Thursday's announced changes at the Capital Times are huge.
The historic daily paper will soon become primarily a digital, online production, with a twice-weekly hard copy.
That leaves the Wisconsin State Journal as the only daily paper in Madison, but also positions the new Cap Times as a news organization that will publish with immediacy.
Given its twice-weekly hard copy editions, and continuing tie-in with the State Journal, the Cap Times will soon be something of a prototype, and one that could deliver instant news and opinion in a way that other media can't, won't...but might.
It is another indication that the future of news is on the Internet.
Not as the sole news and information format or platform, but the one that is growing.
One of its two weekly hard copies will come out on Thursday, this competing directly with Isthmus.
I have loyalties and histories with both these publications. Each is valuable. I hope they both succeed.
Only reason this can "succeed" economically is that the CapTimes receives -- and will continue to receive -- half the profits of Madison Newspapers, which included the Wisconsin State Journal.
ReplyDeleteLots of newspapers -- the better ones, anyway -- update their websites continuously.
As for the two new tabloid weeklies, Madison Newspapers tried to take on the Isthmus and Shepherd's a couple of years ago, and failed miserably. They're both fine products.
Don't get me wrong: I mourn the passing of the CapTimes, truly. But this new entity could never survive on its own.