New some ideas for Mercury News
Kent Newsome points out how to save the Merc in eight easy steps.
Don’t think that’ll do it.
Of course I’m with Kent on the RSS stuff, but he leaves out exactly what Newspaper companies have been leaving out for the last ten years.
There is no mention of the users as contributors or community at all. In fact, he’s calling the users “subscribers.” Those days are over.
The only thing that can save any local media company is to become a local community, again, and somehow leverage those relationships.
I’m not even sure it’s possible, and if it is, we are looking at a drastically smaller organization.
I’ll go so far as to say that everyone using the word “save” is sending the wrong signal.
The only chance is to leverage the existing business to create a new one.
The old one will surely die. (Old Media Doomsday Clock)
The answer is to step down and join the conversation. Be leaders of the conversation, not enders.
One last note. I don’t believe any Newspaper bringing in substantial revenue from print has the guts to pull the plug on that and all the jobs it affords.
Is that to say that the price of buying the company would be worth the brand name and the editorial staff?