Keep an eye/ear out for Tampa

For the plan to REALLY work, they will need to generate revenue from the web site. I have yet to hear an answer for that.

 

Amen to that. The sites are awful, and readers/viewers hate them. They rushed this crappy product out there because the old system that I know several of the properties were using was on its last leg and ready to literally die any day (and they had no solution if it did). But this is the best they could come up with? And the sad part is, the bigwigs all think it's so great and it's the best thing since sliced bread.

If you want to know the real reason the MG sites blow, look at their interactive media division. About 99% of the ones I know of that work in that division don't even know how to update the sites they are supposedly in charge of. How does that happen? Ok, I'm stepping off my box now.

 

And if it's this random staff of people who only write for the Sunday paper, from whence are they going to generate any credibility or sources?

This almost sounds like a good idea, if it were carefully thought out and executed. Because it's Tampa, and because it's MG, it won't be, and it will fail miserably.

 

You can't rush extinction.

 

Unless you're a meteor.

 

I'm pretty sure there are folks who write only -- or primarily -- for the internet who have sources and such and are credible journalists.

 

What is this Internet you speak of?

 

You'd be surprised about the delivery. I'd bet you'd find more people willing to deliver one day a week than seven. Maybe you'd lose the current crop, but ... one day per week is a helluva lot better than seven, 52 weeks per year. The big question would be, is it profitable to deliver one day per week or how many papers must you deliver in x number of miles to make it profitable. The current model rarely makes delivery profitable. It's great cash flow, but you don't make money after you account for the wear and tear on your car, the fuel, etc.

 

Back in the '50s, when I was a paperboy (No, wait, don't leave!) in Wilmington, Delaware, the Philadelphia Inquirer had a Sunday-only paper delivery system in town. It was a good gig-for an 11-year old boy. So I assume it could work for today's paperadults.

 

Those were the good ol days Mike.

 

So it can no longer be said that every day is like Sunday. It seem, however, that every day is silent and gray in this business.

 

So what happens next fall when the NFL season starts again? "Check back next Sunday for today's results!" ... How do you go about converting seven-day-a-week subscribers to a Sunday only model without losing a huge chunk of them?