Assuming all goes well in the Centennial State, Singleton's MediaNews Group will install another 300 printers in Southern California homes come August, allowing subscribers here to create i-editions of the Los Angeles Daily News.
Bill Mitchell at Poynter explains how the system works:
Consumers pay the printer's manufacturer a highly discounted price for the Internet-equipped device and they pay a modest subscription price to the local newspaper. The newspaper reimburses the consumer for ink and paper, and advertisers pay the newspaper to get their messages delivered to customers located nearby.With the discount, the $150 printers will cost subscribers about $50, Mitchell reports.
MediaNews appears to be pinning its hopes for I-News on a "hyper-local" advertising model. Coffee shops, grocers, liquor stores and the like will be able target ads and coupons to I-edition subscribers who live only blocks away. The ads will be a bargain for local shop owners, and yet the rates will be higher than for an online ad.
Althought it seems inevitable that the i-edition, if successful, will influence how MediaNews apportions its limited newsroom resources, the more immediate effect will be on daily circulation. As the Denver Post reported back in March:
One proposal, based on how well testing in Los Angeles goes, would be to print the newspaper only three days a week. That will already be the case with the two papers in Detroit, including MediaNews Group's Detroit News, starting March 31.
"Our greatest expense is printing and delivering a newspaper," [Mark Winkler, executive vice president of sales and marketing for MediaNews Group], said. "Eliminating it four days a week would be significant."
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20 comments:
what another waste
this kind of thing may work in denver, but not l.a. people don't want to add another piece of equipment to their own. to purchase it and to spend the time printing. not the answer folks!!! the la daily news has a huge elderly population who prolly won't even know how to plug the thing in.
I forget where I read this recently, but the purpose of journalism has never been to give readers the news they want, but to give them the information they ought to know.
No, this isn't elitist. If Dean's little printers had been in existence in Washington in 1972, who would have wanted news about that "second-rate burglary" that wound up bringing down a president?
Bells and whistles don't solve problems.
Am I reading this right? Readers will need to buy equipment to get this service?
Oy!
I don't know about this getting people to buy printers. Seems like, at best, it will be a tough sell. For all our sakes, it would be great if it worked.
So to move into the new century, we reach way, way back into the last one. Only MediaNews. Where are the tree huggers when you need them.
how much debt is he spending on this venture? and when it fails?
Hey why don't they just make them by Laserdisk machines and send the a laser disk of the paper each week. Like Netflix!
Please stop the insanity !!!!
You watch. It will work and lead the industry toward acceptable profitability. Then, the company wil cut back on the home printers, and expect neighbors to share printers. The price of ink will go up and the company will be slow to reimburse. The back office people will not process requests for printers, though still collect credit card payments. The guy delivering the printers will be laid off, as will one of the two remaining LANG reporters writing hyperlocal news out of leased space in a Covina Starbucks. but the concept will work.
He expects people to come out of their pockets for $50 bucks on a printer so they can print his newspaper at home??
WTF would anyone do that for when they can still read it online for free?
It would be a crying shame to have this company die. Who else can compete with the WWE for a good laugh and strange plot lines?
I sure would liked to have heard the sales pitch that started this down the track. My thought...all who heard the pitch should be given a drug test very quickly.
Just when I think Medianews can't get any worse, they do, in spite of my zero expectations. What a pathetic joke.
4:20, that was the funniest post yet. Sad thing is it's true. Dean is a joke. I say pull the plug, the patient (LANG) won't make it.
DENVER (AP) -- Media News Chairman William Dean Singleton, in an effort to enhance his fading newspaper properties, today announced a new initiative to deliver the news.
Calling it "News in a Bottle," Singleton will stuff blank paper and crayons into empty coke bottles, which will then be parachuted with reporters into readers' driveways.
"The bottle will have the parachute," Singleton said. "The reporter won't."
Another well thought plan by the boys in Denver...YIKES!
The life expectancy of reporters dropping from a plane without a chute is longer than those who are still on the ground. Sorry, can't help myself here, Janiga said no more layoffs.
Sounds like little eddie and Renee got together for this brilliant strategic operation.
William Dean Singleton, Emperor of all Medianews and Vincent Kennedy Mcmahon, Chairman of the WWE, announced their upcoming cage match to be held in the open caverns of Woodland Hills, Ca. Plenty of space, parking will be cheap, and there won't be a conflict with the NBA. Protesters are expected to amass in droves over the unfair Singleton advantage...rumors are circulating that only two things held Singleton back in his quest to be a newspaper success and a wrestling tycoon...talent and ability.
so when this doesn't work, who will medianews blame? and how many more layoffs will occur?
a day late and a dollar short. no staff, resources or anything. why are they using the DN as the guinea pig?
They are using the daily news because they have less at risk there. More bleeding than anywhere else at lang. And, they spun the wheel and that is what came up...you think there was a well thought out plan?
no, that's not true. it is a bigger paper. the most circulation and name recognition etc etc.
Please don't go down this well worn trail yet again about the Daily News being the flagship of LANG.
If you aren't in the business and aren't a subscriber, of which there aren't many left, there is virtually zero name recognition here.
Old Dean spun the wheel and that is the name that came up.
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