The Detroit Plan is “cutting edge, innovative and based on technology,” according to Paul Anger, who is Vice President, Publisher and Editor of the Detroit Free Press. While cutting back home delivery to three days a week may sound more “cutting” than “cutting edge,” the plan is showing impressive results. And Anger’s presentation was among […]
Archive for the ‘Local, local, local’ Category
Mark Briggs 
Posted in 
May 5th, 2009
Community newspapers weathering economic storm
Smaller may be better. The Suburban Newspapers of America held a one-day workshop and pushed through rapid-fire content from almost two dozen speakers in New Orleans today. The smaller newspapers that make up this organization are fighting the same battle as all printed media, but appear to be better positioned to withstand the economic storm […]
April 15th, 2009
Print is a powerful tool for mobilizing an audience
(Note: The following post is drawn from research I’m doing for my new book). UPDATED 4/16/09 11:15 a.m.: Clarified some dates and details on the Dallas Neighbors project. Thanks, Oscar. The Dallas Morning News launched a print-only community newspaper called Neighbors in 2005 and, two years later, turned it into neighborsgo and launched a corresponding […]
January 27th, 2009
What’s your video SEO strategy?
The people running news web sites have been working on enhanced strategies for video and SEO for a few years now. But what about “video SEO”? That is the focus of a new white paper published by ReelSEO, a consulting company operating in this space. New Business Models for New Realities: The Newspaper Industry’s Video SEO Opportunity is […]
January 10th, 2009
Godin: It’s a good time to start a newspaper (just not for journalists)
Seth Godin offers an interesting suggestion – and a wake-up call – to local newspapers hoping to get more local in a post titled Time to start a newspaper. The twist is that he’s offering this advice to real estate brokers or plumbers or anyone in local business looking to grow their local presence. And he […]
January 7th, 2009
2009: the year hyperlocal becomes sustainable
What will the year of mass disruption lead to? That’s the question that Peter Krasilovsky pondered recently with his 2008 roundup of the local media / advertising business landscape. Near the end of his piece, Peter riffs on the hyperlocal opportunities for 2009, suggesting lessons that we learned in the previous 12 months We’ve learned […]
December 31st, 2008
2008′s new technologies journalists should be using
Reading Wired.com’s 6 New Web Technologies of 2008 You Need to Use Now, I wondered what the list would look like if tailored to journalism. As the Wired article admits, some great technologies that are critical today have been around longer, but rose to prominence in ’08. All are important for Journalism 2.0, some more than others. […]
December 30th, 2008
Will 2009 be the year of transformation for local media?
LostRemote pointed me to Diane Mermigas’ excellent Pragmatic Media Predictions for 2009. It’s a sobering depressing forecast for the year ahead, with dire predictions like ”TV and newspaper properties will collapse under the weight of an advertising recession and legacy costs” and “a disaster for local media, which could easily see more than half their ad revenue […]
December 18th, 2008
If advertising works, the money will follow
Previously I wondered where did that $2 billion go? Given the state of the overall economy it’s a lock that we will be asking that question following each of the next 2-4 quarters, too. And the $2 billion figure (that newspapers lost last quarter) will probably grow larger. Some cry out for new business models […]
December 11th, 2008
Can newspapers compete with hyperlocal blogs?
In a gathering called The Pitch last night in Seattle, 30 new media types kicked around the following question: Can an established newspaper provide better hyperlocal coverage than a well-managed neighborhood blog? The collective answer at the end of the night was, yes, it’s possible for an established newspaper to provide better hyperlocal coverage than […]
