As covered here last week The Courier is reducing itself to a bi-weekly paper, giving up legal advertisements as a source of revenue and laying off staff. The paper announced that it was shifting its focus to the Internet and forming a partnership with Rutgers University. Mysteriously, that announcement has now disappeared from the Courier's website. Maybe the Courier or Rutgers changed their mind.
I found the strategy to be puzzling. If they weren't making ends meet as a newspaper, how could they possibly do so as a website? The Courier's website has on average a bit less traffic than this blog does. This blog is a hobby that doesn't feed any families. How can a business meet payroll and turn a profit with less traffic than my musings generates? I didn't go to Rutgers, but something tells me that it is not going to work.
The Tri-City News on the other hand seems to have found a way to make money publishing a weekly paper. Publisher Dan Jacobson will not publish any content on the Internet. He's all about the paper and its advertisers.
If you can believe what you read in The New York Times, Jacobson's paper has low overhead and is growing at a pace of 10% per year. It has been profitable enough to allow Jacobson to retire his law practice.
Not only has the Tri-City News been able to make money, it has amazing power and influence. If you don't believe me just read it. Dan will tell you how powerful the paper is in every issue.
Jacobson boasts of making the careers of Senator Jennifer Beck and Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon possible. Tommy DeSeno was a Tri-City columnists long before he ran for Freeholder or made it to FoxNews. Unless you live in Red Bank, you probably would have never heard of John Curley if not for the Tri-City News. I even had a letter to the editor published in the Tri-City News before I started this blog, got dismissed by The Courier or was condemned by the Middletown Human Rights Commission.
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DISCLAIMER: This song is a parody. In no way, shape or form do we advocate any harm befalling any journalist. With or without livestock.
Gaffney got run over by a donkey
Walkin’ home from Trinity Election Eve.
Jim can say there's no such thing as wheeling,
But as for me and Oxley, we believe.
She'd been drinkin' too much Kool Aid®,
And we begged her not to go.
But she said she had a deadline,
So she stumbled out the door and left to go.
When they found her Election mornin',
At the scene of the attack,
There were hoof prints on her forehead,
And incriminatin' wheel marks down her back.
Gaffney got run over by a donkey
Walkin’ home from Trinity Election Eve.
Jim can say there's no such thing as wheeling,
But as for me and Oxley, we believe.
Pokey’s headed for the pokey,
She's been nicknamed oh so well.
See her in Hotel Guadagno,
Watchin’ soaps and gettin' visits from Purcell.
It's “unsable” without Gaffney.
All the newsroom's dressed in black.
And we just can't help but wonder:
Should we open up the paper or send it back?
SEND IT BACK!
Gaffney got run over by a donkey
Walkin’ home from Trinity Election Eve.
Jim can say there's no such thing as wheeling,
But as for me and Oxley, we believe.
Now county’s on the table
It’s a prize that’s really big. (ahhhhhh)
And a gold and silver moolah,
Just hope Scudiery don’t call in the vig.
I've warned all my friends and neighbors.
Better watch out for yourselves.
They should never give a paper,
To a man who dyes his hair and plays with elves.
Gaffney got run over by a donkey
Walkin’ home from Trinity Election Eve.
Jim can say there's no such thing as wheeling,
But as for me and Oxley, we believe.
Sing it Captain!
Gaffney got run over by a donkey
Walkin’ home from Trinity Election Eve.
Jim can say there's no such thing as wheeling,
But as for me and Oxley, we belieeeve.
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