RIP Youngstown Vindicator

First step should be to get rid of the print product entirely ... now. Frankly seeing it in its current state is an embarrassment to all involved and it is forcing good reporters to get the hell out. Meeting the 6 p.m. print deadlines for NFL and NBA games and college games is driving anybody with a brain out of the business. Writing that drivel has to be annoying to good journalists who then have to write a second version for the internet site. Just get rid of the paper and concentrate on putting out a good product online. Look, the Athletic does it without the print albatross. Maybe newspapers should copy the Athletic and try to find some benefactors who will donate substantial amounts to having the watchdog news internet site continue on. Perhaps news organizations should all become nonprofits. One thing is for sure. It's time to get rid of the embarrassing print product. The hearing aid ads and cemetary plot ads won't cut it anyway $$$ wise.

 

I'm a full-time digital marketer now and one of the fastest-growing advertising outlets in my nichen are local, PRINT newspaper ads.

I'm attending a MasterMind next week where one of the breakout sessions is this very topic...how to use local papers (and "lumpy mail") to drive traffic to your website.

 

Interesting, because that seems very counterintuitive.

 

What???

 

I know I've flip flopped on the topic, but even though I now advocate the killing of the print newspaper, I initially said we never had to get to this point, that print ads could be sold but aren't being sold because newspaper sales people are the dregs of sales. They are so unmotivated and poorly equipped to sell anything it's laughable. Are you trying to say that the print ads could still be sold?

 

But isn't hyper-local journalism the only thing that's surviving? That, and a handful of behemoths like USA Today <cough>, ESPN, and The New York Times.

 

I don't know what they cost but legals were a nice source of income for my old shop. Especially during the recession, some days of the week there was an entire page of foreclosure notices.

 

The weeklies in my former area battled for them and considered it a major victory when they got them.

 

What? Not that I've heard, i.e. Gothamist, Patch, etc.

 

There's really no reason for a local newspaper to have any national news any more because of cnn.com, foxnews.com, espn.com, cbssports.com. Only reason they have it is because they've fired so many people they can't fill even the tiniest of rags with all local. I'd say run all local in the actual fishrag plus maybe a national columnist on the editorial page or two editorial pages. Also run comics and dear abby as entertainment.

 

My suburban coverage area is still full of Patch sites. Also Tap Into. And at least one locally owned group of weeklies that are completely behind a paywall.