Chris Tomasson was busy covering another Denver Nuggets practice when he got the call: the newspaper was closing. Now after weeks of uncertainties, Tomasson and others from the defunct Rocky Mountain News are finding life after the newspaper.
A couple weeks back, Tomasson – along with fellow beat writer Aaron Lopez – was kind enough to recount his Rocky experiences about working a dead beat (The End Of A Rocky Road). Little did either of us know then that he’d find a place to call home so quickly in the same city.
He’s found it at InDenver Times – where the news is free, but a subscription fee is required to receive “analysis”; “insight, perspective, live blogging, live chatting, commenting, interactivity with writers and other readers.”
Chris recently spoke breifly about this new news model and his role at InDenver Times….
How did InDenver Times come about?
A little more than 30 former staffers from the Rocky Mountain News have banded together with three investors in an attempt to keep the 150-year-old spirit of the Rocky alive. If we get 50,000 subscriptions (at $60 a year, although shorter subscriptions are available) by April 23, the online venture will launch May 4.
Until then, we’re all working very hard to show potential subscribers what they can expect from InDenver Times.
I’ve already seen a couple headlines on the Nuggets attributed to you at InDenver Times. What will your contributions look like moving forward?
I’ll be providing a number of Denver Nuggets articles each week. For anyone who appreciated my Nuggets coverage in the Rocky Mountain News, feel free to take a look at http://www.indenvertimes.com. We’d love to have you come aboard as a subscriber.
With the state of the business, do you think we’ll see more paper – or at least staff members – use this model as a template?
I think everybody around the country will be looking to see how InDenver Times works out, and how the Seattle Post-Intelligencer does with its new online venture. Right now, the current newspaper model is broken. Too much money is being spent on production costs and distribution.
The online model is one solution to that. After observing what happens online, I wouldn’t be surprised if more newspapers follow suit.
pic via: nytimes.com
beyond the beat 