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Saturday, May. 09, 2009

Tom Frazier: Why buy a cow when the milk's free?

This column may get me fired. Canned. Terminated.

I don't subscribe to the Sun-Star. Really.

You know the cliché, why buy a cow when you can get milk for free?

I do read the Sun-Star. Faithfully. Daily. Online. It's free.

The online version has really neat features. It's interactive. You can comment on stories. It's kinda fun to see and respond to comments placed by others.

You can post blogs, send letters to the editor, and post events -- all for free. Some online papers have daily polls on an important local issue. I wish the Sun-Star would adopt this practice.

Breaking news shows up quickly; there's no need to wait until the next morning to see what's happened.

When I travel, I read the Sun-Star. It works as well in Chicago or Dallas as it does right here in Merced. It even works well in China.

I don't have to worry about papers piling up in my driveway or remembering to cancel and re-start delivery.

I don't have to play hide and seek to find my paper (as I have had to do with some carriers). How in the heck do they get the paper on the roof anyhow?

So why should I have the tree-paper-print version delivered? One thing comes to mind. There's nothing like sitting down at the table in the morning over breakfast with the paper and a cuppa joe.

Jim Cunningham, a rancher friend of mine, doesn't seem to be able to start his day without reading a paper. When we travel, he will get up early and have one or more papers in hand by the time I get up. And I'm not really a sleepy head either.

Pete Lang, a Golden Valley teacher, said the highlight of each day years ago was when his dog Molly brought the paper inside. When the Sun-Star stopped Sunday papers, Pete would sneak outside before the dog woke up and put out a fake paper for her to retrieve.

Pete is now an online user. Molly died, and it's just not the same.

There are some people who don't have a choice. They cannot afford computers or the Internet. Then there are those who choose to remain computer illiterate. They probably have rotary phones and analog clocks too.

I can't wrap up dead fish or line the bottom of a bird cage with online pages. And there are probably more coupons for free stuff or special prices in the printed ads. Small sacrifices.

Should I feel guilty? Am I stealing or getting something for nothing?

It's not just the Sun-Star. Nearly all media outlets have free online content; a quick search popped up 210 dailies in California alone.

Many used to charge, but discontinued the practice. Advertising revenue more than covers the cost of online news.

Online advertising is increasing at a much quicker pace than print advertising. One study says that online and traditional advertising will be equal by 2010 or 2011. Another says that readers tend to trust and buy more from newspapers' online advertisers.

Even the stately New York Times has more daily online readers than it does print subscribers.

I wonder when the Sun-Star will realize it can increase the size of the paper, rather than decrease it -- the norm. Online requires no paper, no ink, no press time. And the paper could grow, and grow and grow with little incremental cost.

Come to think of it, there are already more photos online than in print.

Then there's Kindle -- an Amazon.com gadget that can be a digital newspaper among other things. So far, Amazon lists 38 papers available for Kindle.

Most of them are the big names, but thinking outside the shutter box, I could see a Sun-Star Kindle version.

It's high-tech and automatic. While you sleep, your news is downloaded to the unit.

Hi-tech breaking news suggests a Kindle tailored for newspapers is on the immediate horizon.

And subscribers pay for the service.

Lastly, I've heard that Craigslist and eBay have destroyed want ads revenue. That's not in my charter, but I do wonder why the Sun-Star or McClatchy can't create a similar online feature. If it were available, I'd bet readers would use the hometown selling service.

It's a new world -- an online world. The Sun-Star has a great online paper, but they need to brainstorm a bit.

Got Milk?

Tom Frazier writes Sun Dog and can be reached at sundog@promessage.com.