When using this platform and opening up a blank page, nothing mocks me more than that phrase ‘start writing’.
If only it were that simple. I’ve always had the mind of a demented squirrel that has been sucking down methamphetamine. I’m easily distracted by anything shiny, or shaped like boobs, or even the slightest hint of nudity.
Even a shot glass put down in front of me has the same effect as putting a boulder on a single train track.
Like other alleged former journalists (and there are many of us out there, hiding in the tall grass) I’ve lamented many times on the demise of print. News organizations just keep cutting back more and more.
Once I took a tour of the Portland Press Herald when I was a kid, I swear it felt like over a hundred people worked there at the time. That was just on the news floor. There were dozens more at the printing plant across the street.
Now, I think if you gathered everyone who actually WRITES for the Press Herald in one spot, they could hold a staff meeting in a McDonalds four-seater.
No doubt that the associated “STAFF” (sorry kids, knowing a lot of you it should be spelled “STAPH”) of the Maine Trust for Local News at leat triple the size of those who actually do the writing. Hell, I suspect the shared HR department had more people in it than actually write for the damned thing.
It just feels like every other AI generated news org. No taste, no flavor.. no local feeling to it. That is what is taught in J-School these days, to be totally indistinguishable from a robot.
Reading it feels just like eating late night slices of Pizza from Bill’s Pizza on Commercial street. You’ve had too many to drink, and somehow chawing on an asphalt roofing shingle with bland Sysco Sauce and “you might call it cheese” felt like a good idea.
And the next day…you paid dearly for that choice.
A late afternoon of drinking with former editor had me thinking. I hate the fact that the Press Herald has a paywall. If they actually published circulation numbers anymore, You’d likely see that circulation has dropped off at LEAST 60% from last published numbers in 2017.
You might think that would mean your ad in same publication would be 60% cheaper, but then again if you did you’d likely be suffering from a head injury. My guess is ad rates are 35% higher than they were in 2017, even adjusting for inflation.
So, you pay more, you get less, and it tastes like chalk.
Part of me wants to lay down a BIG bet, with conditions.
I miss writing a column. Due to day job work schedules (even back then) I live the life of a virtual shut-in. I consume local news like a starving animal, or at least I did back before the paywall and decline of talk radio. Those I do run into daily have no shortage of opinion, nor shyness about sharing the same, mostly unwelcome.
I’d like to challenge the Maine Trust for Local News. I know I don’t fit in with the professional metric, or the training, or any other thousand qualifications a columnist would have.
But I actually listen to people. I hear what they are saying. I don’t repeat back only the things you think your readers want to hear. I’ll go out even further on that limb, and say you really don’t know who your readers ARE anymore.
Take the Trump immigration stuff. Seriously, take it away from me. I hear more people daily citing that he is doing good than I hear doing evil. I disagree with it a LOT.
But that is the noise in the street. Somehow and at some time, you stopped listening to it, and only hear the voices of the echo chamber.
So here is my bet.
Give me a column, three times a week. I’ll demand an outrageous rate(to be discussed), but that rate comes with a bumper.
I’ll double your print circulation AND paywall subscriptions in twelve months…or you don’t owe me a dime.
Yup, you get to put that money in a trust account. You have to actually disclose your print and paywall numbers on the day before I start, and a year later if I haven’t performed my Houdini show, you get to keep it all.
Of course, I’d like some guarantees. You can’t just arbitrarily fire me in month eleven. You have to disclose actual numbers at the beginning and end of the bet. AUDITED numbers.
There are voices out there you just don’t hear anymore. Some are like mine, viewing the world askew through the lens of a pint glass bottom. Some are hopeful, some are spiteful.
But they are Maine. Feel like taking a bet?
#PressHerald #BigBet #TheBollard #AlDiamon #MaineTrustforLocalNews