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"... without the baggage of a long-term print institution"

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Nov 23, 2006
by Calvin Correli
1 min read

Two top journalists from the Washington Post are leaving the post for a web-only news startup.



Mr. Ryan said the future was in a multiplatform approach to news, “without the baggage of a long-term print institution.”



It’s classic Innovator’s Dilemma: You can’t start a low-cost, agile operation from inside a high-cost business in decline.



It’s pretty clear that audiences are online now, and that shedding the cost of print and focusing on digital is going to be the way to go. Printing has gotten cheaper as well, so as long as there’s still money to be made in print, you can use that for more backgroundy things that can be consumed when you’re not near a computer. But online should clearly be the focus now. G24 is an interesting combo play. (Via David Shen.)

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About Calvin Correli

I've spent the last 17 years learning, growing, healing, and discovering who I truly am, so that I'm now living every day aligned with my life's purpose.

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4 comments

Dan August
 

For a number of years I've been a layout/designer for a small academic journal, which publishes a themed book twice a year. Although publishing has become much faster, easier and cheaper over the years, my experience is, that what is saved is usually invested in more images, colour printer, more pages, better paper, etc. There are many ways to optimise your product. For what it costs to produce, print and distribute an academic journal you could hire a freelance web designer for about half a years work and pay for hosting. An academic journal is financed by subscribers, retail sales, but the bulk of the funding comes from private and public funds, which subsidise by giving one-time grants. It is easier to apply for and get funds, if you have a project, which yields a specific product. It is much harder to get funds to cover operational costs. This, off course, supports the existing paradigm, where a patron gives money to a project and has his or her name on it in return. They want to know where the money went. In other words: You can finance a book (project), but you can't finance a web site (operation), although the latter holds a multitude of advantages, especially in the academic field. I hope this is not too off-topic for your post.
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Lars Pind
 

This is entirely relevant. I've talked to other trade publications where the funding is directly tied to it being in print. That's got to change, though, though obviously it may be a slow process. One can still do "issues" like A List Apart and Boxes and Arrows, don't know if that would change things, and you could use Lulu for print-on-demand, making it a real issue.
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Dan August
 

I don't think issues like the ones at ALA or BnA are enough, though it's a start. However, slashing costs for print and distribution would free up some resources, but putting content online for free will not pay the remains of the costs. One might consider other sources for income like AdWords, merchandise, arranging conferences and seminars, but I fear it's not enough. All systems require maintenance and attention, therefore some kind of income is necessary. Maybe some funds can be persuaded to donate money for periodicals on the web. Especially if they have a reputation from their days on paper.
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Lars Pind
 

Right, there's tons of ways -- jobs, classifieds, regular ads, etc. If you have a large audience or a niche audience, there's money to be made to at least offset the cost. And the interaction will make it a more interesting place. And you can source your audience to lower costs.
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