Eight reporters fired from the Santa Barbara News-Press have created their own Web site to compete against their former employer. The firings are the effect of a crazy labor dispute with the publisher.
Still, I envision a time when struggling newspapers cut budgets and reporters, who then unite to start their own rival Web sites.
Take note of how these reporters are running the content on their site. Top headlines now:
Natural Gas "Floating Factory" Slated for Key Votes
Measure D Vote Could Impact County's Share of Bond Money
Council to Discuss Tightening Neighborhood Growth Law
Wow, boring. Sure illustrates what happens when you try to import newspaper judgment directly to the Web. It might also illustrate why people don’t read newspapers as much as they used to.
I’m not saying those aren’t stories. But they’re not top stories. The bond money story should be a brief, at most. I hope these reporters keep at it. If they watch the traffic, they’ll learn what readers actually care about.
The really sad news is the News-Press' Web site is even worse.
Comments (1)
Newspaper-metaphor design.
Newspaper-style writing.
No conversation (no comments on stories, no blogs).
No multimedia.
The most interesting story (about the boy with autism) is "below the fold." (by their own "most popular" links, it's one of the most popular stories on the site.)
And these guys have pretty much told their potential readers: "Don't get too hooked to this site; we're going back to being real journalists when we get our jobs back."
And lest you think I'm being too hard on them, nothing that I'm finding fault with is hard or expensive.
Posted by Howard Owens | April 9, 2007 12:17 AM
Posted on April 9, 2007 00:17