I know, right? I'm totally with you.
A lot of good people got laid off or moved around to cover things they presently don't. I'm not too excited, honestly, about the state of the paper. Love them or hate them, the Dispatch is very important to Columbus.
Here are the changes to Dispatch that I know of:
- Reduction in editorial staff.
- Transfer of some editorial staff to other sections.
- I think the Arts section is going away. If it isn't, it will be severely pared down even more from the minuscule coverage it already gets.
- Size of the paper is going down a half inch in width
- Will be getting into mobile advertising
- Partnered with Yahoo! & Monster, will be offering some new features and things through that
- Will be putting out new niche publications and sections (one is already out - Capital Style)
Being in the print newspaper business must suck right now. Especially when the higher-ups keep looking at the bottom line, freak out, and do this kind of crap. I wish they'd realize that we still love our tangible paper! Maybe if they integrated things better, they wouldn't be in this position and piss everyone off.
Maybe the business model has to change, instead of selling one-to-one subscriptions. For too long, that's how they've operated: selling one paper at a time, one subscription at a time, or one monthly online subscription at a time.
Maybe they could partner with Roadrunner, Insight's and Wow's Internet cable and say, "for 25 cents a month per subscriber, we'll provide each of your customers with exclusive access to Dispatch online content." Now they aren't selling to each individual household, but to three companies who are already offering digital content to their subscribers. They could then offer the ability to households to get a Sunday print edition with more and different features than they get online. Maybe they can also offer, separately, to each subscriber the opportunity to upgrade and get exclusive access to all of their properties' online content for $2 a month or whatever.
Bottom line is that they've got to find a different revenue stream beyond advertising, and even online advertising is a difficult sell.