COMM 209: Life goes on ...

Last month's passing of The Rocky Mountain News has set off -- a better word would be intensified -- a round of doom and gloom in the media. For example, an article in today's New York Times by media columnist Richard Perez-Pena says it's just a matter of time before a major metro area dwindles down to having no surviving newspaper in its media market. He says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is about to go the way of the Rocky Mountain News, leaving Seattle and Denver as one-newspaper towns -- at least for the time being.

But in the meantine, there's activity in Denver. Not light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel activity but at least enough activity to ensure life will go on.

Perez-Pena of the Times isn't exactly cheerful:

... now, some economists and newspaper executives say it is only a matter of time — and probably not much time at that — before some major American city is left with no prominent local newspaper at all.

“In 2009 and 2010, all the two-newspaper markets will become one-newspaper markets, and you will start to see one-newspaper markets become no-newspaper markets,” said Mike Simonton, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, who analyzes the industry.

And so on ...

In the meantime, a former Rocky staffer named Robert Niles who blogs for the Knight Digital Media Center, talked with Steve Foster, assistant sports editor for interactive media, who launched his own effort [America's Fish] to provide an online home for several other former Rocky reporters and columnists. Something like this was expected.

But Niles has a gift for intriguing headlines, and one of them made me sit up and take notice. On Feb. 27, just before time ran out for The Rocky, he predicted:

Someone's going to get rich in Denver next week ...

Here's why. Niles said:

... with thousands of now-former Rocky readers looking for a new daily news source, there's a huge opportunity here for someone to get rich. Just put some of those readers together with some of those advertisers, using a fresh new online publication, and without the capital and corporate overhead, JOA [joint operating arrangment] obligations and debt that's weighing down so many newspapers across the country.

After some chit-chat about the Rocky's JOA with The Denver Post, Niles added:

A new online news publisher need not capture all of the Rocky's former readers, or advertisers, to do well. If a former Rocky reporter, or a small group working together, managed to claim just a few advertisers and a few thousand daily readers, they easily could clear more money than they did working at the Rocky. (Heck, I'm making more from my websites than I ever did working at the RMN.)

Again, that last sentence got my attention.

Niles ran a piece March 4 with another intriguing headline. It says:

Essential reading for journalists caught in the meltdown

I'd say Niles' blog in general, and the rest of the KDMC website as well, is essential reading for journalists.