This all comes down to the lack of long-term thinking by media companies. I went to college back in the mid 1990s as the digital revolution was gearing up, and back then (20 years ago...ugh I feel old typing that) we had class discussions about how media companies needed to adapt to the changing times. Two decades later, it is evident that such discussions never took place in board rooms of media outlets. A few months back, EW.com announced they were no longer paying their writers and were firing their copy editors (my initial reaction was shock that the site had editors and writers). One of the websites I recently contributed to has made it clear they don't want long-form pieces, preferring top ten lists of Beyonce's VMA dresses, or short bits of fluff that link to memes.
As for local news being a commodity, I think there is a place for it on the internet, but most local websites look like those poorly photocopied "news of the weird" placemats found in low-end diners and truck stops. Either that or they are a carbon copy of affiliated sites (like how the NBC LA app is identical to the NBC NY app except for the city name and loading pic). If people put some time into local news the were passionate about, and focused on the community instead of on trying to make money outside of the community, it could work. On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 4:32 PM, calwatch <[email protected]> wrote: > For the majority of people, if they can't get news from a newspaper, TV > news web sites are good enough. They read those listicles, and if it's > something going on at their kid's school or in the neighborhood then they > will probably get an email forwarded to them. Freeloaders will use the > incognito/private mode on their browser to continue to read articles (which > is why I don't understand that, at a minimum, the newspaper web sites > require cookies to be on when reading articles). > > Good quality longform journalism is also marketable, as shown by the > success of the big newspapers. But stenography of the local city council > meeting or the crime blotter isn't. > > On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 4:08 AM, JW <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > When the budget cuts came down over the past ten years, >> > newspapers could've figured out a way to focus on a local model. >> Instead, >> > they tried to remain the main source of all this content that is so >> easily >> > available online for free. >> >> The problem is that actual news won't remain behind a paywall. Even if >> it's just people summarizing the original story, the information will find >> its way out. (This list is a pretty good example. Even if you don't click >> on links, you still have a good idea of major TV news, and that's without >> payment being an issue.) >> >> For me, the advantage to a good dead-tree newspaper is that stories are >> reasonably well-selected, and you can read as much or as little of any >> story as you want. Reading two paragraphs of something online requires >> loading the whole story. >> >> The big problem, of course, is that if we lose professional reporting, >> what's left will be much less believable. It's not obvious to me how that's >> going to be economically feasible as things continue to move online. >> >> -- >> -- >> TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "TV or Not TV" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Kevin M. (RPCV) -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
