The Printed Blog is Ceasing Publication
By Adam Dewitz on July 8th, 2009
The Printed Blog a start-up that aggregated content from blogs to create newspapers has announced that it will cease publication. The Printed Blog Joshua Karp founder in a blog post cited lack of funding.
The Printed Blog published a printed version of internet-based content twice a day. Content was selected based on the votes of readers and their geographic location. In its short existence, the service produced 16 issues, distributed 80,000 print copies, and 100,000 copies downloaded.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Just before this starts another wave of End of Print, I want to put in my chit. From where I sit, Joshua Karp had a great plan for an era of funny money. As near as I can tell he invested in getting to a scale that would interest a VC. Good strategy until the credit markets crashed in the last quarter of 2008.
Moving forward I think a similar product with a different strategy might work. Instead of going for breadth of coverage, go for depth. What I mean is start with a definable community of interest. In NY it might be Park Slope. Gather all the bloggers focused on Park Slope. Then produce a couple of hundred copies using digital print tech. Take those couple of hundred copies to local businesses to sell ads. Once the ads are sold, then print the paper.
It’s a bottom up model that will take more time than getting a VC to write a check. But much more likely to whether the unpredictable storms of big money chasing it’s tail around the planet.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:12 am
oops the last sentence should read “weather the unpredictable . . ” not “whether.”