To Be Announced...

For those that pay attention, newspapers are having a tough time maintaining circulation. I personally haven't subscribed to a newspaper since 1995 once I got high speed internet and realized that the entire paper (or at least the stuff I was interested in) was available on-line for free. I didn't have to order the print version. I've given out kudos to some papers like our local Cedar Rapids Gazette. They seem to know what other major newspapers don't...make your newspaper available on-line only to subscribers.

And I'm not talking about just simply requiring "registration" to read them...I mean actually making people pay a monthly fee. I think the CR Gazette does a pretty good job.

Besides, there are very easy ways around the "free registration" sign-up codes many newspapers make you enter before you can actually read the news on their sites. I found this website a long time ago and still use it today. BugMeNot.com provides updated lists of so-called "anonymous" usernames and passwords so you don't have to fill in all those registration forms when you just want to read a story on a newspaper website. Feel free to pass it on to your friends. It's fairly self-explanatory to use.

Since most newspapers are liberal, I don't begrudge them for not charging extra for their "valuable" service, but they're slowly realizing they have to make a profit if they want to stay in business and not have to fire a bunch of reporters and stuff...

See:

Time Inc. Lays Off Nearly 300
New York Times Co. will cut about 125 positions
Gannett to cut 31 jobs

And overall figures for print newspapers aren't very healthy:

Staff cuts, shrinking newsholes, angry investors, plummeting circulation, pessimistic analysts, stagnant print advertising revenue

So with the news today...

Web newspaper blog traffic triples in Dec-study

NEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The number of people reading Internet blogs on the top 10 U.S. newspaper sites more than tripled in December from a year ago and accounted for a larger percentage of overall traffic to those sites, according to data released on Wednesday.

Unique visitors to blog sites affiliated with the largest Internet newspapers rose to 3.8 million in December 2006 from 1.2 million viewers a year earlier, tracking firm Nielsen//NetRatings said.

U.S. news organizations are increasingly calling on their reporters and editors to write news blogs and compete with the expanding Internet format for informal analysis and opinion.

You would think the local newspapers would keep their "blogs" more up to date. I wrote a letter to the editor (not meant for publication) a while back - complaining about this very thing and offering up my own blog as a possible addition to their lineup. No response...although one specific blog I complained about (that had no fresh information since October last year) finally saw a new post.

Here's what the official "Gazette Online" blogs have currently and a bit about each of them.

The slug - A moderately okay blog, but not very local. Always freshly posted, but you can tell it's just a simple news feed provided automatically through programming. Last update or post: Today

Edge Business Magazine Blog - Boring and I don't get the point. Last update or post: Monday, December 04, 2006

State Rep. Tyler Olson Live From the Capitol - Not very live...only three posts in the month of January. Last update or post: Friday, January 19th 2007.

Gary Dolphin's Hawkeye Blog - only 2 posts in January...a pretty big month for basketball. Gary is a work-a-holic, so I expect he's just strapped for time. Last update or post: Monday, January 15th 2007.

The Hlog -- a sports blog by Mike Hlas that is actually very good, partly because it has to be. They advertise it on the main home page every chance they get, so Mike has a bit of pressure to have some fresh content on it. Last update or post: Today

On the street - Very little content and nothing that I actually want to read. The site is updated once every five days or so...but only 30 posts since June last year. Last update or post: Wednesday, January 17th 2007.

Behind online - Nothing happening behind online, whatever that is. Last update or post: July 9th last year.

That Dad: A parenting blog - kind of cute and updated fairly regularly. Not too bad of a read, but lacks information beyond a simple daily diary. Last update or post: Tuesday, January 16th 2007.

In Stitches for knitting knuts - Nothing there. Must be new. I can't wait to read the latest raging news involving Old Shale and Feather and Fan. Last update or post: None.

If you're going to have links to blogs on your website, at least have someone update and provide some fresh content. Either that, or actually find some blogs locally to link to instead.

I can't think of too many right now...can you? (subtle hint!).

PS...if you have a blog you read regularly - SEND ME THE LINK - and I'll review it and consider it for adding to the links here.