Reunion with The Union

George Rebane

Wow, news really travels fast in the Internet Age.  This morning we met at The Union offices with Jeff Ackerman, Publisher, Zuri Berry (“Sports Writer”, but also website content editor), and Tom Harbert (IT Manager) to trade some thoughts about the evolution of newspapers from ‘print only’ to an expanded and transformed online presence, and also to talk about some specific ideas about how The Union might configure itself in its ongoing evolution to a truly multi-media (print and online) information service.  Some time ago Russ Steele and I, together and individually, had shared some ideas about ‘reverse publishing’ local blogs, and how our newspaper’s website might become the One-Start home page for Nevada County residents.  And last week Jeff decided it was time for another sit-down with his online managers, and invited us over for coffee this morning.

After greetings, the meeting immediately went into high gear since we could all talk the language of the involved media.  Russ and I put our “hidden agenda” on the table and reiterated our feelings that the Union’s website should be the natural homepage for folks living here.  The homepage could be personalized by each visitor/reader and provide a repeatable, reliable, and facile interface to the web with, of course, emphasis on access to all things Nevada County which has been the newspaper’s franchise for the last century and a half.  Such a ‘Union Start Page’ would also have links to whatever each person considered important – club/church news, upcoming local government meetings, special interest sections, sports (local, national, …),  searchable want-ads, news (general and categorical, local and national/international), alerts when specific events occurred, links to local bloggers, etc, etc – and the page layout could be configured twenty ways from Sunday.  This would be the place from which you journeyed out and always returned to because the home page design was yours, and on every visit its layout would prompt you to systematically check out the things that were important to you.

And we also talked about reverse publishing where The Union could take and republish any content it wished from Ruminations and Russ’s NC Media Watch.  In this arrangement the newspaper could augment its own coverage of an item with additional depth and/or another slant, and enjoy the expanded reporting/commentary from another couple of knowledgeable eyeballs and ears in the community.  We bloggers would have the benefit of having a wider audience for our writing, and active links pointing back to our blogs.  Such a deal.

But then Jeff surprised both of us by taking the concept one step further.  He wanted each of us to commit to writing one piece a month for the Union’s print edition – specifically the Sunday Express edition.  The editorial content would be ours and be published under our established blog banners, Jeff only wanted a definite tie-in to subjects of local interest.  It didn’t take too much heavy breathing on either of our parts to conclude that this would be a win-win.  Especially because the price was right on all counts, we wouldn’t get paid and the Union’s reader wouldn’t have to pay for being subjected to our screeds since the Sunday edition is free.  What the hell, you gotta start somewhere in this highly competitive information business, we were happy we wouldn’t have to take a pay cut.  It was time to go, we reviewed our submission dates, shook hands all around, and left feeling good about the new winds blowing at Nevada County’s flagship newspaper.

Then tonight after dinner I get my second surprise of the day, Russ emails me that Zuri had blogged our new relationship with The Union this afternoon, and that a lively dialogue about the wisdom of our nascent columns was already in progress with the former editor of The Union.  (first here, then here)  We both thought that it would be prudent to get our thoughts out on all this sooner than later – here is Russ’s take.  So now you know more than you wanted to, but we’re still looking forward to contributing some new thoughts to The Union’s pages and taking the readers’ cuts and kudos for our efforts.

Comments

[Aaron]

Congrats, George...should be a fun read.

[LOYAL RR READER]

GEORGE, GREAT UPDATE.

P.S. PLEASE DON'T EVER FORWARD ME TO PELLINE'S BLOG EVER AGAIN. THANK YOU.

[George Rebane]

Dear LOYAL RR READER, apologies rendered. Will comply.