Undoubtedly, there will be a self-congratulatory column from the Bulletin Editor-in-Chief on Sunday (which The Source will probably tear apart word-for-word). The topic this time? The Bulletin’s circulation numbers have gone up again, bucking the national trend. Congrats to them, as it’s not an easy thing to do, but I would have to argue that it’s probably easier in an a rapidly-growing area like this with only a small amount of competition (at least, print-wise). While there are better online outlets (thanks to the Bulletin’s paywall), for sheer amount of varied content, the Bulletin has them beat.
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We have pretty dang varied content too, bucko – sure, some of it’s not local, but give me their size staff and … well, fill in your favorite variation of “we’ll make mincemeat out of them.”
And while they drive me NUTS some times, our comments are a thriving, roiling community, where admission is free and things get a bit, um, crazed at times. But doesn’t life?;-)
PS: I wish Google Trends for Websites didn’t sorta die in July, because if you go looksee, and input our URL and theirs, well… we were dukin’ it out big-time! According to an independent, third-party too!;-)
Uh, this is garbage and fluff by the Bulletin.
When I called to say that I requested NOT TO BE CONTACTED to restart my subscription for the 2nd time (it’s in my notes too), the manager said that the Bulletin is doing a mass campaign to get everyone back because there is a downturn in subscriptions.
I believe the manager vs. a fluff piece that boasts.
I get a chuckle looking at the local paper, when they re-print so many articles from the NY Times…check it out sometime, the content of the local paper is around 30% NYT…the very paper that is lambasted as being elitist, liberal, etc. That said, though, you can’t beat the Bully for local news and their photography staff has to be one of the best ones in the nation for similar sized papers.
@Barney: Yes, I agree: You have variety, and good content for what you guys do, but since you don’t have their staff numbers, you just won’t ever be able to keep up. I love KTVZ.com for local online news, love the discussions, hate the reliance on a third-party comment system that doesn’t always work right, nor do I like the really busy, Flash-heavy, “bring my browser to its knees” design (but I know you don’t have a ton of control over that).
@Sherri: This isn’t a fluff piece — the site I linked to has raw circulation stats from an independent auditing firm. My guess is the manager was told there was a downturn (which for 99% of the industry, there is) and was using that as a selling point.
@Owen: Yes, I find the irony, too, considering the editors/owners’ conservative bias and yet they run a bunch of NYT content. Maybe it’s so they can portray themselves as neutral/unbiased, I don’t know. But yes, they have some great photographers (many whom I’ve met over the years) and that’s probably one of the best qualities of the paper.
Ah, gotcha…was still taking 1st sip of coffee when I typed this morning.
Jake, I’m betting you’re right about John Costa’s Perspective on Sunday. We got a little preview in his column a couple a weeks ago.
He’ll blow his own horn on how The Bulletin is bucking national trends with its expanding circulation. He’ll fail to mention the new and exciting ways the ABC counts subscribers. He’ll fail to mention (as he has does every year) that the population increase in The Bulletin’s circulation area increased around 5% when his paper’s circulation increased only 1.75%. I see the numbers as an indication that The Bulletin’s influence in the region continues to decline.
The real problem for all Newspapers is that the vast majority today’s young people don’t read printed news. A good example of this is my older daughter. She is Editor-in-Chief of Summit High School’s student newspaper. She was raised in a home where news has always been very important, where the paper came every day and she was encouraged to it read. This being said, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen her with the paper in her hands.
If tomorrow’s journalists aren’t reading the paper…who is?
While I’m questioning John Costa’s Perspective let me comment on his column from a few weeks ago. The Bulletin’s Editor-in-Chief made the case that only a newspaper could produce quality investigative journalism.
His primary example was the murder case of Barbara Thomas. I don’t have the column in front of me but Costa pointed out that his paper spent tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours producing a series of articles covering the murder.
He went on stating that only a newspaper with a newsroom full of reporters could produce such in-depth reports. The problem with that logic is that he failed to mention that on bend.com, Barney Lerten authored nearly 100 articles (some of them well over 1500 words) covering the murder. The depth and breath, and quantity and quality of Barney’s “Redmond 5” articles far surpassed anything The Bulletin produced. Not to mention the thousands of public comments from family and friends of the victim and killers, investigators, and the general public. Some of these articles had over 100,000 unique viewers.
I’ll be the first to tell you that Barney is no ordinary reporter, but to state you need a room full of reporters to produce quality investigative reporting is pure bull.
Gosh, Spencer, thanks for the kudo. Long time no chat! Was that you I saw at Freddie’s Saturday late afternoon? I woulda had to run to catch you, and that woulda been a bit dumb, esp. if it weren’t you.
Hope all’s well with you and yours.
ugh! i’ll subscribe after costa leaves. that man rights like a 5th grader with broken crayons.
on top of that an out of touch endorsment for mccain.
please … i’ll continue with the washington post, the economist and the la times instead of that local catwrap.
at least barney the purple dinosaur had the common sense to leave.
oh, high spence … ah the old days of the cat urine in the machine room at the qwest closet
and where are the vince, wades, sparcstation1’s and the other snowboarding perl coding loonie from yesteryear?
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