Internet Journalism (E-Newspaper)

So I have been reading all the news about internet journalism and actually wanted to know if there was any real truth to it.

The LA Times is cutting like no tomorrow and other papers are to. But would there be a business for an online newspaper for a city?
One that dedicated itself to the local news more then national and international news?

Specially for a city the size of Dear LA. I have been thinking about it and just wanted to know what you guys and girls thought.

Also anyone of your newspapers taking more time into the newspapers website and what are they doing to make it better?
Like the LA Times does not really cover to much High School sports or crime because not a day go by and a guy don't get shot or a place gets robbed. Do people still want to know about this and if someone did cover it would people check it out?

What's the template for an online newspaper? I.e. The LA Times closed its print edition and dedicated itself to only being an online paper.

 

laobserved.com

 

Chattanoogan.com ... supposedly the fourth largest paper in Tennessee and it's entirely web-based.

 

Many newspapers already do what's called an e-edition. Ya, it's the same thing as the print edition (just put online), and I can see more papers taking this route. Heck, maybe they go to e-edition only way down the line.

As for a new paper opening in a city that's web-based? It'd take someone with deep pockets and patience, but I think it could be done.

 

The city or the paper?

Again. Chattanoogan.com.

 

You may not see entire newspapers go the online-only route right away, but we're already starting to see a greater emphasis on posting breaking news on the web, and reverse-publishing to print. Why compile cop briefs throughout the day, for the paper, when you can drive traffic to your web site throughout the day?

The next step, IMO, is creating hyperlocal community sites.

Take a look at blufftontoday.com, which is strongly emphasizing user-generated content as a way to create communities online. As newspapers concentrate more on hyperlocal news to remain relevant, they'll also need web components as a way to drive interactivity. People uploading photos of their kids in Little League games; having a mechanism to post notices for local events, which are then reverse-published to the print product - we've already started to take this approach where I work, and I feel sure other papers will do the same.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see some decent-sized papers go all digital in the next few years. First likely candidates, I'd think, would be the #2 paper in a 2-paper town, especially a tech-savvy town. Boston Herald, Seattle P-I, LA Daily News, that sort of place.
Ad revenue's not there to support it yet, obviously, but it could be soon, especially when you subtract all the costs for printing and delivering the damn things. If you packaged it with video and user-generated content, and figured out a way to make some money w/online classifieds, you could make a go of it, and maybe even do some decent journalism on the side. That'd be nice.

 

Does the Chattanooga site make a profit? It doesn't appear that way.

There is one in San Diego; it is "an independent non-profit."

To me, this is like someone saying we need to find an alternative to gasoline. Sounds good, but if it were easily to do profitably, someone would be getting rich already. Advertisers do not like to throw money around. They will go with exisiting media until the new media builds an audience, and the new media can't build a competitive audience unless it has the money to produce unique content. Chicken, egg. Doing this online is far more expensive than starting a local mag or alt-weekly because you need to produce fresh content with greater frequency or else what is the point?

 

Kevin Roderick's laobserved.com has to be the paradigm for this venture.
Kevin clears a profit. He is tireless and always improving. Albeit, much of his content is rooted in what the L.A. Times does/is. For anyone that has an interest in L.A. media or politics, his site is a must view -- often several times a day.

 

www.pegasusnews.com

These folks must be tickled over the DMN's woes.

 

Yes, the Dallas Morning News must be terrified. I mean, click on the Rangers tease and you get two graphs. Click on the link within those two graphs and you are redirected ... to Yahoo Sports! Click on the lead news story and you get ... four paragraphs! And while Pegusus posted this story Monday, DMN had it in Sunday's paper. This must be the immediacy I keep hearing about, you know, that newspapers can't possibly be as timely as Web sites.

 

They're not doing it very well yet, Frank, but I have a feeling some of these "community" journalism sites WILL do it well with regular users contributing, and that they'll start getting page views and maybe even make money.