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.

Seattle Courant Cartoon

The Seattle Courant is Seattle's first online daily newspaper. While looking for interesting cartoons on the demise of journalism, I came across this cartoon, which they recently published. Through the cartoon I discovered the rest of the publication. I found that The Courant is a hyper-local publication focussing specifically on Seattle. It is an interesting mix of short story features, local news and cultural writing and reviews. Very Seattle. Despite the fact that the top story this weekend is about whether Sascquatches exist, the publication offers an array of information most Seattlites or those linked to Seattle in some way, may find interesting. Clicking around the site, I discovered some interesting stuff like their 'Layoff Reports,' which track layoffs at Seattle businesses (181 from the Seattle P-I, included). This paper seems to be in direct competition with what's left of The Seattle P-I. Over on the P-I's front page the Seattle Sounders (a local Soccer team) was the top story. I guess if I live in Seattle reading about Sasquatches and Soccer could be my top priority. I imagine that each of these stories is interesting, but I have to ask, where's the news?

Discovering The Courant through a search for cartoons about newspapers got me thinking though. It's kind of like the the whole internet functions the way newspapers used to. We've had that discussion in class a dozen times now, about how our parents used to read the newspapers for one particular thing that interested them, like sports or entertainment, and then this cool thing happened; they'd discover something else that they hadn't set out to read like international news, a story focussing on politics or a movie review. Well, my cartoon search worked much the same way. I was looking for a cartoon for my blog, and I discovered The Courant, and a bunch of really interesting Seattle stories about Sasquatches, sporting events and city council meetings. But this is where the cool connections came to a halt. That's because The Courant does not seem to link to other publications or really anything else on the Web. So instead of continuing my adventure of news discovery, I was basically circling an information cul-de-sac. This basically shot down my original theory, that the internet is the new newspaper, to pieces, which was quite disappointing. But I think my hypothesis is half true. As the internet becomes more interconnected through links and aggregation, we may see the internet acting more like a newspaper. Meantime we'll have to keep backing out of dead ends, like The Courant. Or, perhaps, some folks may actually decide they like it there an decide to stay.

Citizen Foreign Correspondents?

After a bout with the flu I am now re-joining the bloggosphere. Thanks to our classmate Nikki Usher for sending me a link to Nicholas Kristof's recent blog about a new citizen journalism website where we can all become foreign correspondents. In his blog Kristof introduces us to a site called Demotix. Demotix, which set up shop in January 2009, is essentially an online, international, multimedia, newswire service. The site is named after 'Demotic,' the form of writing used and most easily understood by the man on the street in Alexandrian Egypt in 200 BC. The word Demotic meaning, 'of the people.' The people behind Demotix say they hope to open up journalism to the people in the modern age, just as the demotic script opened up writing in Ancient Egypt. They say they're filling the void left by the death of newspapers and old-fashioned on-the-ground reporting. With only four U.S. newspapers maintaining a foreign desk, they may be onto something. Their goal? To provide a place for anyone -- freelance journalists, citizen journalists, and people who just happen to be at the right place at the right time to upload world news photos and video, search for it and comment on it. The good news for freelancers is that they pay you. It works like this; you retain the copyright, they broker the photos and videos across all platforms for you and then Demotix and you split the fee, 50/50. They say they can get anywhere from $50-$3,000, depending on demand. And if you just happen to get something really hot, like say a great photo of a historic moment, they claim the pay could potentially range into the $100,000.00 range! Demotix also has an interesting blog where they invite people to discuss the pluses and minuses of citizen journalism. I was only down with the flu for about a week, but it feels as if in that short time the fault lines of journalism could have made some massive fundamental shifts. And Demotix might be ahead of the game.

Newspapers: To be or not to be?

I am dedicating this week's blog posting to The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, my hometown newspaper, which is threatened with closure as I write this blog. Well, to be honest, Port Townsend is technically my hometown, and its paper is The Leader. But the Seattle P-I was the paper my family read on Sundays and our link to the nearest metropolis. Although I now work in public radio, my inroad to journalism was newspapers -- and the P-I played a major role in shaping my world view. 

Founded in 1863, The P-I is essential to the fabric of Seattle. If you've lived there, when you think of the P-I, you can't help but think of the giant revolving globe, atop the shiny P-I building, sandwiched between Elliott Avenue and the waterfront. The globe is a landmark and touchstone. The 18.5 ton revolving sculpture with the slogan, 'It's in the P-I' across the equator came to symbolize a connection to the greater world for me and I'm sure for other Seattleites. Now that connection, as I have always known it, is threatened. The P-I is up for sale and the Hearst Corporation says they'll shutter the paper if a buyer is not found in the next few weeks.

My father was a working-class guy. He didn't graduate from high school and he wasn't a big reader. But everyday after long hours of work at the local naval base, he would come home, brew cup of Red Rose tea and read the paper. On Sundays this was an all-morning affair. There was always a newspaper to be found. And when our minds were full of the day's stories the newsprint made good fire starter for the only source of heat in our rural island home, a wood stove. 

That fire starter could soon be a thing of the past, but I hope the P-I won't There is a chance that the paper could go completely online and abandon its print edition. I know that whatever happens with the P-I, it will not be easy, and it could get messy -- especially for the nearly 200 employees of the newspaper. But perhaps the P-I will be one of the first newspapers to abandon their print edition and forge onto the new media frontier?

It's not just my sentimentality that makes me pine for some version of the P-I to stick around. As I paid my dues in newsrooms throughout Seattle, pulling stories for rewrites at KUOW, KPLU, NWCN and at KING5 TV, I quickly realized the paper was a cornerstone on which the city's newscasts were built. Whether or not the P-I can transform itself is yet to be seen. And the big question is, if it's not in the P-I ... then were will it be?