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Interesting topic.
since I recently became a owner of a online news service everyones opinions is appreciated on this topic.
Even though i don't subscribe to a newspaper its more out of rebellion then anything. i stopped subscribing way before i got involved in the business. however the neighbor does hand me a copy of the Sunday paper when he's done with it. the comics are my favorite, of course.
I would be very surprised if electronic news services were ever so popular that they could be considered a daily part of normal American lives. they do appeal to certain groups of people, and have their time and place. the same as bloggers do. there are many very good bloggers out there, but there are still way to many people who don't trust the internet, and who are uncomfortable sitting behind a screen for hours reading news. Its very much a part of American culture to sit back and read a paper. do a crossword puzzle, or fold it up on a sat morning and go rummaging. the best we can do at this point is appeal to those who do use the web regularly.
one of the reasons i believe we will always take a second seat to the papers is because of advertising revenue. the newspapers rake it in, at the moment i would be happy if it trickled in. heck i would be happy with stumbling in stone cold drunk. hard to grow with no budget.
it's very hard to build a trust up with advertisers when it comes to the web. ill get there though. where there's a will there's a way.
Another reason is the lack of local writers, have you ever noticed that the majority of news articles on the net were gleamed from other printed newspapers, or from press releases that were fed to the service through rss feeds. the online news services rely on the major newspapers to keep things interesting. content is king, and we can not get enough. I will get there though, where there is a will there's a way.
lol, actually at the moment i would just be happy if the server came back up. thats why i have time to be here. server crashed this morning. bummer, no news, is not good news, for rudedog.
i think the really big reason we'll never become a real threat to the established newspapers is that we have a really hard time establishing our selves as anymore then a hobby. people don't see us as legit unless were in print. i cant count how many times my business has been called a hobby by others. unless im making millions, and have a sign that says "IBM" or "Microsoft" hanging over my head its just hard for people to except what we do. many just call us community bloggers. im finding out credibility is everything in this buisness.
Kieth, Ever try to tell someone what you do, as they get that blank stare on their face. they haven't a clue what your about. i get it all the time.
even my in-laws who are programmers consider my sites as hobby's.
bummer huh.
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