Halfway To Concord wins award
June 5, 2009
Halfway To Concord announced today it is the recipient of the East Bay Blogging Association’s™ top award for the “Best Independent Local Blog” that doesn’t suck like traditional print dailies.
Also receiving Best Independent Blog awards in this category were:
- Claycord
- Misterwriter
- Concordblogger/Mayor of Concord
- Crazy in Suburbia
- Cowellian
- Broakley
- The Lemon Lady
- The San Ramon Tribune
- Discovery Bay
and (just like the Oscars, we salute our fallen) in memoriam, the late, great DubC.
“Contra Costa bloggers don’t just repost slanted AP stories like the lazy, understaffed dailies,” noted Bill Gram-Reefer, publisher and editor of Halfway to Concord. “We all offer unique, independent, original, and, at times, better sourced and edited content that helps our communities discuss the news and issues of the day far more effectively and genuinely than BANG, for instance.”
The only thing Contra Costa bloggers copy, said Gram-Reefer, “is just like traditional print media, we created our own industry group and of course came away with all the metal just so we could publish it as self-serving news, just like the Contra Costa Times does!”
In fact, as much as locals cheered their favorite blogs, they laughed dismissively at the holier-than-thou East Bay Press Club and its puffery, citing the near monopoly status of dinos like BANG and the Chron and the curious notions they foist on an unsuspecting community concerning news coverage, journalistic license (a source said), and what it means to be “independent.”
Tags: california, East Bay, contra costa, contra costa politics, concord, best blog award, california politics, contra costa news, bang, oakland tribune, california politics blog, contra costa times
Place your legal notices here
May 29, 2009
POST YOUR LEGAL AND GOVERNMENT NOTICES AT HALFWAY TO CONCORD
$25 flat rate.
What’s with the shameless self promotion? Because once newspapers die off the California Newspaper Association’s legislative lobbyist won’t have a leg to stand on to monopolize the legal notices marketplace when new media sites can do a better job for posting pro forma legal and government notices. In fact, government notifications ought to be posted online anyways to save costs.
I can create a separate page; have a platform that can automate posting; and can offer far more competitive rates than the Times; and can guarantee documented unique viewers per industry standards including Quantcast or Compete. All a BPA or ABC audit documents is the print run.
The Times can’t tell government and legal ad buyers how many times someone actually read a legal notice, it just takes the money. I can do better than that. I will gladly take less money and document how many page views the legal ads get each month. Plus it will be live on the Internet until the server farm in Iowa gets hit with an catastrophic electromagnetic pulse.
This is real innovation and cost savings for cash-strapped Contra Costa County government!
Two things I would wager on if I were a betting man, 1) BANG revenue from legal notices is probably more than seven percent of the gross these days, at least for the weeklies; and 2) BANG is stepping on the costs by several orders of magnitude compared to costs to publish online. Heck, if Steve Weir needs an SSL certificate, so be it. Not a problem.
But progress on this point is thwarted by yet another in a series of dying and corrupt institutions that still manage to have clout in the Legislature, “We’ll support you; so you support us. Oh by the way Speaker Pelosi, ‘Bail us out!’”
California being so progressive and all. The only place hard copy of legal notices needs to be posted is in five district supervisor offices right next to the the binder containing all of the County jobs announcements.
Steve Weir…I will if you will. Let’s talk, soon.
Tags: contra costa politics, legal ads, contra costa times, newspapers, legal notices, california politics, bang, contra costa county, california newspaper association, california politics blog, contra costa newsWill you pay for online news?
March 3, 2009
The Wall Street Journal, which I would pay for, reports that Hearst newspapers, in a last ditch attempt to save itself, is considering making customers pay for some online content. The $64,000 Question is what value-add do you believe newspapers actually provide these days that would justify some cost to access online?
Which begs the question: “For what content of the Contra Costa Time would you be willing to pay?”
For which content in the Contra Costa Times would you be willing to pay to view online? (VOTE FOR UP TO THREE (3))
- None (57%, 27 Votes)
- Local Weekly (Transcript, etc.) (30%, 14 Votes)
- Letters to editor and opinion (19%, 9 Votes)
- State and local stories (15%, 7 Votes)
- People section (6%, 3 Votes)
- Sports (6%, 3 Votes)
- Entertainment: Comics, Movies, and TV listings (6%, 3 Votes)
- Obits (4%, 2 Votes)
- Business news (4%, 2 Votes)
- National news (-47%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 47
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Tags: california politics, contra costa times, subscription, hearst, san francisco chronicle, online news, digital news
News you can lose
December 29, 2008
A Pew research study says that for the first time, more people get their news from the Internet than from newspapers. Even more (70%) say they get their “news” from TV. So please don’t blame it on blogs; aim your rage instead at MTV!
Actually, it’s more a generation gap, where people under 30 are not watching TV as much and as many as 6 in 10 report getting most of their news online.
You’ll also enjoy this report that appeared recently in the “Financial Page” (!) of the New Yorker.
SF Chronicle to copy Big Tobacco
December 16, 2008
The survival strategy of the San Francisco Chronicle, and possibly newspapers in general, is to adopt the marketing model of Big Tobacco. Target your existing core customers of Boomer and G.I Joe readers and ride them into the grave, while grooming younger thirty-somethings with cash to spend on carefully packaged urbanity.
This, according C.W. Nevius, who spoke to the Walnut Creek Sunrise Rotary at Scott’s this morning. Nevius is the SF Chronicle columnist who was accused recently of disrespecteing certain homey East Bay bloggers. Nevius was understood to opine in part that newspapers do all the heavy lifting while bloggers steal the pearls of poorly paid and soon to be unemployed professional journalists, (not this part) who think so highly of themselves they are shocked on discovering no one wants to pay for their blather. Boo hoo.
Nevius did say that coming real soon now (May 2009) the Chronicle will bring a monster Heidelberg online that will print nuts-on high definition color on entire sections of high-quality glossy coated paper. The first phase of the Chronicle’s slick salvation strategy will imitate USA Today, with “charticles” consisting of maybe 200 word stories accompanied by charts, pictures, graphics, and other eye candy.
The whoop-ass press capability and glossy coated stock will give The Chron the opportunity to sell space to upscale advertisers like Versace that currently eschew unpredictable color reproduction on newsprint. Think New York Times Sunday Magazine in a newspaper format with a Sports Section and Comics.
But how much of the baby the print edition will throw out with the bath water is an open question:
- Color ads for Mercedes C63 in print and B&W ads from local dealers relegated to online classifieds?
- Sony Ads for Metallica in print but Mariah Carey tickets and raunchy ads for the club scene online?
- Then there’s the $64,000 question: “Can any Bay Area paper survive without being a wrap for Fry’s advertising?” “Probably not,” is the answer.
No matter how much lipstick they put on this pig it’s still a newspaper in big trouble. So the devil’s bargain will be to stop chasing demographics that never grew up reading an English newspaper. Instead, cater to the audience you already have hooked, and play to that demographic of aging geezers and HHI types addicted to spending discretionary income on sex (Viagra) drugs (Viagra), and Rock n Roll (a night at the Opera).
Noting the recent announcement of the Detroit papers to limit home delivery to just three times per week, Nevius predicted that one day, The Chronicle print edition will ikely amount to just 20,000 in a brave new media world where any print edition is a perk or add-on for the rich and famous.
Compare to the current conventional wisdom that offers free access to online content with a print subscription (e.g. WSJ). But this never worked as information just gots to be free, or so they say. According to Nevius, this model will be turned upside down where the new commodity will be ubiquitous online access with a print subscription as the premium add on. Like good-better-best cable TV offers, look for further segmentation of online access, as well. Sign up now for the NFL Ticket and get home delivery of The Chron free for 3 months.
All of this is simply speculation, and does not mean anything unless the newspaper industry, right now, fires every ad sales person that’s been on the payroll for more than two years. Take it to the bank: print sales guys are useless in an online world. They don’t know the Internet, they don’t know the nomenclature, they don’t know how to sell online advertising other than outsourcing online or print classified ads to the Philippines. Better to hire ad sales talent from radio than the cherry pickers that, like seasoned public school teachers, are just running out the clock.
Tags: contra costa times, business, future of newspapers, newspapers, san francisco chronicle, california politics, c.w. neviusNewspaper death spiral
December 2, 2008
According to TechCrunch, the Newspaper Association of America shows total industry advertising (both print and online) in the third quarter was $8.9 billion, down 18 percent from the year before. The online portion of that was $750 million, down 3 percent. So far in the first three quarters of 2008, the industry’s total advertising revenues have shrunk by $5 billion to $27.8 billion.
“Print advertising has been declining for ten straight quarters, but this marks only the second quarter that online advertising also went down. More concerning is that the overall rate of decline seems to be accelerating, a trend we noted in September.”
What’s amazing to me is to see that online ad sales have leveled off from the 30-percent per year gains to under 20 and falling. In my experience, this is more about the incompetence of newspaper online ad sales efforts once the low hanging fruit got picked clean.
Here is the percentage change in total newspaper advertising for the past five quarters:
3Q07: -7.4%
4Q07: -10.3%
1Q08: -12.85%
2Q08: -15.11%
3Q08: -18.11%
Newspaper Guild to hold online chat, Aug, 13
August 8, 2008
The Northern California Media Workers Guild plan to commemorate the Bay Area News Group East Bay’s (BANG-EB) birthday with a live moderated online Web chat on Wednesday, August 13, from Noon to 1:00 p.m., www.onebigbang.org This is the place to raise your questions to newspaper employees about what you see — and don’t see — in your local paper, and whether quality journalism can be sustained amid the historic downturns of the newspaper industry? The Guild wants to hear from you — please join the conversation:
Newspaper Guild on shaky ground at Bay Area News Group
June 18, 2008
The recent vote 104-92 vote authorizing the Newspaper Guild to represent qualified Bay Area Newsgroup employees, mostly reporters, may herald potential labor strife. According to Editor and Publisher, Read more
Contra Costa Times continues campaign finance coverup
June 2, 2008
The Contra Costa Times continues to allow its political reporter, Lisa Vorderbrueggen, to avoid full disclosure concerning her complete refusal to cover the subornation of the electoral process in Contra Costa County by special interest Independent Expenditures. In an comment (#34) posted on her blog, Lisa Vorderbrueggen does nothing but dissemble and tell tall tales to avoid admitting the truth that she was either played by campaign managers posing as her friends or she is a bent reporter that lets her political bias inform her decisions about what to write about or not. Read more
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