Batavia Daily News for Wednesday: Daily News nearly ready to launch Web site

Posted by Philip Anselmo on November 19, 2008 - 1:35pm

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Congratulations to the Daily News, which announced in the paper today that the publication will go online sometime "within the next few weeks." Keep an eye on the print version to find out when the site will be ready for viewing. Folks can log on at www.thedailynewsonline.com once the site is up and running.

In other news, reporter Joanne Beck wrote an article on the fire last night at an Oak Street home. That news was featured early this morning on WBTA and picked up a little while later by The Batavian.

Fire hydrants will be flushed starting at 9:30am, Tuesday, in the area of Pearl Street, Meadowcrest Drive, River Street and Ellicott Street.

Author Bill Kauffman was honored with the Andrew Eiseman Writers Award in nonfiction for his book Look Homeward America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals. The award is given out by the University of Rochester. For more on the award, visit the University of Rochester Web site.

We encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstand. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

philip.anselmo
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Posted by Howard Owens on November 19, 2008 - 3:21pm

Good to hear that the Daily News will finally have a web site.

Posted by S Ognibene on November 20, 2008 - 3:14pm

Any sneak preview of what they will have on it?

Posted by Howard Owens on November 20, 2008 - 5:39pm

Steve, only a guess, but the best public preview might be the Watertown Daily Times.

Posted by S Ognibene on November 21, 2008 - 10:17am

I hope that it's a success and they do not lose paper delivery subscribers.

Posted by Howard Owens on November 21, 2008 - 12:05pm

I'm sure it will be a success. More and more, people want their news online. In survey earlier this year, nearly half of the respondents said the Internet was their primary news source (70 percent expressed a dissatisfaction with traditional journalism).

The Watertown site is a nice, clean design and the news is well presented. There's no reason that the sister paper here in Batavia won't achieve similar quality.

But, I can guarantee you some percentage of people will cancel their subscriptions.

I just finished reading Walter Lippmann's book Public Opinion, published in 1922.

He wrote:

We expect the newspaper to serve us with truth however unprofitable the truth may be. For this difficult and often dangerous service, which we recognize as fundamental, we expected to pay until recently the smallest coin turned out by the mint. ... A free press, if you judge by the attitude of the readers, means newspapers that are virtually given away. ... The citizen will pay for his telephone, his railroad rides, his motor car, his entertainment. But he does not pay openly for his news.

That was in 1922 -- before free news on the radio, let alone free news on television or the Web.

So, when the Daily's news goes online for free, many people are going to prefer that option to a monthly subscription fee. It's just inevitable.