Ways Newspapers Can Turn Red Into Black ...

I'm sitting here late at night thinking not about the historic election that took place last night ....

Ok, I am thinking about that. I've spent the past two hours scanning various media to find the latest on close races, stats from states, poll numbers ... I've looked at a huge variety of data that obviously news organizations and other groups have spent tons of money to acquire! Someone's gotta be out there beating feet to interview folks about who they are voting for, why, what their background is, etc etc etc.

After carousing the NY Times - for free, the Irish Times - for free, the BBC - for free, The Oregonian - for free, CNN - for free, Pollster.com - for free, ABC - for free, CBS - for free ... I finally ended up at my hometown newspaper the Port Townsend Leader and realized I was reading news about my hometown that someone spent hours gathering, writing, and posting on the internet - and all this took place for the outlandish price of FREE!!!

It is no wonder Reuters is outsourcing some of their work to India. Should we be worried that creative jobs are being outsourced? Isn't the promise of outsourcing that only ridiculous manual labor jobs that Americans don't want to do will be outsourced? Should we be worried the Seattle Times has cut their staff by 20% ...

Well, that's a topic for another blog.

Ok, here is the meat.

Last night I went to an election party at the Grand Central Bowl in Portland, OR. Sponsors included the Bus Project, AM 970, and the Willamette Week among others. While checking out my hometown paper I had the idea:

Newspapers should fight the lack of funds induced by the advent of electronic media by getting into the event planning business!!! Who else has awesome contacts better than the editors and reporters of print media! They review books, they review bands, they review actors, politicians ... all sorts of interesting people!

Who do you want to party with??? INTERESTING PEOPLE!!!

So, while newspapers are busy slashing jobs wondering how to keep up with electronic media and the collaborative world of Web 2.0 AND losing TONS of advertising revenue, perhaps they should look outside of the box for their revenue streams.

Use the community they have built to promote concerts and artists and comedians and various other interesting people. THAT, is how people are starting to look at Web 2.0. Why not turn the mirror back upon real life ... is it time for REAL LIFE 2.0? Or wait ... that is what Second Life is for ...

Worried about objectivity?

Create some serious and rigorous standards and regulations.

Write them on paper.

Put them on your door so you have to look at them every time you go outside.

And for God Sake Man - Stop Sending Creative Jobs Overseas.

I hate being a delivery driver.

My brain is mush.

I can't throw ideas off my co-workers.

The majority of my conversations consists of "Thanks" or "hi" or "Seeya to-mar-ah."

I can't talk about anything creative ...

... just sports, video games, porn, and a bunch of other stuff I haven't cared about since I was 16 years old.