Stop the presses
Well, thank goodness. Someone is willing to stand up to the power of the newspaper-destroying Internet:
In an Internet age when newspapers are perceived to be in decline, a publisher has picked an unlikely spot to start one, a tornado-devastated town on the thinly populated eastern plains.
J.B. Smith, 65, of Pagosa Springs, who has published two papers on the other side of the Continental Divide for more than 40 years, figures the
Holly Independent can help the town recover.“I want to try and make everyone aware of what is happening. There will be a lot of stuff going on here for a long time,” he said in a telephone interview.
On Friday, he published his first edition, 5,000 copies, distributed freely here and in surrounding towns. The first newspaper in Holly in 35 years. Future weekly editions will cost 50 cents. He may also on the Web.
“We are very excited about having a newspaper again. I feel that this will spur the economy of our town and I think it will go over very well — the locals have missed having a newspaper,” said Town Administrator Marsha Willhite told the Pueblo Chieftain.
About 1,000 people live in the town two miles west of the
Kansas border, first populated by Hiram Holly’s ranch family in 1871. It grew with the opening of a sugar beet factory in 1905 that has long since closed.
How quaint and nostalgic. Let’s set aside the emotion and do the math: At 50 cents per copy, assuming a complete sell out with no returns, he’s going to get $2,500 back if he has a weekly press run of 5,000. But his town only has 1,000 people in it. Let’s also assume 2.6 people per household and every single household gets the paper (which ain’t gonna happen). That’s a whopping $192, which does NOT cover the cost of a print run, even one that small. And how is he going to cover the cost of mailing papers to outlying areas? Of course, he can always drive his truck all over that part of Kansas. Ummm … how much is a gallon of gasoline over there anyway? And all this assumes he gets enough advertising to pay for salaries, rent of a building, telephones, taxes, pens, notebooks, utilities, etc.
Feh. Unless this guy gets free printing from someone, and unless he gets a ton of charity advertising, he’s going to be out of business inside of a year. Only a complete idiot tries to start a weekly community newspaper these days. I mean, I wish him well, but he’s gonna be hemorrhaging money right from the git-go.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
your an idiot.
I believe that's "You're an idiot."
Every party has a pooper.
so, we're both idiots. I never claimed not to be.Most of your expenses can be cut out already. We're talking about a small publication. Chance are, there is no rent, no employees, no phone lines, no notebooks, no utilities, etc. Most likely, this guy is a one man show, out of his home and all the work is done on his laptop. Weekly's in small towns do not go out and look for news. They rely on submissions. They may cover the local village board and school board, but most stories are "good" stories (like what Jim Ardis wants) highlighting the good things in the community. They're not covering the latest homicide (cause there aren't any), how many drug busts there were last night (cause there aren't any) or how the mayor is using a city credit card at the Par-A-Dice. They are covering the honor roll at the local grade school, what the high school is having for lunch this week, the new project the Lions Club just paid for, who won the pee-wee baseball game last week, and Mrs. Dennis' vacation to visit family and friends in Albuquerque.There are thousands of these around the country. Some with smaller runs than the one you described and they cater towards a generation that doesn't even know how to turn the computer on. This guy isn't going to become Conrad Black doing this, but he'll make enough to cover expenses since his only expense really is the printing.
Ryan: I am really not feeling well, my vision is cloudy and my arm hurts like hell from a pinched nerve. But I'll address your comments anyway.
Between the two of us, I'll be the one speaking with authority about small weekly, community newspapers. Because I came to the Peoria Times Observer after serving for one year as editor of the County
TimesStar newspaper in Tolono, IL. Circulation 2,600 weekly.I assure you that while we did print plenty of the kind small town news you describe, we also covered town boards in all five of the communities we served, the school board and routine police and fire news. It also included comprehensive sports coverage, which included hauling my ass from one side of Illinois to another to cover various tournaments. Ever try covering post season football (at home) AND volleyball (away) on the same day? I have.
When the paper's business manager took sick, I did his job too. Which DID include driving to the printer to pick up the papers, driving bundles to the post office, and driving what's left to locations throughout the county to collect whatever coins we managed to collect from honor boxes.
That newspaper paid rent, electricity, phone, routine maintenance on beat up old Macs, a copy machine that had a crack in it, a fax machine that desperately needed to be replaced 10 years ago. You cannot run a weekly newspaper like that out of someone's kitchen.
I wrote about airplane crashes, train crashes (a tornado blew it over), a presidential visit to the U of I, the railroad's plans to build a spur in the heart of populated Tolono, school construction, etc.
I enjoyed ever minute of it. Unfortunately, it paid next to NOTHING. The owners were using it to write off losses (and were assigning expenses to this paper that had nothing do do with this paper).
And not once did I ever print a vacation notice.
Your going too big. This paper is not even comparible with the Times Observer. I don't know anything about the County Times.If you want something comparible locally, I'm not sure your going to find it around here. I still get one from my hometown in the mail everyweek. Let me give you a rundown of what's in it this week……The front page….list of graduates from local HS…all 85 of them.Page 2 – ObitsPage 3 – Police Reports…written by the PR guy for the local sheriff's dept.Page 4 – RIch Miller's Syndicated Column…community calendar, and editorialPage 5 – weding announcement, Relay For Life info, Honor Rolls, Community College upcoming classes, scholarships awards, local student graduates from college, Page 6, 7, 8, 9 – pictuers of the Senior Class and a short bio including what's next for themPage 10 – Church schedules, 4-H meeting review, new doctor at community clinicPage 11 – Ad for Sesquicentennial, "Queen" at the local nursing home, and Little Leagures honoring our troopsPage 12 – High School SportsPage 13 & 14 – Classifieds…mostly national stuffPage 15 – A list of veterans buried in 3 local cemetery's.This paper covers three small communities with a total of about 2500 people in all three towns. There is ONE person on staff…just the editor. She either writes everything herself everyweek or depends on contributions from others. The State Rep from the area will usually write a few columns on what he's doing in Springfield. A real estate agent writes a column on buying houses. THIS is the kind of paper that is being printed in Pagosa Springs. It's a few pages each to keep the community informed. If a plane crashes, I'm sure they'll run it, but only if it happens in town. Your making this paper out to be something it's not. It's not original reporting. It's just telling you what's happened in your town over the past week.If you don't think you can't run a newspaper like that out of someone's home, I'd be happy to give you the e-mail address for the editor of my hometown weekly….I'm sure she'd be happy to tell you that not only is it possible to run a newspaper out of your home…she's been doing it everyweek for 30 years.
The expectations probably won't be too high in Holly since they haven't had a paper at all in 35 years.No, this guy isn't going to make big profits on this endeavor. I doubt he could even earn a living on it, but it doesn't sound like that's his expectation. He's 65 and he's been in print journalism for 40 years. I'm guessing that this is his retirement project.Some people fish. Some collect stamps. Mr. Smith is going to print a weekly paper. Good for him, and I'm sure that the people of Holly appreciate it.Sounds like he's doing this for the love of doing it, and maybe he'll earn some beer & pizza money. Sound familiar, Billy? It's citizen journalism … just on paper instead of electrons & photons.
If you really want nostalgia, check this out:
The Sounds of 43rd Street
Interesting figures in the chart below; the number of weekly newspapers is actually increasing over the last decade (though by a small percentage)….definately holding their own.
ughh…lost the chart…here's a link to it:http://www.naa.org/thesource/16.asplook towards bottom of page
Here's the link to the chart; look towards bottom of page:http://www.naa.org/thesource/16.asp