Invest, Subscribe and Stay Engaged

More than 100 daily newspapers have died a slow, painful one in the last 15 years. And 20,000 or so staffers were canned.
In these times of ever-evolving reporting styles (#realnews, #alternativefacts) it’s more important than ever to stay invested in small papers.

When I started noticing some dailies charging a monthly rate, at first, I was incensed, but now I know they have to charge because they’re losing money, hand over fist. So what did I do? Subscribed! We needs these little papers. Especially in my remote news business.

People read news online and when the newspapers 5 or 10 free articles are done and they ask for some cash, people find another source (or, yikes… ask a friend). The local papers in our own communities really need our support. We NEED to have reporters at City Hall or at the next Board of Supervisors meeting if we want to know the facts (read #realnews) and not rely on hearsay.

Facebook and Twitter are also invaluable tools for the local papers. Posting every story is great, but engaging with readers is even more important today. Stagnant Facebook and Twitter feeds that auto-load don’t help your readers, us journos need to stay engaged 24/7. When a reader Tweets to you, tags you or messages you on Facebook, that’s a sign that you’re creating community. We have to have that community engagement in all forms of journalism or how else will we get leads? Plus we live in these communities or we have some interest in finding out what’s happening there. If the paper is not engaging with us and if we are not engaging with the paper, they fold, then we have nothing.

What do you think?