Editor’s note: Much of the journalism news is negative nowadays, with cutbacks, declining ad revenue, “paywalls” and more. A bright spot, however, is the Sacramento Bee collaborating with other journalists and bloggers. I’ve noted before how the Bee republishes articles from our free, quarterly magazine, Sierra FoodWineArt and companion website, SierraCulture.com.
It also is collaborating with other food and wine bloggers. Here’s a meeting I’ll be attending tonight in Sacramento, for example. The bottom line: A newspaper’s success will depend on how well it embraces and collaborates in the new media world — rather than fight it.
Dear Sacramento Connect Food Bloggers,
At The Bee, we’ve been talking about you all, wondering how we can make Sacramento Connect better for each of you, The Bee and all our readers.
We’ve also been chatting about what a great food and wine region we live in and some of the fun and exciting things we might do by working closer on some events and coverage. We’d like to invite each of you to sit down with a group of Bee editors and reporters involved in food and wine coverage and discuss ideas aimed at improving what we offer readers.
We want to share our ideas but, more importantly, get feedback, learn what your needs and interest levels are, and get further ideas from you all. Among the ideas we’d like to discuss and brainstorm with all of you:
Collaborating on some content for The Bee’s Food & Wine section, with free-lance money offered for those willing to share some work already done for a blog or take on an assignment (hint: we do pay more for original work).
We’re also interested in offering workshops on food reporting, food photography, writing headlines to improve SEO, etc.
Crowd sourcing and food reviews on The Bee’s dime or with a media credential through The Bee … want to help us review food at the State Fair, rate the wine at Grape Escape?
Want to help plan events involving readers and local chefs, merchants, farmers, winemakers and/or UC Davis faculty aimed at building our knowledge about food and wine in our region?
We hope you can join us for a 90-minute discussion on Wednesday, March 21, at 6:30 p.m. at The Bee in what we hope will be the start of something truly special for all of us and all our readers.
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How fantastic! Keep us bloggers, foodies, wine lovers and artists posted!
It is fascinating to contrast the networking business model of the Sacramento Bee to the pay wall model. In the former revenue comes from selling the benefit of having access to potential customers through advertising. In the latter benefit comes from selling the news like a product. If the networking model can deliver adequate content without a charge it will surely have a brighter future.
I favor the networking model as better for the community because it would tend to include more diverse viewpoints and have a more diverse audience.
I wonder if Swift Communications is prepared or able to make the switch if their pay wall model isn’t successful.
Am I on the right track?
Jeff,
I was downtown yesterday and overheard a “rumor” that the carrage may be starting up business again. No word from the chamber on this but it was the second time I had heard it. Just thought I would pass it on to you since you did the story on them when you were with “The Onion”. Again, just an “overheard rumor” but you might do some poking around. It would make a good “scoop” for your blog.
Pete