In response to Jeremy Simon’s dissection of local business publications on Aspen Post, I thought it might be worthwhile to provide a little background on Mountain Business Journal.
For the record, MBJ was my idea back when I was Special Sections Editor of the Daily News. My vision was for a graphically dynamic, data-driven, locally produced, WEEKLY product to replace the bi-weekly Mountain Marketplace. The idea was also to use MBJ as a lever to produce business employment classifieds, and to do so in a business publication that could stretch from Aspen to Vail. I spent most of my political capital at the paper trying unsuccessfully to get it done. By the time the Daily finally got off its duff, Vanessa Pierce was put in charge to see it through under editor Rick Carroll.
The design is great, MBJ is in fact weekly, and there are a handful of local stories. But my idea of tracking data over time has been lost in the translation. (Imagine how telling this would be now given the rise of gas prices.) Also lost has been the idea of a publication that was almost entirely produced by local writers with relevance beyond the valley. And the notion of business classifieds fell by the wayside completely.
MBJ today is much like the Daily itself–a couple of stories, sometimes a really good story, fronting page after page of filler from the Associated Press.
My question: Is that really good enough in a town like Aspen? Why can’t we have real business reporting from our newspapers on a DAILY basis, rather than a cursory effort that forms a backdrop for advertisers?
The whole idea with MBJ was to produce revenue, and from all accounts it has done so. But has the Daily ploughed any of that revenue back into MBJ? Fat chance: that’s just not the way the Daily does things. The modus operandi is to spend the bare minimum on editorial, and MBJ is a reflection of that time-honored philosophy. It’s ultimately a cancerous approach, and goes a long way toward explaining why newspapers across the country are losing their relevance every day in an online world. Day-old wire copy is just not good enough any more, especially when you get what you want for free on the Web.
Still, I think we’re better off with MBJ than without it, and Swift, the owner of the Aspen Times, seems to agree. Swift’s High Country Business Review is an attempt to respond to MBJ with a product that makes sense across their properties from the Aspen Times to the Vail Daily. Maybe that’s an idea whose time has come.
Maybe you should learn the difference between Dean and Dave Stapleton before you start firing off potshots that are laced with ignorance and delusion.
Maybe you should learn the difference between Dean and Dave Stapleton before you start firing off potshots that are laced with ignorance and delusion.
Aren’t you the guy who put recipes and work-out routines in the Daily News’ business section twice a month? Didn’t you also run your own non-business, non-researched opinions on the first or second page of that section? How has the paper possibly managed to get by in your absence?
Aren’t you the guy who put recipes and work-out routines in the Daily News’ business section twice a month? Didn’t you also run your own non-business, non-researched opinions on the first or second page of that section? How has the paper possibly managed to get by in your absence?
As editor of the Aspen Daily News and Mountain Business Journal, I feel compelled to respond to Michael Conniff’s blog about MBJ. Well, it seems other bloggers have beat me to the punch. In any case, I won’t get in a pissing match with Michael about every detail of this blog. Since he left, Michael has made no secret about his disdain for the Daily News management and the product it produces. Fair enough. It’s a free country and Michael can say whatever he wants; and as we all know, he does. What is not fair, however, is for Michael to lambaste MBJ for running wire copy. If that’s one of his chief complaints, he should criticize the hallowed New York Times, as well as the Denver Post and other papers that use wire copy. It’s the reality of the business, like it or not. If anything, Michael should applaud the Daily News for being run on such a shoe-string staff, but still having the ability to put out a free product 9 days a week, which he freely posts on this Web site, giving aspenpost.net further material to boost its page visits. Come to think of it, that’s kind of like MBJ. MBJ relies on local writers and a wire service, and aspenpost.net relies on local writers and copy from local, state and national newspapers. The only difference is those cheapskates at the Daily News pay for their wire copy, while Editor Conniff cherry picks his for free.
Kindly,
Rick Carroll
As editor of the Aspen Daily News and Mountain Business Journal, I feel compelled to respond to Michael Conniff’s blog about MBJ. Well, it seems other bloggers have beat me to the punch. In any case, I won’t get in a pissing match with Michael about every detail of this blog. Since he left, Michael has made no secret about his disdain for the Daily News management and the product it produces. Fair enough. It’s a free country and Michael can say whatever he wants; and as we all know, he does. What is not fair, however, is for Michael to lambaste MBJ for running wire copy. If that’s one of his chief complaints, he should criticize the hallowed New York Times, as well as the Denver Post and other papers that use wire copy. It’s the reality of the business, like it or not. If anything, Michael should applaud the Daily News for being run on such a shoe-string staff, but still having the ability to put out a free product 9 days a week, which he freely posts on this Web site, giving aspenpost.net further material to boost its page visits. Come to think of it, that’s kind of like MBJ. MBJ relies on local writers and a wire service, and aspenpost.net relies on local writers and copy from local, state and national newspapers. The only difference is those cheapskates at the Daily News pay for their wire copy, while Editor Conniff cherry picks his for free.
Kindly,
Rick Carroll
Quoting the author…
“MBJ today is much like the Daily itself–a couple of stories, sometimes a really good story, fronting page after page of filler from the Associated Press. My question: Is that really good enough in a town like Aspen? Why can’t we have real business reporting from our newspapers on a DAILY basis”
substitute “a town like Aspen” for “a town that supports roughly 50,000 people within a 40-mile radius”–which is what Aspen is when you deglamorize it.
The key question then changes from ‘is that really good enough?’ to ‘is it realistic to expect very much more in a specialized niche in a town of this size?’ Compare the business coverage here to… any other market in America of this magnitude. “Oh, but it’s *Aspen*” only goes so far when you’re trying to hire, pay, and keep good and plentiful reporters in a Valley where rent equals 50+% of a starting reporter’s salary.
God knows it would be nice to have Woodward and Bernstein breaking Valley business scandals left and right. But newspapers in towns 10x Aspen’s size are filled with a similar wire/local mix. I wouldn’t hold the ADN’s feet to the fire too much on this point.
Quoting the author…
“MBJ today is much like the Daily itself–a couple of stories, sometimes a really good story, fronting page after page of filler from the Associated Press. My question: Is that really good enough in a town like Aspen? Why can’t we have real business reporting from our newspapers on a DAILY basis”
substitute “a town like Aspen” for “a town that supports roughly 50,000 people within a 40-mile radius”–which is what Aspen is when you deglamorize it.
The key question then changes from ‘is that really good enough?’ to ‘is it realistic to expect very much more in a specialized niche in a town of this size?’ Compare the business coverage here to… any other market in America of this magnitude. “Oh, but it’s *Aspen*” only goes so far when you’re trying to hire, pay, and keep good and plentiful reporters in a Valley where rent equals 50+% of a starting reporter’s salary.
God knows it would be nice to have Woodward and Bernstein breaking Valley business scandals left and right. But newspapers in towns 10x Aspen’s size are filled with a similar wire/local mix. I wouldn’t hold the ADN’s feet to the fire too much on this point.