Ann Arbor News going to mostly web

[slappy4428]

Nothing on the Saturday Tigers game, which ended about 7:30 p.m.

Send me your copy when you're done.

 

[mustangj17]

So Jim, will Mlive be taking any content from annarbor.com? Or are they going to keep those separate and Ann Arbor stuff just disappears from mlive?

I heard they were eliminating Mlive for AA.

I like the fact you can click on photos and they'll open. But they are HUGE. I have a 22-inch monitor and they still overwhelm it.
And one thing I learned at my first job and I don't care if it's print or web -- every photo needs a cutline. Every one.

Could you tell our photogs that?

Yeah, I'm not in love with the design of the site. At all.

I found this comment from Tony Dearing - who is running the operation - quite interesting (via PaperTigerNoMore.blogspot.com):

"The one thing I guarantee you, when this thing launches, and people look at it, they're not going to say, "Oh, it's just another newspaper website." I can assure you this is going to be different from anything you've ever seen, or can kind of conceptualize."

http://papertigernomore.blogspot.com/2009/03/dearing-interview-part-i-its-going-to.html

Certainly is interesting.

 

[JayFarrar]

what's interesting, at least to me, is that a print/web hybrid model might just in a relatively affluent, college town.
I suspect lots of publishing companies will be watching the results.
Is the print edition a free throw one or both days it comes out?
And are they outsourcing the design? I didn't see any print designers on the staff box.

 

[mustangj17]

what's interesting, at least to me, is that a print/web hybrid model might just in a relatively affluent, college town.
I suspect lots of publishing companies will be watching the results.
Is the print edition a free throw one or both days it comes out?
And are they outsourcing the design? I didn't see any print designers on the staff box.

I'd say the college paper has a better design than the local paper.

http://www.michigandaily.com/

Meanwhile a new JRC paper has moved in to Ann Arbor. They have weeklies all over Southeastern Michigan.

http://www.a2journal.com/

 

[Herky_Jerky]

I just checked out the website, and I'll give them this much -- they've posted a ****load of content in the past few hours from the Big Ten media days.

I realize none of the stories are very long, but it's still interesting the way they're delivering things.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Jay, they do have designers, I believe.

mustang, The last couple days there have been aa.c links on mlive. And I think Carty said earlier in the thread, that mlive was going to have an RSS feed for Michigan football.

 

[crusoes]

At least one designer from Jackson was putting the Sunday paper together.

 

[Brian Cook]

i believe the site is a blog, probably a themed WordPress site, made to look like a "real" Web site ... how can you not have main art somewhere as soon as you hit the sports page? ugg...

According to one of their tech people, it's Movable Type.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_Type

 

[mustangj17]

i believe the site is a blog, probably a themed WordPress site, made to look like a "real" Web site ... how can you not have main art somewhere as soon as you hit the sports page? ugg...

According to one of their tech people, it's Movable Type.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_Type

Shouldn't you be blogging, sir?

 

[mustangj17]

So according to Wikipedia then, they are using free software to run their newspaper site?

 

[FuturaBold]

For $59, you can guy a single license to use this Wordpress "theme" to upgrade your blog to look like a newspaper site: http://ericulous.com/2008/11/05/wp-theme-wordpress-newspaper/

Looks a heck of a lot better than most newspaper sites I've seen out there (including ours) ... not sure how hard it is to use, etc. or what limitations it may have -- but if you're looking to have a basic site that looks and feels like a news site, this may be the way to go ...

I've found some sports themes out there as well, like this one: http://stylewp.com/themes/playmaker-3.html ... it's an obvious ESPN.com copycat but it does make you think that it wouldn't take much to get a site up and running...

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

To answer a question earlier in the thread:

There is home delivery of the two printed editions. $9 per month or $8.25 if you pay with an automatic monthly debit.

 

[goalmouth]

For $59, you can guy a single license to use this Wordpress "theme" to upgrade your blog to look like a newspaper site: http://ericulous.com/2008/11/05/wp-theme-wordpress-newspaper/

Looks a heck of a lot better than most newspaper sites I've seen out there (including ours) ... not sure how hard it is to use, etc. or what limitations it may have -- but if you're looking to have a basic site that looks and feels like a news site, this may be the way to go ...

I've found some sports themes out there as well, like this one: http://stylewp.com/themes/playmaker-3.html ... it's an obvious ESPN.com copycat but it does make you think that it wouldn't take much to get a site up and running...

Jesus, why would anyone want their blog to look like a newspaper's jumbled and hard-to-navigate site? That's one big reason papers are going the way of the dodo...

 

[Brian Cook]

So according to Wikipedia then, they are using free software to run their newspaper site?

It's open source but I believe they're shelling out for consulting and whatnot, which is how Six Apart makes their money. Free's a good idea given the economics of these things and the quality of the free options available. A lot of newspaper sites are moving to Drupal, which I use. The Knight Foundation has just dumped a half-million into improvements aimed at making newspaper sites better:
http://drupal.org/node/393554

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Just to follow up on some of the subscription/delivery issues alluded to earlier.

Talked to a guy who had subscribed and it took them three days to get him a paper after he called. And then it was missing the weekly TV Guide.

He called to tell them about that and they said he hadn't opted in for that (seems kind of odd that you'd have to opt in for a staple like that, but who knows).

I know you expect a few problems for any startup, but seems like theres more than that.

Vol. 2 comes out tomorrow.

 

[Jim_Carty]

Apparently the site is down this morning.

Not what they were hoping for, I'm sure.

 

[mustangj17]

Apparently the site is down this morning.

Not what they were hoping for, I'm sure.

This is why you DONT spend $59.99 to run a real Web site. FAIL.

 

[Brian Cook]

Apparently the site is down this morning.

Not what they were hoping for, I'm sure.

This is why you DONT spend $59.99 to run a real Web site. FAIL.

Don't confuse hosting with software. The two are largely unrelated; if they were down that doesn't have anything to do with MT.

 

[Stitch]

Apparently the site is down this morning.

Not what they were hoping for, I'm sure.

This is why you DONT spend $59.99 to run a real Web site. FAIL.

Using FAIL. The new annoying meme of the Twitter generation.

 

[imjustagirl]

Apparently the site is down this morning.

Not what they were hoping for, I'm sure.

This is why you DONT spend $59.99 to run a real Web site. FAIL.

Using FAIL. The new annoying meme of the Twitter generation.

Um, plenty of people older than me were using FAIL long before Twitter got big. So...nice try, but no.