On The Oakland Tribune, Mayor Quan, and BART’s Linton Johnson

My celebration of the suddenly free “Oakland Tribune” from the hands of the Bay Area New Group, or BANG, both ruffled feathers and gained supporters. One email I received went something like this:

I just read your blog about the Tribune. I was all set to dis-agree with Yipee. However, if the OAKLAND TRIBUNE can be resurrected on line I am enthused. Newspapers are what in my lifetime, helped give a city identity. In my opinion, the fact local media is SF centric has exaggerated the negatives of Oakland, but there has not been a positive voice out there. I have long promoted the idea of the A’s the Warriors, the Raider’s and possibly Cal going partners on a sports and news station that is Oakland centric….Let me know how I might be a help in this.

The others I will not bother with, except to say that no one, least of all me, celebrates anyone losing a job. But my issue in all this is that we’re in a time of digital media, yet what I see are media people consistently hoping for a return to the old way, where an employer just provided a check and everything was cool.

But, and I’ve said this again and again, that day has given away to one where you are the producer of and revenue generator from the media you produce. The math associated with doing that do not support hyper-local media approaches. A mix of news is required.

The best news of all, is that a new media business can be built and established almost for free.

BANG is laying off 48 people in its newsrooms. That’s 48 of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best media people. And 48 people that, if they’re willing to follow the physical economics of churning out 5 blog posts per day, thus producing 240 new posts daily, and look at a potential daily unique visitor count average of 5,000 unique visitors per blog post each day, then they could realize a potential online ad revenue throw off of $360,000 daily, or about $7,500 per person.

While that’s not a lot, let’s consider. Suppose that was supported by local ad and “special coverage” sales? Where 100 businesses pay something like $2,500 per month each, or about $250,000 each month? That’s another $5,208 per person, not a lot, but these figures are massively low given what some make today.

(And don’t forget, BANG has to pay unemployment insurance, too.)

And it’s just not smart to do all corporate stuff that without an investor, so let’s say the new media company raised $2 million. So now, we have $41,666 per person. (And remember The Bay Citizen started with $5 million.)

The new firm doesn’t really need an office, and is better off picking a local cafe to meet at daily.

All of this is a quick presentation, but certainly doable. The revenue numbers aren’t huge, but to be frank, considering the large number of ways to make a new media buck online, they’re extremely conservative.

My point is, a lot of time has been spent crying and lamenting what BANG did to the Oakland Tribune. But a lot of time should be spent talking about how to make the new Oakland Tribune – an arc of sorts, saving 48 people and allowing them to continue to do what they love.

Like covering the press conference of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan today.

On that, the press conference that started at 11 AM today was either cancelled, or between the City of Oakland and the media assembled, there’s not one Twitter Tweet about it, to this point in time (12:56 PM PST). So for bloggers outside of Oakland, who may be interested in what’s happening and what Mayor Quan’s got to say, we’ve got to wait in an old media way.

And the Mayor complains about the media.

What Mayor Quan and her good folks have to understand is how to use social media to “push” out their news. The staff’s caught up in a way of looking at media that’s 15 years in the past. I should be able to see a live stream of the press conference, and it can be done for free and with no fuss using existing equipment right there at Oakland’s KTOP. In fact, if I were there, I’d set one up in just five minutes.

Why can’t Oakland do that? Moreover, why doesn’t the media there ask for it? I sent an email to one of the Oakland PIO’s I know and the person said they would look into it.

Okie.

Maybe they’re too busy thinking about BART’s Linton Johnson.

It seems that someone posted naked pictures of the BART Spokesperson online – I’ve not seen them and don’t want to see them. I know there are many who are red-faced, blue-faced, and just plain angry with Linton for the way he handles a number of BART problems during what has to have been the most controversial two week period in its history.

But putting out naked photos of him online is just plain awful, and classless and hurtful. Linton may have his faults in the PR area, but overall he’s very good at what he does, and he’s not done a single thing to deserve such treatment. Linton’s taking orders from management – he’s not in charge of BART. And even if he were, it would not call for such treatment.

But the question is how the heck did such photos make it online? Who did Linton… Well, never mind….

Linton, hang in there, man.

Stay tuned.