Recently, I posted an item about the newspaper company's decision to launch an online-only product in Batavia, N. Y. More details about the project are included in an article posted Friday on the Newspapers & Technology website and it appears that GateHouse is living up to its reputation of doing journalism on the cheap:
The Web site wasn�t built for glamour but for posting stories as quickly as possible in a blog-style format.
The lo-fi approach is based on open source Drupal content management software. GateHouse also uses Zope Corp.�s Zope4Media content management software across all of its paper�s sites. The app lets each publication coordinate and share resources with each other (see Newspapers & Technology, June 2008.)
The Batavian�s staff consists of an editor and sports editor who blogs, monitors the site and handles traditional reporting � which is written blog style. The editors also shoot and edit videos.
�I also do some blogging for the site, handle �publisher� stuff like spending one day a week in Batavia and once in a while attending special events,� Owens said.
Registered users are allowed and encouraged to post news stories, comments, photos and videos to the site.
Parts of the idea have some merit. The blogging concept cuts down on the cost of maintaining the website. Theoretically, that should enable the online publication to put more money into gathering news. As you might expect, that is now what GateHouse officials plan. It appears that two editor/reporters will handle all of the staff-generated copy, and the rest of it will be provided by readers. While I am all in favor of reader-generated content, it is as an adjunct to the product, not as the mainstay.
It would be a great thing if the company would actually try hiring a few reporters and trying this, but that would be contrary to GateHouse Media's operating style. We will have to wait for someone else to try an online-only product that makes a legitimate effort to cover the news.
No kidding. Gatehouse didn't learn anything from Joplindaily. Those idiots didn't want to learn anything. Three people came out with valuable knowledge about the challenges and possibilities of running a news Web site, but no one from Gatehouse has ever asked any of them about what they learned. Most companies debrief after an experiment, even a failed one, and try to learn from the experience, but Gatehouse management only cared about sweeping the whole experience under the rug and shutting up all the people involved. Now they've got this blowhard Howard Owens spending money on something that can't be bringing in any revenue (free classifieds, maybe two display ads on it) when they are about to be delisted from the NYSE and still face $1.2 billion in debt. JoplinDaily may not have made a profit, but at least it brought in some revenue. Incredibly immature and an incredibly incompetent way to run a company, but what else have we come to expect from Gatehouse.
ReplyDeletewhere, oh where is "The Daily Rat"?
ReplyDelete