The on-line only newspaper begins

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/271414

 

Actually, this isn't the only on-line newspaper - 'cept maybe your neck of the woods.
There are ones in both Lincoln and Calhoun counties in W.Va.

 

One in Montana as well.

 

I was just coming to post the same link.

I have some mixed feelings today. This is the paper my family read when I grew up, getting the Wisconsin State Journal only on Sundays. And my first-ever mainstream newspaper story -- a freelance piece from a Star Trek convention in Chicago -- appeared in its feature section.

But here's the thing about the Cap Times. It has constantly been willing to reinvent itself and be progressive and an industry leader (albeit a small one). The fact that a PM paper is still around today to create this news is a testament to that.

So it's going to go mostly online, and distribute its two publications a week among 80000 people instead of 17000, and I applaud them for trying, yet again. I wish them the best of luck.

 

Begun.

I believe we've discussed a Minnesota online newspaper months ago.

 

I think to give mdpoppy some credit, this might be the biggest existing old-school paper, or the one that once had the highest profile before its decline, to have made this move. It's significant, I think.

 

It always seemed like this paper was left of center anyway (not politically, although it sure didn't hide its stripes at times) -- when other papers veered one way to follow trends, this paper always went the other.

That's not always a bad thing. I'll be interested to see how this plays out. The WSJ isn't a bad publication but this might give Madison a better voice.

 

This is probably a dumb question, but for the people who work at this "newspaper" how are they supposed to submit clips for prospective jobs? I've never seen an ad for a job that said it was OK to send an archived or online version of your story, just copies of what actually appeared in the newspaper.

 

Everyone had a feeling this was going to happen sooner or later ... circulation was dipping faster than most papers, yet the Cap Times still held on to a huge staff. How many papers have you ever heard that kept 10-plus on sports that had a circulation a little over 16,000?

I'm not exactly sure what this means for the sports section there as the article doesn't mention it. There's a lot of good people on that staff.

 

I'd think that most hiring editors would understand that online is all these guys have to offer.

 

Yep. It's simply an evolution of the process. And I have to say, I've been seeing ads that aren't demanding actual newspaper clips. Obviously, it's not even an issue with us anymore -- none of our guys have them, either.

 

What really gets me is how the job loss is minimized here.