And then I put a band-aid on his severed neck [The press is falling]

A friend posted a link on Facebook tonight to the Reuters article about the senate bill introduced today that would allow newspapers to restructure as nonprofits.

Pause.

Now, I clearly work for a nonprofit news source, so I believe in the concept.

But riddle me this: says the article "Cardin's office said his bill was aimed at preserving local and community newspapers, not conglomerates which may also own radio and TV stations."

Oh, really?

The Reuters report later lists the papers that have ceased or reduced publication -

Seattle P-I - owned by Hearst (28 TV stations)

Rocky Mountain News - E.W. Scripps (10 TV stations)

Baltimore Examiner - part of a media group of newspapers, but the owner also owns stakes in a number of professional sports teams, movie theatres, radio stations

SF Chronicle - see Hearst

He then mentions Gannett, Advance and Tribune.

Seriously?

Community newspapers, according to the National Newspaper Association's 4th quarter 2008 results, are outperforming the industry at large by 14%. Larger metros were down 20%, the industry 21% and community papers - 6.6% (Full NNA report >).

Forest, meet trees, trees, meet kettle, kettle, meet - oh, nevermind.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer goes online only [The press is falling]

It was announced today that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer will print its last edition tomorrow, March 17 and shift to online only publication. This leaves Seattle with one daily newspaper, The Seattle Times.

While many saw this coming, it will be interesting to see it actually play out - how will seattlepi.com change and grow and will it truly embrace the medium it now calls home? Will it innovate and problem solve, or continue to try the same old tricks?

Here's hoping that having the staff of this large and this prominent of a publication fully focused on an online model will uncover a thing or two. Or ten. And help illustrate the common sense that many are missing.

Because, really.

In Denver Times [Striking while the iron is hot]

Former Rocky Mountain News staffers announce online venture called In Denver Times based partially on subscriptions.

Now, while I thoroughly believe that unless you have highly specialized content, subscription models don't work, I'm going to go ahead and say that I think they have a pretty good chance of reaching their goal (50,000 pledged subscribers by April 23rd). Why? Because their business model has little to do with the circumstances under which they're kicking it off: the perfect storm of passion, drama, incessant "death of newspapers" coverage (oh wait, is that the same as drama?) and a city that just lost an institution. It's very Mickey and Judy "let's put on a show" and that is never to be underestimated.

And the logo design is good.

Now, whether its sustainable or not will have to do with a whole different set of details - how good is the subscription-only content? How is the business structured internally? See all previous questions regarding seattlepi.com.

But I personally think we'll get to the place where these questions get the chance to be answered. This, in itself, is almost more a viral campaign than the launch of a new form of journalism. 'Twill be interesting to watch indeed...

Update: I like the logo, less so this video, but in general the right idea...

Can someone explain the drama? [Substitute paranoia for reality]

I can barely bring myself to comment on this, but I'm going to try.

Newspaper publishers are all up in arms because Google is now serving ads on news search results.

Can't do it. The reality is too bright. I can't even find the words to state the obvious.

Ok. I'll try harder.

Google ads, as any blogger will tell you, make pennies. They only make many pennies if you have many stories. So, if any of the single news sources returned in any said Google News search were to make the amount of pennies owed it based on the fraction of the result for which it's responsible, it would not be many pennies. Not to mention that the search is only being done where it's being done because of the promise of many scattered results.

Each publisher is more than welcome to develop their own intelligent search ad serving software and site-crawler and do exactly what Google's doing.

What's that? Oh, right.

ExACTly.

Gawker's Owen Thomas apparently has the energy to intelligently break this down with a little less snark.

Which part of "not the WSJ" is confusing to you? [Grasping at straws]

*Sigh*

Newsday thinks is can charge for its web content.

I truly don't understand how people make these decisions. Because, really.

Ken Doctor has the energy to verbalize why this is a bad idea here.

Is some communication too much to ask in these already frustrating times? [Piling it on]

My husband, within a week of being laid off, interviewed for a mid-high level job in his field. The organization had been looking to fill this position for a while, and because the local paper is bleeding jobs, had interviewed quite a few likely capable candidates. So by no means was my husband a shoe-in - especially since the job specialized on a subject my husband isn't familiar with. After the interview, they said they'd let him know either way.

After a few weeks without hearing anything, he followed up with an email. No response. That was two weeks ago.

Today, on craiglist, a posting for said job.

I know folks get busy and take forever to make hires, but if you say "let you know either way" and you're hiring for a semi-senior position in an industry where everyone knows everyone and the walls are crashing in, let a brother know.

Craigslist?

Because, really.

Live and in virtual person [The press is falling]

Though everyone's on edge and continuously waiting for the other shoe to drop, it's still horrifying when it happens, especially when we all remember, as humans, that all this drama comes home to roost at the doors of actual people, with families. And even more so when technology allows us to get a front row seat. It was announced today at noon that Denver Rocky Mountain News would publish its last edition tomorrow. How's that for short notice?

Denver Rock Mountain News liveblog of the actual announcement >
Denver Rocky Mountain News newsroom Twitter account >

Because, really.

On KDHX [The press is falling]

Margaret and I on KDHX >.

The link goes directly to the stream.