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Persuasive argument for going tabloid

Alan Jacobson at Brass Tracks Design has written a pretty persuasive argument for going tab using one of his recent clients, the Bakersfield Californian, as an example. Jacobson’s suggestions could certainly apply to most community newspapers (minus the part about nixing feature photos). He outlines how a tab can save money and provide new revenue opportunities through both advertising upsells and single-copy sales.

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Online news Social media

Community newspapers can learn from BusinessWeek’s online strategy

In a Q&A with an online digital marketing journal, BusinessWeek’s John Byrne elaborates on some of the company’s user engagement efforts, many of which would carry over well to community newspapers. He talks about how BusinessWeek leverages readers’ knowledge in creative ways from crowdsourcing questions to guest columns.

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Online news Paid content

Newspapers who charge for content: How’s it working?

Check out this article in PaidContent. It surveys some newspapers who are charging for online content, including the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen. Here’s a quote: “The newspapers tend to be located in smaller, often rural markets; online-only subscriptions are typically priced at a substantial discount to the print edition (in general, about 75 percent of what the print product costs); where numbers are available, the number of online subscribers is still a tiny percentage of their print counterparts (less than 5 percent); and many of these papers say they began charging not so much to make money online, but rather to protect sales of their print editions.”

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Future of news Online news

Is this a ‘golden age’ for community newspapers?

In less than a year, M.E. Sprengelmeyer has gone from being the Washington correspondent at the Rocky Mountain News — covering everything from 9/11 to the war in Iraq — to owning a community newspaper in a small New Mexico town. He writes about his experience on the Save the News blog, and about his optimism about the state of community journalism. “Think of a community newspaper as a bronze statue in the town square,” he writes. “Everybody in town can look up and see that it’s there.”

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Online news Paid content

Making profits online: some suggestions

Successful managers are always looking for ideas. And sometimes, they find great ideas in articles – or from people – that they don’t always agree with. That’s why I want you to read Steve Outing’s piece on making online profits. There may be some things that don’t apply to you; there may be things you don’t think you can do right now; and there may be a few things you just disagree with you. But Steve gives 12 ideas, and I’ll bet that there are one or two that will work for you. It’s worth checking out.

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Ask an Expert Questions and Answers

I was asked to run for City Council because I have so much knowledge about community issues. Do I have an ethical problem if I run?

Most definitely. It is called conflict of interest.

Editors of both large and small papers are often confronted with this dilemma. Louis Day, in his textbook Ethics in Media Communications, defines a conflict of interest as a “clash between professional loyalties and outside interests.”

In this case, the clash would be between your responsibilities as a city council member vs. your professional loyalties as a journalists. A fundamental duty of a journalists is to be an observers of events instead of participants.

In your case you would have the ultimate responsibility of the coverage of your city council. As a city council member, you would be acting on issues that have impact your community.

I think it is almost impossible to completely separate the two duties — there will come a time when your action as a city councilman will influence how you cover a story. None of us are totally objective creatures.