David Westphal: February 2009 archive
Recession? Local news sites are hanging tough
February 26, 2009
Mary Morgan couldn't have picked a more difficult time (the middle of a recession) and place (Michigan and double-digit unemployment) to start a new community Web site. So why is she smiling?It's because Ann Arbor Chronicle is coming up on its six-month anniversary, it's meeting financial targets, and Morgan and husband/business partner Dave Askins are able to pay household bills out of revenue from the site. "When I was a business reporter, I used to laugh at firms that marked each anniversary," said Morgan, who acts as publisher. "Now I know how they feel."
With a deep and potentially long recession set in, I wanted to circle back with Morgan and some of the other for-profit news site owners I talked with last fall, and see how their mostly new operations were faring. The question has taken on more urgency in recent weeks. As economic conditions have worsened and newspapers have shown accelerating signs of stress, the health of these online-only news sources seems suddenly more critical.
The anecdotal answer from my small sample group is this: So far they're hanging tough. More...
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