MEDIA:AT A time when newspapers in the US have been folding at a relentless rate, Chicago-based entrepreneur Joshua Karp admits that many people thought his plans to set up a new newspaper were a little suspect. And when he explained what this newspaper would be made up of – content from online blogs – many people thought, and perhaps still think, that he is plain crazy.
After all, the current trend is for publications to switch mediums from print to online. The Christian Science Monitor, for example, is due to become a web-only publication this year. Karp’s publication is going in the opposite direction.
The first issues of the Printed Blog went out in Chicago and San Francisco last week. Karp told The Irish Times that he started to think about some of the principles of blogs and working online, and applying those principles back to the newspaper industry.
“I started to realise that I enjoy newspapers. It’s a different experience reading a newspaper than reading something on your iPhone or BlackBerry. The physical experience, the tactile experience of reading a newspaper and spreading it on your breakfast table – I hope that doesn’t go away.”
Karp adds that it’s easy to forget that not everyone has iPhones or 3G: “And . . . there is fantastic content online that we can bring to them.” The 300 or so bloggers who have so far agreed to have their work republished get a share of the ad revenue. The Printed Blog will have what Karp refers to as “hyper-localised” advertising. Instead of having one ad for an entire city, for example, advertisers will be able to target specific areas at a cheaper rate.
The content too is to be very localised, with various editions reflecting the interests of the community that they are being distributed in. The paper will be printed in the various distribution centres.
“We are not a one-size-fits-all proposition,” says Karp. “In Chicago, there’s a free paper called RedEye, which goes out to 200,000 people daily. So you buy an ad for $1,000, or $20,000. And you have no choice but to pay your money and have your ad go out on the entire circulation . . . We work in 1,000-reader chunks so our ads cost a fraction of that.”
Flowerpetal.com, a florist in Chicago, was one of the first advertisers to sign up to the Printed Blog. Its founder, Brian Crummy, said “the Printed Blog allows a company like flowerpetal.com to expose a variety of designs that are more likely to fit the needs of those living in a particular neighbourhood”.
John McCaw, chief executive of directoryofschools.com, another advertiser with the Printed Blog, said the publication “allow us to target the demographic that is most likely to be interested in our services”.
Karp says that so far, the level of interest in the Printed Blog has surpassed his expectations: he has been featured on National Public Radio and in the New York Times.
The blogs featured, says Karp, will range from the Daily Kos, an influential political blog, “to the guy in his living room who gets about 30 people a week but who is a brilliant writer and who has a voice that we think people will be interested in”. One of the cover stories of the first edition of Karp’s publication is from Bastard Life, a sex and relationships advice blog.
Karp describes the main blogger on Bastard Life, Neal Boulton, as “amazing, exactly the type of blogger we are hoping to attract”. Boulton is also enthusiastic about Karp’s publication: “What Josh is doing is a very important step in the bridge between print and online – which up to now, no one has successfully synergised. This is about something bigger than getting more readers – this is about being a part of the next wave of print journalism.”
Lauren Dimet Waters, the editor-in-chief of SecondCityStyle, a fashion blog which is featured on the Printed Blog, said that there will be a symbiotic relationship between her blog and the paper. “I figure if they are making money, then we are getting exposure which in turn gets us more advertising, making us money.”
Still there are plenty who remain sceptical at the prospects of the Printed Blog being a success. Jack Shafer, media critic with online web magazine Slate, says, “It seems crazy to me.” (He does add, however: “But I’m terrible at predicting the future.”)
“It might work on a very limited basis but I cannot imagine bloggers appealing to a block or two of residents in a densely populated urban area,” says David Cohen, a founder of Silicon Valley Community Newspapers. “The information would be too limited and advertisers wouldn’t get the response they need since the circulation would be too small.”
Nevertheless, Josh Karp is unperturbed. “There are people who have asked why in the world I would want to start a print newspaper when the print news industry is going out of business. But I also get a lot of people who are enthusiastic about it.” After Chicago and San Francisco, he has plans to roll out the Printed Blog in New York.
