Newspapers and coffee, duh!

Not making it as a newspaper? 

Add coffee and stir.

That's the unusual business model emerging in the Czech Republic. I have to admit I was a bit dumbfounded as I read a about it in the New York Times this morning. But it is actually a really cool idea. In an effort to reconnect with their communities newspapers across Czech Republic are opening up Coffee Shops adjacent to their newsrooms. They offer an internet connection and one-on-one time with their reporters who will help customers learn social networking tools. And I'm not the only one who thinks this idea could work. Google is backing the project, supply tech support and training. The European company that is developing the cafes, the PPF group group says it is meant to be the Czech version of hyper-local news. PPF, an Amsterdam-based firm with banking, insurance and media holdings in Central and Eastern Europe is partnering with Vlatva-Labe-Press, a German-owned publisher of Czech papers. PPF has invested 10 million Euros of 13.4 million dollars in the project and the company plans to begin publishing seven weekly newspapers and about 30 websites serving four distinct regions of the country next month. It's great to see such a literal attempt by a newspaper company to reconnect with their audience. A cup of coffee and a conversation can go a long way in building a relationship, and right now newspapers can use all the friends they can get.

America's Newest Profession: Blogging

We've all heard of the oldest profession ... one unemployed young journalists will thankfully never be forced to consider. That's because they now have the newest profession: blogging. The Wall Street Journal says that there are now almost as many people making a living as bloggers as their are lawyers in America. A striking fact for the most heavily lawyered country in the world. A quick search of wikipedia says that there is about one lawyer per 265 people in the U.S., and the bloggers aren't far behind. Check out the April 21st article by Mark Penn with E. Kinney Zalesne. 

I first heard something about this article in the form of an NPR factoid. the announcer said there are now about as many bloggers in the U.S. as there are bartenders. That got my attention, since almost everyone I know has done that job at one time or another to make ends meet between starting college and beginning their career. I thought to my self, 'now everybody needs blogs as much as they do beer?' Wow. 

That's when it hit me that I am really in the right place (USC Anennberg) at the right time. Where else could be better to weather the storm of the economic downturn, the transformation of journalism to an online medium and my own personal evolution from a low-tech news hound to a multi-media online producer? 

Now, I'm not sure that I want to devote my entire life to sitting in front my laptop cranking out blogs. After all, blogging, when usurped by corporations will end up being just as oppressive as a nine-to-five job. And that's not what I went into journalism for. I chose the profession for idealistic reasons, including being a part of upholding democracy, but also because it offered the possibility of a certain degree of autonomy, creativity and adventure and of course, constant learning. 

I think it's great that blogging has gained legitimacy, but my secret hope is that it remains mostly a free-for-all, haphazard, brainstorming bazaar where we go to search out intellectual trash and treasures. But no doubt, from this year forward it will remain an integral part of journalism as we know it.

What I found really striking about the WSJ article was the figures. Check them out:

* One out of every three young people reports blogging

* 2 % of bloggers do it for a living

* It takes about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75,000 per year

* Bloggers can get $75-$200 for a good post

* It takes about $80.00 and 35 months to get started

* Pros who work for companies are typically paid $45,000 to $90,000 a year for blogging

* One percent make over $200,000 and work 50-60 hours per week

Take a look at this blog which discusses the numbers further.

And this is the one that really blew me away ... Pen and Zalesne write, "as bloggers have increased in numbers, the number of journalists has significantly declined. In Washington alone, there are now 79% fewer DC-based employees of major newspapers than there were just a few years ago. At the same time Washington is easily the most blogged-about city in America, if not the world." Penn and Zalesne didn't say it outright, but they drew a correlation between the decline of journalist in the capital with the rise of bloggers. Pretty interesting stuff.