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-----------> This message was posted to the ONLINE-NEWS list. <-----------


With regard to newspapers maintaining sites with information like online
City Council agendas, Lou Cove (lcove@masslive.com) wrote: "How do we make
the information available while keeping the distinction explicit?"

On its face, this doesn't bother me. To me, it would be another paid
service, and a good one. How would it be different, for instance, than the
legal ads that so many small newspapers already publish? 

I can see some confusion in that the editorial side has always taken it
upon itself to be as complete as possible in describing upcoming City
Council meetings and then being as detailed as possible about their
outcomes. But none of the papers I've worked with have ever had the means
to publish the entire contents of a City Council agenda -- that would have
to be the province of the city itself, since they already publish it, it
ought to be a matter of a simple keystroke or two to get it on disk or to
dump it directly into a Web server. The site could be labeled clearly to
show exactly what it is and how it functions.

To me it's just another possibility for small newspapers to take advantage
of the medium, and to have it pay for itself just that much more. I like
it. In fact, I'll suggest it to publishers when I begin my rounds chatting
up small newspapers about the possibilities of the Web, which I'll be doing
soon for the University of Minnesota.

A bigger question is how does a small newspaper afford a Web site on the
front end. Does it pay a staffer? I've seen newspaper staffer do some
incredible things when faced with necessity. My editor at the Fairmont (MN)
Sentinel, for instance, knew nothing about computers until he was thrown in
a position of responsibility over them as the publication's managing
editor. He trained himself like a madman, and in a few weeks time he was
the newspaper's unquestioned computer troubleshooter, and he was damned
good at it. Maybe that's the way to make the Web work. Just throw it at
someone and say, that's your job, learn it. I mean, when I got my job at
Channel 4000 in Minneapolis a few years ago, we were given less than a week
to learn enough HTML to go live online. Today, I can put out OK Web sites
on my own (with the help of an ISP of course), and I'm learning lot more
all the time on the design side. 

Cruel, but fair. But maybe too risky for newspapers to take that approach?
What say all of you?

Kevin Featherly


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