The real cost of news

Earlier this week I sent out a Tweet asking my followers what, if anything, they would be willing to pay for news content online. While I didn’t get a large response, what I did get didn’t surprise me. People don’t want to pay for news they can get else where for free.

As a newspaper editor, working on three papers in southwest Minnesota; the subject of online news interests me greatly. Recently we launched three new online editions of our paper, all free to the reader. We’re still working on our online model and watching with great interest what others are doing.

Continue reading The real cost of news…

Late night rambelings

I have spent the last few days fighting the flu for the year. It seemed to make its first strike on Tuesday which was problematic. See my Tuesdays are now spent laying out three newspapers. I of course have help along the way, but the point was in the midst of a late winter snow blast and an attempt to redact two pages out of each paper I was fighting to stay contentious.

I can’t thank my team enough for the hard work they’re doing. Newspapers often come under fire for missing something or an error here and there. Trust me folks, this is not easy work and the people who do the work care deeply about what they are doing.

The industry is facing some difficult times. For those who think we’re blind to this fact, trust me – we know we need to change. There are constant conversations going on behind the doors of newspaper offices around the world. I’m trying to take a proactive approach and I plan to work on looking at possible avenues for the three papers I work on.

There are no simple answers here, but there is one undeniable truth. Local news comes from your local newspapers. While radio and television do a fine job delivering small chuncks, it is ultimately up to the newspapers to produce in depth and well thought out coverage of the events that affect you directly. I encourage you to continue supporting your local newspapers while we move into this transition period. It’s going to happen faster than some people want, but it is going to happen.

I’ll post some of my views on how this is going to shake out from time to time. For now, go pick up your towns paper and give it a read. You might learn something you didn’t find online.

Blog topics for the professional world

Keeping a blog going for more then two weeks is a rather daunting task for anyone really. As someone who writes for a living, coming home and posting to my blog can often be a little bit of a laborious task. I do it because I enjoy having the outlet whenever I want someplace to share my thoughts.

A few months back I started writing a blog for the Independent, part of my job. I have struggled ever since to come up with something that is actually worth blogging about. I don’t want to spend too much time blogging about what is going on in my cover area because this could reduce the amount of content I have for the print edition. I’ve written about technology but at the same time I have a semi-regular column that covers that topic.

I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago that really grabbed some attention by the readers. You can read it yourself and give me your two cents on it if you’d like. This post proved that people are at least semi-interested in what I have to say — even it’s just a chance to disagree with me.

There haven’t been as many obvious things to blog about since the RNC in St. Paul. I really haven’t had much to say on the site. Earlier today I realized that maybe I should try posting a “featured link” style blog. Give people ideas for Web sites that might interest them. What do you think, is this something that would grab readers attention? Let me know.

Farmfest is for politics

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of covering the first public debate between U.S. Senate candidates Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. and challenger Al Franken, D-Minn. at Farmfest. You can read my story at Marshallindependent.com. It was interesting, but unfortunately not a lot of new things were said.

This was the first time I’ve been at Farmfest on day one. I’m usually there for the last two days, covering a county board during the first day. Luckily this time around I was able to make it to this major debate. If you’ve been following the ad campaigns for both candidates, you likely know what was said during the forum.

I was glad to see forum participants throughout the week talking about the importance of high speed Internet access to rural Minnesota. I’ve been preaching this for years and it’s good to see it finally reaching the decision makers.

Giving my review

I was digging through a box in a closet tonight looking for my “Encyclopedia Beatles” my reference for all things Beatles, including details of the “Let It Be” film, a subject I am increasingly interested in delving into.

During my digging, I discovered two CDs I’ve been looking for and feared lost. The two were Whiskeytown’s “Strangers Almanac” one of my favorite albums that I was close to re-purchasing and Remy Zero’s “The Golden Hum” an album that marks the early Otts for me pretty clearly.

While doing this I’ve had music on in the background, specifically Nine Inch Nails “Ghost I,” the first part of a recent download album Trent Reznor released much like Radiohead did late last year.

With such a breadth of music to dig through, it makes me realize how varied my tastes in music really are.

Continue reading Giving my review…

Talk about something interesting

If you don’t follow the tech community closely you probably missed it. An interview that has implications that were larger than the audience in attendance for it. It involved a Business Week columnist/author and the creator of Facebook.com.

It was billed as an interesting keynote address for SXSW, a conference that brings together technology, music, art and everything else in between. An evolving event that kicked off many years ago that has expanded from a focus on music to what it is today.

The piece of SXSW that seems to be attracting the most attention this year is an interview between Mark Zuckerberg, an entrepreneur with a reputation for being shy and avoiding public speaking. The other, a columnist/journalist who admits to being a friend of “Zuck’s” – Sarah Lacy.

Continue reading Talk about something interesting…