That having been said, the role journalism plays in democracy is critical, and until a business model can support an online only version with the staff required to provide the coverage we need, a public media model should be followed to keep startribune.com online. Part government funding, part private & corporate endowment, part user contribution.

Read this story in the strib. Then you will understand why your doors are closing.

http://www.startribune.com/local/43750552.html?cache=n&uccb=1240810971#post_comments

Shirley

The first thing to understand is that daily newsprint is history. You’ll lose this within the next year. A weekend paper makes sense, as a weekly news magazine. Your alliance with WCCO is smart as you someone to promote your website, just as MPR promotes its websites. I would get WCCO to make more of an effort to promote your site.

Next, try to get to a paying internet model. You can leverage your current subscribers by offering them a coupon on an annual subscription toward buying a “Kindle 2”, while at the same time offering similarly priced internet and mobile access. You will have to make a deal with Amazon for this deal. Understand also that this is not the end game. There will be better (more newspaper like) and more cost effective technologies that will replace the Kindle, but you have to survive until that point. Other enticements similar to what Salon provides will help. You want people to feel that they are not only buying a paper, but also being part of a community, which leads me to the next idea.

Next, start online communities around specific interests that you can own. Something similar to Facebook, but locally based. There is a terrific need for this. This can be things like a weight loss community, a handyman community, a metro recipe community, a car repair community, a motorcyclist community. You get the idea. The key is to have people contributing and being part of something bigger, and you are the channel. While there are currently many of these communities existing nationwide, I don’t know any that are locally based where people can actually also meet at a restaurant or bar.

You can also beat your competition if you do it better than them. This is require utilizing things like YouTube, and more advanced web programming tools that will allow peoples post to be found by the Google searchbots. As you know people like to have their posts available to be found forever. This will require your software to create static pages that can be Googled, a year after posting. This part will require free access to these pages, but think of these as free advertisements and hooks into your for pay channel.

Think about “hiring” (not with money) local reporters, who can cover school board meetings, and town hall meetings. Offer journalism seminars, that will not only train and screen these people, but also help create a community around the training. I know you want to save your own jobs, but there still is an unmet need for really local reporting.

That’s all I have for now. Hang in there!