Rocky Mountain News, folded just like that after 149 years and 311 days. Scripps put the paper for sale and a month later shut it down after no one made an offer to buy it.
Many people are proclaiming it is the death of old media but the reality is there is no alternative. Very little of the new media is gathering news the way the papers do. Even TV stations rely on papers for their stories!
I really like tosee the employees start a site on their own. The writing skills and contacts are already there, and video too. Domain and hosting from reputable places are available for cheap. WordPress or Movable Type are totally free. As are many of the themes, which can be customized to make the site look less generic.
Getting visitors might be a bit of a challenge at first but it s not impossible. If popular blogs and niche podcasts with small audiences can exist on ad revenue alone there’s no reason not to succeed. Nothing to lose really.
Great video after the jump featuring some of the paper’s staff talking about the demise of the paper
