Comments on: Newspapers echoing the net?

By: vjp

vjp — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:16:45 +0000

A sewing blog? Now there’s an idea

By: JeffConn

JeffConn — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:06:57 +0000

(sorry, hit the post button accidentally)

It would be nice to have the newspaper as a reliably consistent reporter of local news and sports, with more in-depth reporting on the stories that warrant them.

By: JeffConn

JeffConn — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:04:11 +0000

i must admit, that i get a lot of local news from blogs. But that has its own pitfalls. You have to find a blogger that focuses on the area you’re interested in. You have to sort through the blogger’s biases. And what happens if Vivian gets burned out on politics, and turns vivianpaige.com into a sewing blog?

By: silence dogood

silence dogood — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:42:51 +0000

I, for one, would LOVE to read more about the Admirals.

And it’s kind of frightening, but 80% of what I know about what’s going on in Norfolk and Virginia Beach comes through word of mouth. It’s helpful if you know the right people, I guess. Hmm. Maybe I should start a newspaper.

By: Andre Kenji

Andre Kenji — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:32:21 +0000

In Europe newspapers are something healthier because they adopted smaller sizes, like the Berliner and the tabloid. It´s easier to handle, you can read the newspaper while exercising at the gym, while the riding the train or while lunching. Even newspapers of record like El Pais and Le Monde are published in smaller sizes. Considering rare exceptions(NY Post, Chicago Sun-Times, NY Daily News, Newsday) ALL newspapers in the United States are published in the broadsheet format, a terrible format if you want to read the newspaper while you are outside your home.

And most European newspapers have extremely good websites while most of the American ones have the poorest websites possible.

By: Brian Kirwin

Brian Kirwin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:35:31 +0000

I don’t disagree with you, Vivian. But they must think more people want to read about the Redskins than the Admirals.

By: vjp

vjp — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:16:06 +0000

Ah, radio. Hadn’t thought about that. But then again, I’ve listened to more radio since I got Sirius in my car than I ever listened to when I had regular radio. Oh wait- that’s NATIONAL radio that I’m listening to

Would it be such a bad thing, Brian, to have the Admirals on the front page? I don’t think so.

And all the angst over VB considering the move back to May elections – if the newspaper had been covering the local races (as opposed to the occasional story), wouldn’t that have blown away the argument about low-information voters participating?

By: Brian Kirwin

Brian Kirwin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:54:02 +0000

If newspapers were truly local, we’d see the Admirals on the front page of Sports and the Redskins in a capsule summary on page 7.

I think the newspaper would like to cover local politics, but 90% of local government is zoning for a day care or a variance for a fence. It’s not real exciting.

Heck, even during the campaign, a local campaign is lucky to get a story every couple of months, but I bet there wasn’t a newspaper from August to November that didn’t have a Presidential campaign story.

Newspapers are scared to death to be niche marketing. They still want to be MASS MEDIA, meaning mass advertising revenue.

But they give me one of life’s thrills – the irony of seeing pro-environmentalist editorial boards get paid to go through so many trees and ink and fill landfills.

By: MB

MB — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:22:36 +0000

Radio, if it was done right. Of course . . .