Blog-gone news outlet?
It probably isn’t a first (but it’s the first I’ve witnessed), but the online news blog, for lack of a better term, Pubicola, has been bought into by private invester and green developer Greg Smith. Aside from being giddy about the prospect that it may be the first of many local/regional blog sites to be more than self driven, self funded ventures, it’s yet another step away from the predictable traditional sources and analysis (read – newspapers). Although some are better than others, there isn’t a newspaper in Washington State that hasn’t thematically and/or ideologically distanced themselves from it’s readers. And as we watch newspapers fold across the nation, it’s clear something is broken. Publicola set out last October for what I was pretty sure would be a short run if anyone was relying on it for a stable income. And even with the Smith buy in, it’s still all uphill.
On the financial side, Greg is putting in enough so that the site is stable, at least for a while. I’m sure some around town will be disappointed, but Josh isn’t going to starve. And we will have the resources we need to be able to make some of the improvements we have wanted to make almost from the day we started. The changes are going to be incremental, and our expansion will be modest, tracking our expected growth in readership. We’re not out of the woods yet. We need to continue growing the site and building readership if we are going to make PubliCola a viable long-term enterprise. As Josh told the Puget Sound Business Journal on Monday, PubliCola has been a scrappy (read: shoestring) operation, and it is going to remain a scrappy operation.
That kind of modesty is what makes Publicola an appealing venture. And in this month’s Washington Law & Politics, Knute Berger give some perspective to the disenchantment the mainstream/traditional media and indirectly hands us the “why” sites like Publicola could attract readers.
A fascination with its own stature has been a hallmark of the mainstream media. In the last century, it became too corporate, too much a part of the establishment, too full of itself. It evolved from a feisty trade practiced by hard-drinking individualists into a profession that required sober young journos to get master’s degrees at J-schools.
[...]
A blue-collar trade practiced by average Joes turned into a white-collar profession with the aura of a sacred trust. Editors began spending too much time talking about themselves, attending seminars and grooming the industry as the fourth branch of government. No surprise what happens when you become part of officialdom: Many newspapers became dull and began to look alike; they were linked in media chains that often squeezed out local character. Some dailies even outsourced the task of keeping in touch with the public. Have a problem with a story? Write the ombudsman.
It’s obvious that isn’t the only reason newpapers are struggling. The internet has certainly taken its toll on the beohemiths and local “family” newspapers alike. But it’s clear newspapers themselves, their insufferable inflexibilty to adapt, and poor managment (think: Frank Blethen) have put them all on their heels. Nearly every newspaper in the Northwest has reduced staff and most are operating in the red losing millions while they search for a working business model.
Many are still conducting the search for a viable business model in the same box. The local newspaper here in south-central Washington, The Tri-City Herald (McClatchy), had earlier laid off employee’s in the face of dwidling resources, is still operating under the assumption of a “Family Newspaper”. The Herald has been enhancing its web version with forums, photo’s and blogs. But have only in the past year or so allowed comments, and even though the area is just a bit sleepy on big news there have been some big stories passed on. Hard hitting journalism from the Herald is rare.
On the flip side is the Seattle PI who through ceasing it’s print version had but two alternatives; close down completely or start an online only version. The latter was the result and the jury is still out, but the fact that there was little else to lose could provide some innovation. We will see.
But it’s site like Publicola that could, through that ‘scrappiness’, provide the pervasive news coverage readers are craving and aren’t getting from their local daily’s. Let’s hope we see more.
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