I saw this article linked from a YouTube comment on a video by Ron Pratt, owner of the towing company who did the recovery. I was struck by the lack of ads, click bait referral links, etc. Because the website is not overrun by crap, they can feature full size pictures. Then I realized, why couldn't all local news websites be more like this?
Mostly because they're all desperately trying to figure out how to stay in business. The local paper I used to work for in the '06ish era had a pretty large presence downtown in their own dedicated building that had been around since at least the 60s. That location employed around 150-200ish people for all functions - maintenance, ad sales, IT, HR, management, reporters, photographers, copyeditors, designers, etc.
They had a second location on the edge of town for the presses - we ran two presses and that employed another 60-80 people.
They now rent half of the third floor of an office building, and friends say that feels too big. They employ a total of about two dozen people now. Everything that can be outsourced - including printing, copyediting, and design - has been.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 27.2 ms ] threadThey had a second location on the edge of town for the presses - we ran two presses and that employed another 60-80 people.
They now rent half of the third floor of an office building, and friends say that feels too big. They employ a total of about two dozen people now. Everything that can be outsourced - including printing, copyediting, and design - has been.
Local news is in very, very bad shape right now.
As for the website itself, I have hit a popup on my first three navigation. Then I got hit by a paywall.
https://www.cato.org/publications/white-paper/fiscal-policy-...