https://rossdawson.com/will_all_newspa/ Keynote speaker | Futurist | Strategy advisor Sat, 13 Oct 2007 08:27:02 +0000 hourly 1 https://rossdawson.com/will_all_newspa/#comment-229 Sat, 13 Oct 2007 08:27:02 +0000 http://rd.wpram.com/?p=372#comment-229 The future of newspaper publishing.
A couple of us recently produced an eight page newspaper promoting a local community organization event. This was done part-time over a few weeks, and we paid for final artwork assembly by a designer and covered all of the printing and distribution costs for 30 000 copies of the paper entirely out of advertising revenue obtained from a handful of local advertisers.
We also plan to place the entire publication online in PDF format, with the printed copies of the paper heavily promoting the relevant website address.
I have never previously produced a newspaper, although do have some background experience in previously producing books, brochures and small newspaper ads etc.
The exercise of producing the newspaper proved to be so easy that we are now seriously contemplating producing a regular news publication to possibly counter the ineffective old style local monopoly daily newspaper that is published in the state, and which charges business owners huge fees for advertising in what must be one of the worst newspapers in the world.
All that needs to be done now is to identify a couple of capable journalists who are open to working online from their own premises and using their own resources to produce copy, plus a couple of commission based advertising marketers to connect with prospective advertisers, and a capable graphic designer to handle the layout and production tasks. Then we are in business, with a truly local publication (not one that is owned by some faceless multinational absentee landlord), that has statewide, national and possibly global reach via the Internet.
And the capital costs? Almost zero.
If we can do that from our location in one of the most isolated cities in the world, then so can many thousands of other independent publishers across the planet.
I would therefore suggest to individuals who own stock in traditional newspapers, that they seriously consider if they should retain their interests in the newspaper publishing industry or possibly move on to invest in potentially less volatile industries.
David Lockett
Perth, Western Australia

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