Here is tomorrow's news

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The demise of newspapers will be a sad loss for local communities, democracy and journalists. (Okay I know the last is a little selfish but it has been my profession for too long so I have a vested interest.) But seriously, papers at their best do hold local politicians to account and they provide some sort of social cohesion. Without them it'll be difficult to find out what local sports teams are up to, what's playing at the multiplex and even who has died in the neighborhood.

Although as I said in my last ki work blog posting I believe traditional printed newspapers cannot survive or even reinvent themselves I do think there's room for a new type of local news source which uses traditional skills. To show how it could work I'm going to develop a theoretical model here.

Local news reinvented

We'll start with a journalist called Jack who has been laid off when the newspaper he was working for closed down. Fortunately he's got a bit of cash in the bank from his final pay-off to cover not so much the start-up costs of his new business but to enable him to eat while he develops revenue streams.

As a reporter and a resident he'll have developed good local contacts including with the police, churches, schools, politicians, shopkeepers and all the people who keep a community running. He might not have a printing press, but he does have a PC and an internet connection so putting their stories online is pretty simple.

Using blogging software he creates a local website covering the same things as his old paper. It is a great deal of work as even so-called 'user-generated content' has to be chased and often delicately rewritten. He can't afford to alienate contributors.

One thing he probably won't have to worry about is search engine optimization. As his audience is geographically focused publicizing the site is a combination of word-of-mouth, flyers and ads in stores. In that context Google ranking doesn't matter too much.

Undercutting the corporations

The central point about his whole operation is that it's cheap. He already has a PC and broadband. Hosting his site costs less than $10 a month. His investment isn't cash, but time. It's a sea change from his old newspaper with hundreds of staff, expensive offices, printing and distribution to pay for. Image by ~jjjohn~ via Flickr

But old papers face one challenge in common: finding revenue. The easiest way to monetize a site is through contextual advertising such as Google's AdSense. There are also thousands of affiliate schemes which give website owners a percentage of sales income from the likes of Amazon. These are simple schemes to set up, but they're unlikely to give Jack a living wage.

A more effective way of earning money is to sell ads and sponsorship to specific businesses. This is not an easy task for a journalist. The problem comes in retaining any vestige of independence when speaking to a local business. Is it advertising that he's after or a story? And will an advertiser get editorial preference?

The ki work model

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This is a completely different form of organization from that which controls most newspapers today. Instead of a few companies with a large number of employees it is a network of skilled individual entrepreneurs. In many ways it's a return to the way newspapers used to be locally owned and run.

The solution is to hire somebody to sell advertising. That person does not have to come from the neighborhood. All that's required is for Jack to supply a list of the right contacts and phone numbers. And, hey, we've got the beginnings of a ki work virtual business selling ads for a number of these news microsites. Advertisers can then be offered packages covering several areas. But the whole thing's flexible unlike a newspaper with its fixed staff and other costs.

There are other ways for Jack to develop his virtual business across the internet. Resources can be shared. He could strike a deal with a movie site to provide reviews for the shows at the local multiplex. Both sides will gain traffic. In ki work terms it represents a form of collaborative capitalism where small businesses are able to undercut large corporations. Big may be beautiful, but in the online world it's not always financially viable.

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Comments

[Jan Simpson]

Okay - nice post for advertising ki work to get more money in your pocket. But let's get down to brass tacks on your posts.

First of all - the demise of the newspaper is their own faults. I love the newspaper, I love reading the opinions, however what killed the newspapers isn't the 24 hour media or the fact people can get the news instantly.

The fall of the newspaper is because of the political commentary and the consistent commentary throughout the newspaper. The same thing that is happening to CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and NBC and now add ESPN who is owne/partnered with ABC. When they had Obama on there - they lost me - I don't want the government politics in my morning mix of Mike and Mike - I want the sporting news - so hopefully Jerry Jones will get the NFL channel up and running and I will watch them - Jerry is a smart man, he doesn't talk outside his expertise and you know what he stands for - he is not drug around by the nose cause someone is telling him what to write -

Here is something to think about - magazines haven't fallen - have they- I buy Elle magazine for a few columns, I buy Southern Living, Forbes, Fast Company etc. This is because the columnists provide information, laughs etc and don't disappoint - they don't get into areas they know nothing about. Their slant is their slant and I appreciate and understand it. So, I guess the argument that 24 hour news was the downfall is not valid.

I am not a fan of your ki works advertising in the posts either - but that is just my humble opinion - either you are a "moderator" for your group and want to increase your membershp so you make more money - but I think there is a different way to go about advertising your wares in order to make more revenues for yourself - If you want to write about ki works/werks then give stats of how much revenue you have generated for your group or if you are in a group - how much money has been generated. Give facts that help people want to join the ki works - not fluff stuff - there is too much fluff stuff on the web - let's just say no to the fluff stuff

Anyway - just my humble opinion.

Nice post.

[Jim Wolff]

@ Jan

I like your assessment - too much fluff stuff on the web. I'm all for getting rid of fluff stuff too.

I think in fairness tho, the blog post is more about explaining what can be done with the ki work model, than advertising for the sake of it. The newspaper industry, like many others at this time, is facing some uncertainty, and this is an exploration of just one potential solution to how we deliver and access news.

Somehow freelancers need some structure to help compete with larger organisations and ki work is one way of doing it.

Jim (ki work operations)