What is “news” depends on who is paying
I don’t recall this being reported in the paper:
According to an executive with the Express News, twenty positions were cut: eight through attrition, and the other dozen as layoffs.
So who is going to report the news? My last post on the Express-News generated two comments. One wondering why I would pay for online content when the cost isn’t made up by the coupons you receive in the hard copy. Well, I’m willing to pay for the news without coupons or ads.
The second pointed out that
How can one be sure of the reporting if the very newspaper who’s responsible for that reporting depends on revenue from the same source that they may have to report about?
I guess you would have to say not reporting about job layoffs at your paper is the epitome of this problem.
So what’s the solution? I started thinking about what it would take to hire our own reporter.
Now mind you, this is all pure guess work on my part. If you had 800 people willing to pay $10 a month (the current subscription cost), you would generate $96,000 a year. I figure this could pay for one legitimate, journalism school trained reporter who could cover local stories and post to the web. Say three stories a week on just the local governmental organizational meetings and going-ons. Any left over time on more long term reporting–is that too much?
The question is, are there 800 people willing to pay? If you go by the experience of the Express-News, you would have to say no.
Technorati Tags: San Antonio Express News, San Antonio, Newspaper, layoffs, business model
Filed under: Newspaper, San Antonio, San Antonio Express News, business model, layoffs
