Fired Reporters Start Their Own News Website
from the one-way-to-do-things dept
A group of eight former employees of the Santa Barbara News-Press who claim they were illegally fired for supporting efforts to unionize the newsroom have decided to keep on reporting via a website they set up for themselves. They're covering all sorts of local news, including school relocation plans and property taxes. They claim that this is only until they get their jobs back -- but if the conditions at their old newspaper job were so bad, it makes you wonder why they don't just go ahead and make this new project a full-time effort and do things right. If the Santa Barbara News-Press really is treating its employees as badly as is being made out in reports about the labor dispute, why not create some competition and bring on the best employees from the newspaper to show the management of that paper what happens when you treat employees poorly?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Why not?
Oh, I don't know. Enough income to keep eight people and their families paid, fed, insured, and housed?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Why not?
Maybe this group to take over editorial of a free community newspaper that sells ads to neighboorhood businesses. Those jobs can't pay very much though.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Why not?
Creating competition is all well and good, but you have to have enough money to feed yourself whilst you build said competition.
Maybe they will succeed in it, but from what they're saying it doesn't seem they're really making a living off it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Why not?
You hire away some of the ad sales people, or bring in a new one, promote the hell out of your new site, and see how well it works...
If their newspaper jobs suck so much, why would they want to stay?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Why not?
Maybe they will succeed in it, but from what they're saying it doesn't seem they're really making a living off it.
So... they're not making *any* money now. My suggestion is they try to make some money... and you're saying that I'm out of touch with the world because what if they can't make enough money?
Let's compare the two situations:
(A) Making no money. Publishing a local news site.
(B) Making some money. Publishing a local news site.
Why wouldn't they choose option (B)? And, they can use the situation to drum up press and local attention, and then sign plenty of local advertisers. It seems like a no-brainer.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Why not?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Why not?
For someone who claims he has an MBA, he has zero common sense.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Making some money...
One of the top blogs on the web is ProBLogger, and it makes just over $100,000 a year. Now, not only is that pretty thin spread out over eight families, but I don't know how to go from zip to $100,000 in zero seconds flat. Do you? (if so, how about letting us in on the secret?)
What you're suggesting is that they start a business, and most businesses fail unless they have a good business plan and suffiicient capital to survive while the business ramps up. And I doubt that a few Google ads are going to do the trick.
Druming up press could be possible... except that the local press also happens to be their competition, and I doubt that the situation is going to warrent extended television coverage. They're also reporters, not sales staff.
Further, in order to sell ads they're going to need traffic. As such, they're going to have to convince a significant portion of Santa Barbara that they should get their local news off the web, and Santa Barbara News-Press also has a web site, so there's inertia and competition to deal with too.
All-in-all, it seems, to me anyway, that it's far from being a "no-brainer".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
It's a startup...
I just wish them luck. If their prior employer was really that bad (and this is not for certain in any case) then they *should* put their money where their mouths are and start the better paper.
Let the best man win. :D
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Making some money...
All businesses are not created equally. In this case, they have a ready audience, they have press attention, and they have a professional staff. That gives them a leg up on "most businesses." They're focused on local news which is a huge advertising opportunity -- with clearly known advertisers, who are probably already familiar with at least some of the folks behind this venture.
And their alternative is to sit around while not making any money hoping the NLRB gives them back jobs they apparently don't like.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
A clever irony would be;
: )
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Long-running mess
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4226
(Amer. Journalism Review)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Doc Searls's take
http://doc.weblogs.com/2007/04/04#newspressonward
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Why not?
Sure, it can be a lot of work to start like this, but it's not impossible, particularly with all the advertising services out there. Plus, they are actually in a great position since they are addressing a relatively small local market. Online advertising, classifieds + some savvy guerrilla marketing and they could really give the local paper a run for it's cash (ala Craigslist). Even the cost of producing printed material has dropped dramatically over the last 20 years, so that's not out of the question.
If they are as good as they claim, finding 1 or 2 local backers shouldn't be too much of a stretch as there are tons of wealthy people in the area.
Chris.
[ link to this | view in thread ]