If you can hear the thunder in the background, it is the sound of the Sacramento Bee attempting to change the current paradigm of how major newspapers deal with politics and the internet.
The Bee was on the front end of internet blogging, providing a forum and support for columnist Dan Weintraub as he attempted to pull together the first real blog on California politics with no road map to follow. From our end of things, how would it look? How often would he write? What would be the kinds of things he would write about? From the ‘back side’ — how do you integrate the real-time efforts of a blog with the idea that editors like to review what goes up on the website? Anyways, Dan plowed through all of the challenges, and the Sacramento Bee lead what has been large cadre of journalists who now blog for their newspapers, radio stations, and even some television stations.
Now, of course, with trends showing that all print newspapers are declining in circulation as more and more readers look to the internet to get their news (blogs, podcasts, websites and more) — the Sacramento Bee is now looking to see how they can make their web-based reporting more…profitable.
This week they have launched their new Capitol Alert website. You can check it out now for free (click on the ad to the right). But in less than two weeks, the free trial period will be over. The price to get ‘behind the firewall’ for their in-depth political coverage? $500 big ones a year! What do you get? Well, I’m not their pitchman, but they snatched up the dynamic Shane Goldmacher from Capitol Weekly, and Shane is now coordinating a service that brings together much of their political coverage. Most signifant of all of this is that Dan Weintraub’s well-respected blog will become available only to Capitol Alert subcribers (fear not, Dan assures me that his columns as well as his current and future policy-oriented blogs will still be available to all). Goldmacher will also be filling the page with ‘buzz’ from around the Capitol, aided by the Bee’s Steve Weigand. Dan Walter’s has a members-only section, as well. In perhaps what is the most interesting feature for subscribers, the Bee is actually ‘making tomorrow’s stories available tonight’ — publishing print stories that will appear the next day, the night before!
It will be interesting to see how this works out for the Bee, and how their protocols work. Some other premium services such as Capitol Journal’s Hotline in Washington, D.C., make their service available for free to government workers, and to journalists, charging everyone else for access. I’m not sure how this will all work.
If anyone can make it work though, I have high hopes for the Bee. They have a tremendous amount of talent, which is being coordinated by Amy Chance, a top-notch political editor. But they also have a big challenge ahead of them. Many have gotten used to getting political information from the web at no cost. $500 is a steep price.
Oh yes, FlashReport readers can rest assured, we will continue to offer all of the profound wisdom you have come to expect — for free. But then, our overhead, unlike a major newspaper, is very low….
*9 am Update: A couple of clarifications — apparently a two-week trial period will be made available to any perspective subscriber from the point at which they express interest, and it may be some time before all non-subscribers have to go ‘cold turkey’ on Weintraub’s blog. It will eventually be available only behind the premium firewall, but we’re not sure exactly when that will happen.
11:45 am CORRECTION: In the original version of this column, I stated that the Capitol Morning Report provides their subscription-based service for free to staffers and journalists. Actually, I was wrong – everyone pays for their product.
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I will close today’s column with a great Observation from freshman State Assemblyman Jim Silva (R-Huntington Beach), which is excerpted from a column he authored:
Why Limited Government Is Needed?A certain level of government regulation is necessary to protect consumers from fraud, and to protect business owners from being crushed by monopolies or unscrupulous competitors. But too often, government bureaucrats try to micromanage businesses, with no benefit for the consumer or the business owner. The Legislature’s majority party is particularly fond of piling layers of bureaucracy on business owners – in the previous legislative session, a Democrat even introduced legislation to regulate the way your local grocery store stocks its shelves (SB 582) – and these unneeded restrictions create new expenses for entrepreneurs, as well as new exposure to frivolous lawsuits.
I believe that government officials should be extremely cautious when considering new business regulations, and should always consider the potential harmful impacts on small business owners and their hard-working employees. We should look for ways to reduce taxes, fees and government paperwork, so business owners and employees can spend more time serving the public and growing their companies.
Here here.
Have a great weekend. Next week I’m taking a trip up to Sacramento — so we’ll be able to do some live-blogging from the Capitol, which always makes for entertaining reading!
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