Blog as Community Newspaper (literally)
Perusing this list of the neighborhood newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area makes me wonder how they survive on the merchant advertising revenue model minus the printing and distribution costs. Now their online equivalents are called hyperlocal news, and Techcrunch of all places alerts me to a formula for a blog-to-print paper business model.
A New Zealand based company called ZetaPrints has automated the "blogpaper" - they cite their case study Flying Pickle as a successful example of how to repurpose a blog for print distribution and attract local advertising as a commercial venture. Flying Pickle was set up as a non-profit community blog without editorial bias to reach a set of communities of 6,500 people. The content is simply a business directory, community events listing and blog posts.
The case study promotes the idea that the print copy (literally a one page flyer) has been key to Flying Pickle gaining community recognition. The lessons and challenges are interesting:
ZetaPrints automates the ad copy preparation and print production, two of the three labor intensive tasks of print publication (the third is distribution).We identified a number of difficulties facing any similar project.
- Starting a commercial publication may not get such a wide support FlyingPickle enjoyed due to its not-for-profit status.
- Editorial policies should be liberal enough to foster an open discussion and variety of opinions.
- Be prepared to hostile behavior by those disagreeing with the content.
- Preparing advertising takes a lot of time and effort, often making it uneconomical, unless the process is automated.
- Preparing print-ready files requires special tools, knowledge and time, unless the process is automated.
- Gaining trust and recognition in the community is critical to attracting local advertisers.
- Active news gathering brings the publication to a completely new quality level.
Since ZetaPrints is in NZ, I've found another US-based option for webzine production: PublicSquare (h/t to Lifehacker)
TAKEAWAY: Is the blog / print publishing model viable for real estate bloggers developing a community marketing model? It's consistent with agents' ultimate goals of neighborhood visibility and good will associated with providing a community service.
Hi Pat -
This post definitely stops and makes one think. My first thought is that it may send panic through the local newspaper publishers - if they get it.
On the subject of real estate, I think the scope of the content coverage necessary would likely make this prohibitive due to the amount of time getting quality content. I think the more successful real estate bloggers are focusing primarily on real estate related information (statistics, market trends, land/real estate development news, ...) to best attract buyers/sellers.
Reply to this
Pat - great food for thought - it would definitely cause you to stay focused on your niche - which i think we all get tempted to stray from
Reply to this