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THE INTERNET

No printing press required

JONATHAN DREW finds out how journalists are mixing blogosphere tactics with traditional media principles.

Stop the presses? (AP Photo)

Wednesday, 9 August, 2006, 11:10 EDT, US

New media expert Bill Densmore describes what has made DIY dailies possible.

About a year ago, veteran journalist Paul Bass was beyond frustrated with the corporate owners of the alternative weekly newspaper where he worked. So he did what most disgruntled newsmen could -- until recently -- only daydream about: He quit and started his own daily newspaper.

Borrowing the DIY ethos of the blog community and applying reporting and editing principles of traditional dailies, Bass launched the New Haven Independent in September 2005. It's just one of at least a half-dozen daily newspaper-style Web sites that have launched recently, including three others in the past 18 months in San Diego, Raleigh, N.C. and Chicago.

Unlike blogs, these outfits shun opinion and snarkiness and report their stories like a newspaper. But unlike a traditional newspaper, they're fiercely local and, um, not on paper at all.

"We aren't sacrificing any of the journalistic standards that we learned and that we respect," said Scott Lewis, one of two executive editors of Voice of San Diego. "We're just journalists trying to produce it online."

Bill Densmore, director of the Media Giraffe Project at the University of Massachusetts, said he expects to see more of these online-only newspapers, but he's not sure how far the trend will go.

"There's a fundamental thing that's holding it down. And that is, 'Are these things sustainable financially,'" he said. "There are a lot of people experimenting with the genre of local online news, but there are very few who have found a way to finance it."

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LOCAL COVERAGE FOR LESS:

The rise of blogs taught journalists that you don't need millions of dollars for a printing press or a broadcast tower to get your content out. In fact, for these online newspapers, the overhead can be virtually zero.

"We're boot-strapping it," said Randall Gregg, who publishes about five stories a day at The Raleigh Chronicle, which has one other full-time employee. "We have virtually no budget. But the nice thing about the Web is that the cost of entry is really low."

Other operations raised startup money from philanthropists or adopted a nonprofit model similar to that of public radio. Both Voice of San Diego and The New Haven Independent derive their budgets from a mixture of grants, corporate sponsorships and reader donations, with yearly budgets of around $500,000 and $120,000, respectively. The Raleigh Chronicle, a rare example of a for-profit DIY daily, hopes to earn money from ad sales.

Densmore said online news operations are cropping up as Web sites have become cheaper and easier to maintain, broadband extends its reach to smaller communities and traditional media cut back on reporting neighborhood news.

"The economics of the news business are such that it's becoming harder and harder for traditional news organizations to cover the chicken-dinner sort of stuff and so that creates more opportunities," he said.

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STEALING BLOG TACTICS:

Keeping the overhead low wasn't all these journalists learned from blogs. Throughout the day, Voice of San Diego constantly updates a section with new developments called "This Just In." Sometimes readers have then called or e-mailed tips for stories in-progress.

"There was a resistance at first to call anything on the site a blog but what we've learned is that there's also a resistance in the public for reading traditional, long stories," Lewis said, explaining why he offers longer pieces in smaller bites.

Bass augments his reporting by using another favorite tactic of bloggers: linking to other news stories, press releases or sources of research. Last week, he wrote about the political rally of a candidate in his state's heated Senate race but also linked to an Associated Press story about poll results.

"We can cover the local event but link to other media that gives you other elements of the story," he said.

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KEEPING IT NEWSPAPERISH:

But even as the sites acknowledge the lessons they learned from blogs, they're quick to emphasize the importance of maintaining the format and standards of traditional media.

Every word written by Voice of San Diego's four staff writers and several interns is edited by Lewis and the paper's other executive editor, Andrew Donohue. While Bass doesn't have a newsroom -- staff meetings occur in a coffee shop -- he also edits every word. He augments his "copy desk" by offering free coffee mugs to readers who catch typos. And while the Chi-Town Daily News is heavy on contributors' blogs, it keeps daily news stories front and center.

The emphasis tends to be local. For example, The Independent recently devoted 1,000 words to a story about the installation of solar energy panels at a New Haven synagogue.

But that's not to say these outfits aren't tackling weighty issues. The Independent's Bass, who also writes a regular political column for The Hartford Courant, has earned attention from national political blogs for his coverage of his state's Senate race.

The Voice has distinguished itself with hard-hitting coverage of city government, earning it a description as "feisty" in The New York Times. The reputation has helped the paper, which puts out four feature pieces and as many as 10 shorter news items per day, attract around 550,000 page-views per month, its editors said.

Their site's success is emboldening others to give the DIY daily model a try. Donohue and Lewis said they've met with at least a half-dozen other groups hoping to start similar operations, and Bass says there's "no question" sites like his will continue popping up.

With one- and two-person operations successfully putting out daily reports, it's not funding Bass is worried about: "It's burnout," he said. "I'm working way too hard."

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