Good Morning and welcome to another Tuesday!

Last week, our parent company held a two-day conference to talk about how we can adapt to the changing news environment.
Increasingly, people are getting all their news from the computer screen. Be it at work or home, good stories are pushed along through Facebook and Twitter (you can find the DelcoTimes on both).
Gone are the days when somebody would sit down and read a newspaper from cover to back. Now, the news comes from friends, who forward along links to good stories.
The transition has been quick, but, really, not unexpected.
Now, you can get everything forwarded to your phone, so there isn't even a need to wait until you get to the office.
Adapt we must and adapt we will. the company even has some of the best thinkers in the new business to tap for advise.
The bottom line is stories will still get written. Writers will still be able to tell stories.
As somebody much smarter than me said, 'As long as I can help people with my stories, it doesn't matter if it's on the Internet or paper.'
That's where we are and that's where we are going.

Good Morning and welcome back to summer!?!

The 'big' news as we wake up this morning is Paula Abdul is LEAVING AMERICAN IDOL!
She apparently used Twitter late last night to alert her fans to the 'breaking news.'
You know, we joke about it sometimes, but this whole 24-hour news cycle has taken the break out of breaking news. In the old days, yeah three years ago, we would have found out Paula Abdul was leaving Idol (like we really care anyway) when the show came back on the air.
Now, though, it's BIG NEWS. It has to get out there immediately. We need to know.
Sure, every once in a while, there is news. The death of Michael Jackson or Joe Sestak telling everybody he is running for Senate (like it wasn't obvious months ago) is something worth talking about.
Those goofballs who show up to shout down our elected about healthcare reform, well, that's news if only to show how ridiculous they look.
Paula Abdul leaving American Idol is not that big a deal. Unless, of course, you are a cable news network who needs to fill time.
By the way, want to know the insignificant things in somebody's life (like when they head to the bathroom), log on to Twitter. Hey, follow me if you are sufficiently bored.

Good Morning and welcome to another Thursday!

So, the prevailing wind is it doesn't matter if local newspapers go away. They'll be plenty of 'journalists' to get the news out there, right? Somebody will give us the news from schools, townships, police, small business, etc. Well, check out the following:
This one from the Washington Post about how the police in the city of Baltimore are handling things now that the local newspaper has cut staff.
A couple of weeks ago, Gil Spencer of the Daily Times wrote about Upper Darby's Matt Steven, a blind basketball player. It's a heart-wrencher, worth reading again, especially with all the bad news out there.
This moring, on ESPN.com, Rick Reilly, late of Sports Illustrated, wrote the same story as if new. Now, maybe Reilly doesn't read delcotimes.com for his story ideas, maybe he does. It's just kind of interesting how things flow.
So, maybe the local newspaper takes a different look or different feel, but nobody else is reporting about Penn Wood's big basketball victory today.


If you have any cool links or photos, send them along to onlinedelco@gmail.com

Good Morning and welcome to the outdoors!

Well, there's supposed to be a warm-up over the next couple of days, but, judging by the cold out there this morning, somebody forgot to tell Mother Nature.
Speaking of nature, there have been television shows about people living on their own in the forest for years, eating baked tree bark and surviving among a pack (or den) of bears.
None of them, though, have ever been questioned by bears. Well, maybe in some animation world, but not in the real world. Then again, if you've seen any movies recently, the animation world can be a lot nicer than the 'real' world. Or something like that.
Until you've tried to question bears, or been questioned by bears, though, you can't be a true survivor.
Now, truth be told, there was a bear living in our house last year. He is a quiet bear, though. You can usually placate him with a plate of cookies. His brother, well, it takes cookies and them some. Once again, though, that's another story.
These bears wanted to know all I could tell them about the newspaper business. Being young bears, none had ever really read a newspaper. That's the time we live in. Bears may live in the woods, but they don't take newspapers out there during 'break' time.
So, while trying to protect my picnic basket (dated), I tried to give them a quick overall view of what putting out a daily newspaper is really like.
They asked. I answered. They like the comics page.
Hey, maybe there's hope yet.


If you have any cool links or photos, send them along to onlinedelco@gmail.com

Good Morning and hopefully we can get through all this rain this weekend!

It was the biggest mystery of our time. Who was 'Deep Throat?' The well-connected informant who let Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in on the Watergate scandal. It brought down President Richard Nixon and change the face of newspapers forever.
Well, 'Deep Throat' was a man named Mark Felt, the FBI's second in command during the 1972 break-in.
The stories broken by the Post and movie 'All the President's Men' brought many of us to this industry. We had a chance to make real change. We could dig down deep and expose all kinds of wrong-doing.
Sure, not everybody would get a story like Watergate fall into their laps, but it was the possibility that got us going.
In the 36 years since, the newspaper business has changed. In case you don't know, newspapers are in trouble. Every company who runs this media is facing a major downturn. There are layoffs, some so severe many daily newspapers are having trouble putting a product on the street.
The two Detroit newspapers earlier this week announced they were going to stop home delivery except on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. There would still be a paper on the newsstands, but it would be scaled down, chasing everybody to the Web sites.
While many are predicting the death of the newspaper industry, that's where we are going to survive. Sure, there are thousands of Web sites out there to get any kind of news you want. You can find out where Britney was last night and the score of every soccer game in the world whenever you want. You can probably even get live updates of Brad Pitt picking his nose if you wanted.
Anyway, the thing about newspapers is they have survived for hundreds of years, through lean times, although maybe not as lean as now.
The bottom line is the best place to get news about your town is through places like delcotimes.com. Those bigger places aren't going to let you know if there is a tax hike in Aston or if the county council is going to approve land grants to build a stadium in Chester.
Somehow, in some form, this industry will survive. We just have to figure out how to do it.
So, we'll keep looking for the next 'Deep Throat' and making sure you know what's going on.


If you have any cool links or photos, send them along to onlinedelco@gmail.com

GOOD MORNING, DELAWARE COUNTY!

About six months ago I was posed a question: Is the newspaper business dead?
Here's how I answered:
I don't think it's dead. I believe newspapers, and by that end newspaper companies, still have the best talent and means to get the news to people in their community. Journalists are trained a certain way. They ask the right questions. They dig for dirt when needed and aren't afraid to get their fingers dirty (at least most are).
That doesn't mean the only thing worth putting in a newspaper is doom and gloom. There are plenty of uplifting stories out there.
While television 'journalists' give us quick hits and make a big stink about being down the street with lights, cameras and action, they aren't really doing any hard work. For the most part, television 'journalists' follow newspapers. They see what stories are being reported, then react.
Newspapers, though, are changing. I believe to remain alive we need to put as much emphasis on our local Web sites as we have for our papers. It's becoming a lot easier to carry an Iphone on the bus than a newspaper.
With wireless networks all over the place, we have to morph into a hybrid of print and Internet coverage. We can give readers much more on our Web sites than any other place, be it coverage of municipal meetings, the big High School baseball game or how your neighbor is helping out by selling lemonade on the street.
Are newspapers dead? No, just different. I don't know if my daughter, now 3, will ever read a traditional newspaper. She will want the news, though, and there's no better place than right here.



If you have any cool links or photos, send them along to onlinedelco@gmail.com