An Advertising Age article outlines how start-ups are forming in the wake of newspaper closures, downsizing and other changes to the industry.
The idea for having blogs or local sites isn’t new, “but with papers such as the Rocky Mountain News going under, the owner of both Philadelphia papers going bankrupt, and the San Francisco Chronicle and other major dailies teetering, what once looked like a good idea is starting to look like the only idea for reinventing the model for local news,” wrote Michael Learmonth in Advertising Age.
He noted that the operators of the new ventures do not anticipate replacing large dailies or small community papers. I am curious to see how they cover their respective communities. Even as the print journalism landscape changes (including some papers becoming Web only), I wonder about the needs of readers, particularly those who are not frequent or adept computer users or who do not have computers or consistent computer access?
Another trend that may help media is do-it-yourself, according to Jack Neff, author of another Advertising Age article, “Who’s Getting a Boost From Downturn: Do-it-Yourselfers.”
