intro to journalism | paper three: the new local news

As newspapers continue to struggle with the economic realities that surround them, communities are wrestling with how their stories will get told in a post-newsprint era. While many traditional news organizations run the risk of going under (or already have), a crop of startup online-only news websites are beginning to make inroads in finding an audience and doing real reporting.

For this assignment, you need to look at one traditional news organization and the startup news site that also serves the same community (many of these startups cover only a small portion of the traditional news organization's geographic area). Choose one set of news sites from this list:

San Francisco Chronicle: sfgate.com   |   Oakland North: oaklandnorth.net

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: www.startribune.com  |  Minn Post: minnpost.com

San Diego Union-Tribune: www.signonsandiego.com  | Voice of San Diego: voiceofsandiego.org

Chicago Tribune: www.chicagotribune.com  |  Chi Town Daily News: chitowndailynews.org

Newark Star-Ledger: /www.nj.com/news/ledger  |  New Jersey Patch: patch.com

Seattle Times: seattletimes.nwsource.com  |  West Seattle Blog: westseattleblog.com

Analize the strengths and weaknesses of the two sites. Make sure that you achieve the following in your 500 word paper:

• Discuss the geographic region of each site—how they overlap, and how they don't.
• What is the editorial approach of each site?
• Point out three truly innovative things about each site
• Point out three areas that could be improved about each site
• How would you imagine someone would interact with this site on a daily basis? Why?
• How does each site visually differ from the other?
• What about content—how does it differ?

Most importantly—focus in on this question: 15 years after the breakthrough of the commercial internet, what can traditional news organizations still learn from smaller startups? And, as the startups gain surer footing and become more ambitious, what can they learn from traditional orgs?

Please keep your paper concise and on-topic. Personal opinion should be kept to a minimum (i.e. NO "I thought this site was ugly." "I thought this thing was boring."). 500 words. Due on May 6.