Alas. Web advertising sites such as craigslist.org have taken a huge chunk out of their revenue. But only because the Statesman itself failed to adopt to the new technology properly.

Compare a visit to craigslist to a visit to the Statesman. Like most traditional media attempting to adopt, their site is bloated with overdesign. It takes forever to load, is full of third party ads and flash. I think people prefer simple sites like craigslist which load immediately, and are simple and to the point.

I just checked, and it took 32+ seconds to load the front page on a broadband connection. It had to load 98 seperate objects (images, flash, scripts etc) from its own server, in addition to several other third party sites, related to advertising, statistics and stuff.

Which is pretty typical of a traditional media’s stab at a website, and why I avoid them. Thirty seconds is a long time to wait for a computer to do something.

A few years ago, the Statesman was one of the few papers in the country whose subscriptions and readership were still on the increase to the tune of about one percent per year. The soft under belly of that statistic was the fact that the valley population was increasing at about 8 to 10 percent per year. Even then, it was clear that if the flood tide of immigrants ever stopped, like it did a couple of years ago, the paper was hosed. On that shaky foundation, the Statesman spent a bundle to expand their building.

At about the same time, one of the paper’s ongoing surveys indicated that the average reader was in their late 50s, and getting older. With full knowledge that in order to read the paper, the bulk of their subscribers need the type to be as big and bold as reasonably possible, the Statesman downsized the paper and went to a smaller, tighter typeface. Screw you, faithful reader.

It was also clear that the Internet was coming, and as razzbar points out, loading speeds of web pages is critical. The Statesman publisher and editorial board was informed as much, and that Idaho has one of the lowest percentages of high speed connectivity in the nation, and they launched the current slow loader anyway.

I could go on, and on.

Like the dinosaur, the Statesman may be on its way to extinction. Unlike the Statesman, the dinosaur doesn’t appear to have been quite so intent on hastening its own demise.

The reporting staff of both papers in the valley is way too thin. Not enough people with way too much going on to cover in any depth.

Local news and what is really going on both good and bad need to get out to the public.

The last aspect is the reporters can’t report the ugly stuff or they face getting cut off by the hired “talking heads” none of us voted into office. The people we voted into office have these “hired guns” to do their talking. The voting public continues to put up with this crap.

Bottom line is the demise of the press and investigative reporting does not serve the public interest.

Have you ever been to a national site like the Washington Posts or LA Times…the comments there are seldom remotely associated with the topic.

I agree with the poster who advises on major local news emphasis…

If the Statesman were to focus on in-depth local news with an emphasis on quality, unbiased investigative reporting, I would renew my subscription. I suspect many others feel the same. As it is, quality reporting is lacking with an obvious slant.

Clippityclop, I agree with your requirements for renewing your subscription. I would even pay for an online subscription for such a publication, provided helicopters did not hover over the story I’m trying to read. Perhaps they could continue a free online version and offer a premium version for paid subscribers.

As for pro-Democratic pieces, that tickles me. Palin hit pieces? Seem to be plenty coming from the GOP as well. Lipstick indeed.

Palin hit letters? How many years did we have to suffer from the blame Clinton for everything letters? Wasn’t the Idaho Statesman the local paper that endorsed Bill Sali in the last election? Got a problem with that?
It so interesting how the most vicious, hypocritical, manipulative political party in years, has become the new “sensitive to everything we stand for” party. Is it because now the Republicans are the new Feminists? Is it OK to burn my bra now? Can I call Republicans “feminazis”? Or does that hurt gender sensitive R feelings?
Give me a break. The reason Palin is the brunt of the nations jokes and gets the hits is because she is so funny and….pathetic.

If everything old is new again, it may be time for newsapapers to seriously re-read some papers from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s — if they haven’t all been thrown out by libraries and historical societies. Those papers packed a lot of information and advertising into relatively few pages, which saved a lot of printing money. They managed to have relatively large reporting staffs (partially because the pay was abismal) and maintained something like a 60-40 ratio of advertising to news.

Along came the modern corporate publishers and the old-style paper was considered boring, white space was the new news, and layout was king. (Also some photographers thought that pictures should be bigger.) Along the way, column rules were axed and the space between columns widened, typesizes got bigger and stories got shorter. Won’t even go into the trend that started putting feature stories on the front page with little of no news value. Soon there was not only less and less space for news but reporters were encouraged to stay in the office rather than roaming the city reporting news events first hand.

The good news is that research shows that people still look for news from traditional news outlets (wire services, newspapers, television stations), even when going online. Local TV and newspaper Web sites are also where people head first for breaking news.

A smart newspaper could build on this, drawing from the past for economies of space, building a strong local newsgathering staff, and publishing hard-hitting local news stories, some good interview features, gathering club/organizational news and reporting on sports and business — not because it is a public service but because it sells newspapers. And, if the business sells newsapers, it can sell advertising and make money. And that’s what it is all about.