the newspaper business

At a high school in Naples, Florida, if you want a good grade in journalism, you better be prepared to sell some ads or spend some money.

The syllabus says $600 will get you an A, $500 will get you a B, $400 gets a C, $300 gets a D and less than $300 worth of ads sold will earn a student an F on the assignment.

It would be pretty unusual for kids in journalism class in ultra upscale Naples to actually go out an “sell” an ad. First, Daddy and/or Mommy would probably buy the ad for the family business or favorite charity. Second it’s not really “selling” it’s asking for a donation.

What about the less affluent kids? I guess if they are working two jobs after school, they could hit up their employer, that would go over well.

A brilliant school board member said:

… the district needs to take a closer look at this class, and others, to find a better way to grade students.

There has to be a way to encourage participation without it being related to money,” said Abbott.

Gee, ya think?

Hat tip.

Lots of discussion in the newspaper world of paid vs. free access to online content.

Here’s what a stock analyst says

If it were up to me, it would be a no-brainer. There are so many venues for obtaining news in today’s world I find it hard to believe that anyone pays for an annual Wall Street Journal Online subscription.

But Paxton Media who owns a number of newspapers in Kentucky including Paducah and Owensboro are just as adamant that charging for online access is the smart thing to do.

We will remain free access for all local news.  Later this year we will even provide open access to archives for our print subscribers. (It’s free for fourteen days to anyone now.)

We are expanding our online presence by adding The Amplifier (http://amplifier.bgdailynews.com) to our site.  The Amplifier has music from local bands, will have more local video, more listings.  We think it’s smart to keeping expanding what we offer to deliver as many eyeballs as possible to the advertisers who see the future of the web.

We’ll give up some revenue, but like the analyst  says, there is more revenue to be made being the dominant local source for news online and in print.