The woes of a one-newspaper town
The first in a multi-part series about why Rochester needs more editorial voices
There's something interesting going on in Seattle. Since 1981, the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post Intelligencer have been operating under what's known as a Joint Operating Agreement. This basically means that they have separate newsrooms, but share most of their other operations, including a single sales department. To make a very long story as short as possible, the Times decided last year that it wants to dissolve the agreement. If the history of Joint Operating Agreements is any indication, this means certain death for the Post Intelligencer. There are many people in Seattle who are not willing to let their status as a two-newspaper town go gently into that good night, and they have formed a citizens committee to stop it. I don't want to go into all of the legalities of the situation here, but you can read more on the Web site of what's known as the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town.
Obviously, my point here relates to the situation that we are in here in Rochester. These folks in Seattle seem to know what's coming with an almost prophet-like prescience. Take a look at this flyer that they are distributing. You can take that document point by point and see what Rochester is missing by having just one editorial voice. Lest you think this is all about politics, consider that it is the left-leaning paper in Seattle that looks ready to die, whereas here in Rochester the more conservative paper has been dead for about a decade.
We haven't had a strong counterpoint to the Democrat and Chronicle's chronically left-leaning editorial page since the Times Union closed its doors in 1997. As a result, our community is underserved. Don't forget that the Democrat and Chronicle endorsed Bill Johnson for County Executive. Johnson went on to lose by nearly a two to one ratio. The Democrat & Chronicle is out of touch with its readers and seemingly unaccountable.
I plan to explore the ways in which Rochester would benefit from another newspaper in a series of related posts. I'd love to see another daily, but I would certainly settle for a weekly with a strong editorial voice. I think maybe the folks in Seattle have visited Rochester or places like it. They seem to know the woes of being a one-newspaper town before they've even become one.
Read Part II of this series here.
4 comments:
Sounds wonderfully refreshing. The most I get out of our current paper is coupons.
1. Don't we already have a weekly with a strong editorial voice? Even if City editorializes to the left of the D&C, it still exists and serves up more news and info than most of the other free publications in the area.
2. Who reads a newspaper, anyway? Even in you could get someone to start up another paper, it would face not only the uphill struggle of going against an established name, but also the struggle to get people to return the concept of the newspaper as an essential part of life. I'm afraid that's just not true for the majority of those 35 and under, and it's not likely to become such anytime soon.
Would newspapers be more popular if there was better quality available? That's a bit of a chicken-or-egg question, but I don't think that better quality now would prompt people who've abandoned the D&C to make space for a newspaper in their lives.
What's to be done? In my humble opinion, someone should start an online newspaper. Free access, available on the internet only, with RSS feeds and all. Properly done, it would be found relative and useful by the very same people who have given up the newspaper for any number of news alternatives.
Ben, you make some good points. Let me address them in turn.
1. No. I don't consider the City to be a credible news source at all. I would require some level of intellectual honesty. The City has none as far as I'm concerned.
2. The influence of print newspapers is certainly waning. However, like it or not, our nation's daily papers still set the national news agenda. The same is true on the local level. Even if you don't read the D&C, you still hear the same news on the radio. As you should know, Ben, the first rule of radio news is to not ruffle the pages of the paper while you're reading it. Any additional news source would have to have a strong online to be viable in the long term, but that shift is a slow burn.
I think an alternative weekly or daily could be successful in both print and online. I just don't know if anyone would take the risk to try it.
"I think an alternative weekly or daily could be successful in both print and online. I just don't know if anyone would take the risk to try it."
You're right. You don't know anyone who would take the risk to try it... until today.
I've been wrestling with various concepts for the last few months and I'm about ready to take the leap.
You may remember a newspaper called "Downtown, the Unbound Magazine" which published in the 1980s. That was mine. The story of how Gannett ruthlessly crushed my business and my life has never been told fully (some people know parts), and maybe never will.
That's besides the point, however. I'm going to push ahead with this project. I have the backbround and the will to do it.
If you're interested in getting involved, I am going to need a cadre of freelancers, salespeople, editors, etc.
I have a blog at
http://rochesternewyork.blogspot.com where I'll be posting updates. I'm still 2 weeks to a month from an official beta launch, but it's going to be a work-in-progress no matter what. I've got a couple of domains reserved and a couple more possibilities in mind.
One thing to keep in mind: It's all about money in the long run, but as a start-up, I won't need much to make it go. My newspaper experience taught me some valuable lessons about the media and developing an audience. Rochester is ripe for the picking, believe me.
I can be reached at fr@dtmagazine.com.
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