online, I wouldn't.
Actually, the model I have in mind wouldn't be unlike the one described in that zdnet.com article Frank posted. High-level topical news for a relatively small readership that's willing to pay a decent annual rate for specialized information and analysis. Maybe that's more like a trade pub than a "newspaper," but I think you might be able to get enough revenue to support a couple of full-time people plus freelancers. 5,000 subscribers at $50 a pop = $250K.

 

Something like the Kipplenger report?

 

Read about an online newspaper in southern CA the other day

Paying per page view and nobody has seen a dime two months into it

 

Yeah, I guess. Though probably not financial - that market's pretty well-covered at this point. It's the kind of thing that might work for a variety of topics, though.

 

Freelancers wouldn't be the optimal way to go. Of course, if that's what you can afford, that's what you can afford.

The owner of a Denver mag, Daniel Brogan of 5280, said it really well a few years ago, but I can't find it online anymore. He said he kept adding full-timers (until he laid off two recently) because in a freelance situation, the writer has to keep churning out stuff -- the financial arrangement dictates that you can't swing and miss very often, unless either the mag is fond of paying "kill fees" or the freelancer is willing to starve. So you aim lower -- you won't chase stories that are a longshot, you go after only sure things and you wind up with (in Brogan's world of city mags) nothing but TOP 20 PIZZA RESTAURANTS! But with staff, you can chase a higher grade of story because there is no financial risk on the writer's part.

Five-six years ago, I pitched a complex story outside sports and the AME/local said to me, "Who knows if we actually get this, but we're sure gonna try -- it's a great idea." We didn't get it -- I'd guess the paper probably spent 20-25 grand trying to get it if you figure salaries and expenses for a couple months of looking. But it was willing to fail if hitting that long shot was too enticing to resist.

That's why I always thought it was stupid when some beat writer would compare yearly byline counts with a projects writer. Just because the projects writer isn't writing doesn't mean he isn't working. If the paper is really ambitious, it's going to chase after hard-to-get stories that may be a white whale ... you'll never harpoon it and the readers (and most of the newsroom) will never know what was pursued. That's what I think Journalism-with-a-capital-J is really going to be missing in the near-future and has been missing in most places for at least a decade. To be great, you have to go after stuff that's no gimme, and that takes STAFF -- staff to hammer at that long shot and staff to cover the essentials while other people at hammer at the long shot.