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Authors, sign in!As we are all aware, the country's great newspapers and even local newspapers are at risk. In May of 2009, our local paper, The Rochester Eccentric, which had been purchased by Gannet, died a slow, but unnatural death.
Ever since May 2009, my community in southeast Michigan has been without a local news source. Immediately my thoughts turned to trying to save the paper. I called the managing editor, but to no avail. It was simply too late. The decision had been made and there was no changing the minds of the powers that be.
What to do. Why not start my own newspaper. But how?
I'm not a journalist. I have no experience in the newspaper business. I'd always thought the newspaper industry made a huge mistake allowing their content on the Internet and letting people read it all for free. I had seen the same scenario occur in my former career as a freelance court stenographer. I think had the newspapers charged for their content from the beginning of their move to the Internet, many of their financial woes would have bee averted.
In July of 2009, a small group of local residents began meeting to try to solve this problem. Our local government has had no 4th Estate to conduct the oversight function of a vibrant press.
Hence, The Rochester Citizen was born. The Rochester Citizen will be an on line only news source for Rochester, Rochester Hills and Oakland Township, Michigan. We will start out focusing on covering our city councils and school board meetings and expand from there.
We are still in our formative stages, so when you visit our web site, keep in mind things are still ramping up. We also have a fan page on Facebook and we're on Twitter and I hope you will become a fan on Facebook and follow our tweets as our venture moves forward.
Published January 8, 2010 by Bruce Fealk |
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| Tags:
Internet
Journalism
Media
Michigan
Press
