With the recent furloughs and layoffs, newspaper advertising dropping an unprecedented 29% in the first quarter ($2.6 billion in lost revenue), an attempt to sell Daily Progress HQ, and a website redesign that the majority of you thought was “worse than before,” things aren’t looking good for Charlottesville’s only daily paper. But who are they looking good for?

Janis Jaquith, in an opinion piece published in the Hook, thinks its the local weeklies.  She also names daily newspapers like the Daily Progress lumbering dinosaurs and cockroaches.  BURN. Take this passage:

Unlike the lumbering Daily Progress– which is owned by somebody in a galaxy far, far away, and is now mostly a printer of those press releases and wire service reports, not to mention editorials that are devoid of any connection to the community– these newsweeklies are small and locally-owned, which allows them the flexibility to adapt to a changing landscape.

It’s all the same, right?  Janis forgets that publishing a weekly paper that’s free is a whole lot easier than publishing a daily paper and making people pay for it.  It’s easy to fill a paper with only local stuff when you fill 75% of it with ads and wait a week for local news to happen.  The Daily Progress has a harder, more expensive job than the weeklies because the DP has already dug its own grave without realizing it.  Getting out of AP-filled, daily publishing is basically impossible. Also, anyone ever look how much it costs to advertise in the DP? Holy Moly.  How do you change a sinking ship?

We’re also obviously jealous that Janis has her eye on the “locally-owned independent newspapers– these shapers of local opinion, keepers of the flame of investigative journalism.“  She forgot things like cvillenews, COUGH COUGH cVillain, the Charlottesville twitter community, and the multitude of opinionated independent publishing sites (e.g. realcentralvirginia, velvut rut) which drive more opinion than any “newspaper” can or will.

I hate to tell this to the Daily Progress and the “independents,” but the truth is that PEOPLE shape the opinion and keep the check on investigative journalism.  People comment on blogs, discuss things with their friends and they are the ones who ultimately shape opinion, which is, after all, all news is. The Daily Progress and newspapers are dying. Whether it’s driven by an old news model and the internet, corporate culture and/or people resistant to change, who cares.  It’s an uprising, by the people, for the people and of the people.  Things will look way different in 3 years and not everyone will be alive (For the record, cVillain has the lowest life expectancy due to its drug-filled rockstar blogstyle).

Colbert interviews the newspaper lobby after the break…

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Next Thursday, there will be a “press-release” launch party for a new Charlottesville monthly independent paper. ‘Brave New Word‘ will be distributed at local hubs like coffee shops, health food stores, the Tea Bazaar, and other centers of activity, starting that day. Come let loose on the dancefloor to the expert grooves of DJ Fason Jellows, an experienced record spinner who pleases crowds of all types. The $8 will go toward funding the next issue and helping this new non-profit community organization get its feet on the ground! Share in the vision for a co-operative media network in this area while you meet, greet, and get down!

Gravity Lounge -All ages – $8 – 10PM, Thursday March, 19th, 2009

Update: We incorrectly listed the event as March 18th and have corrected it to March 19th.

A little birdie sends us in some interesting details.  The Daily Progess, maybe like much of the newspapers out there, is facing some tough times.

From a website relaunch that half of you said was worse than before or showed no improvement, to competitors like Craigslist to little old blogs like us, it has got to be hard keeping things moving along.

It’s probably a lot harder when a lot of your key people aren’t there anymore.

Here is what we think we know about journalists that are leaving in the near future:

Barney Breen-Portnoy is already gone.

Seth Rosen’s last week is next week. (rumor, or sometime soon)

Jeremy Borden leaves sometime this month. (rumor)

So, what do you do when you have a mass exodus of journalists? Why are they leaving?  Can I get a job there?

Will they ask you what you think? Who knows.

The DailyProgress launched a new website design sometime last night and I was going through it. I’m not a big fan of flash boxes in the middle of the page, designs that don’t get you to where you want to get quickly. I think the menu items are slightly clearer than before, but the page design forces you to stay on and click through a lot more things. Can anyone say annoying? My favorite newspaper site is WashingtonPost.com which is easy to use and doesn’t annoy you with a bunch of flash.

I’m curious what you think:

Screenshot after the break.. »Read More