Outside Erie

10 Responses to “A Rust Belt Business Newspaper?”

1. john morris
   April 28th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

   Hopefully this will be a big topic of conversation at the Rust Belt Bloggers conference planed for Erie this summer which I hope will involve lots of bloggers, blog commenters and others involved in regional online and print media.So far, I have been very diappointed at the momentum in terms of people joining.

   I am not an expert on this at all. Most of my thoughts on the subject are in the conversation on Rust Belt Bloggers.It seems on the face of it that a few techie types could put together something very interesting fast out of already existing online content– if people showed a serious interest in working together.There is a lot of interesting content out there.

2. Erie BlogWatch
   April 28th, 2008 at 9:06 pm

   In the same spirit that offered up the “Great Lake, Great City, Great Life” motto …. would it be possible to devise a catchy upbeat phrase to substitute for ‘Rust Belt’ ?

   Something which would embody the potential and promise and positive aspects of our heritage of manufacturing & industry, but at the same time avoid the ‘decay’ inevitably connotated by ‘rust’…..

3. marniemead
   April 29th, 2008 at 7:25 am

   It’s been a thought for nearly 20 years. Finding someone willing to pay for that type of news has been difficult. I’d love to hear more.

4. john morris
   April 29th, 2008 at 8:18 am

   Yes, but for now that’s what we got. If you say those words, people know the general region you are talking about. I think it’s a good name for this network at least for now.

   I guess it’s a chicken and egg problem– in that, people use the term partly because other people use the term and so on. I think the important thing to think about for now is the general concept.

5. john morris
   April 29th, 2008 at 8:41 am

   Well, I don’t think at this point that Jim or me have any answers. The emerging view on Rust Belt Bloggers (and only 5-6 people have joined that conversation) seems to be that, some online solution is the way to get started.

   I for one, think that there’s enough decent online blog commentary out there to start some type of network or share some content. I’m not sure if that fits the definition of “journalism”, but I think it would help widen perspectives. I also think that discussions and debate forums are really content and I think the site should have a large dose of that.

   An amazingly high number of online projects operate with volunteer writers and I think that’s what will have to happen.

6. Jim
   April 29th, 2008 at 9:33 am

   I was kind of waiting to see what the replies would indicate before weighing in. If it was reasonably priced I would pay for it, IF it provided valuable information, and documented that with statistical information in support of its conclusions. My concern however, is that Erie is a small market media. To be of value the effort would need journalists of the caliber that Erie seldom sees, and even more seldom retains, that has the economic knowledge, and ability to communicate it in a fashion that would gain the trust and respect of the people they would need access to in order to accomplish the mission.

   As a former school director I was always concerned about the reports assigned to cover a story about education issues they knew nothing about. The actual meat of the issue seldom got reported, and instead it became a he said she said report with little or no substance regarding the actual issue under consideration. In most cases, public opinion became formed on other than substance.

   What we need is an Irving R. Lavene.

7. George Vietze
   April 29th, 2008 at 10:24 am

   My guess is that Erie has enough substance to respond to any question. I have not been here as long as some people but there are a lot of educated and knowledgeable people who view this site. Just because it does not seem that people embrace our comments or philosophy does not mean they do not have an opinion or understand what is trying to be conveyed. They may not have the technical knowledge of economics that some people have but always try to leave room that all opinions are not for EVERYONE.

   It is not a right or wrong deal, it is an opinion, and it is good to share opinions and information that help form opinions and the more information the better, but in the long run and in the end, everyone’s opinion is just as valuable as everyone else. Not all of them have the time of inclination to respond but believe me the local business people and political people know about what is said on THIS SITE. Why not expand and promote this site?

   News links could be added and different interest pages could be tied in but speaking for the newly transformed to the area people, any information on the area that is substitutive and informative is good information, even the information that seems to some people as ill informed discloses the culture of the area. I have noticed recently, and maybe just through my lense, that the comments are not nearly as negative as in the past. We will all never agree with everything said but speaking for myself this has been a real education in getting familiar with an area that is as complex and uncomplicated as this area. I am grateful for the opportunity and hope to be a part of a new vehicle or an updated version of this site.

8. john morris
   April 29th, 2008 at 10:27 am

   I think a more important question is just if people would read it and be interested in it. Some kind of economic model might be worked out to at least support an online project if it could get readers.

   My offhand impression is that this would be “citizen journalism” and likely could not involve a highly paid profesional staff. But personally, that doesn’t bother me much. A wide variety of freelance writers contributing occasional articles could involve a lot of people with actual real knowledge of the subjects and industries they are writing about.

   I don’t see money coming up for anything beyond this kind of thing.

9. Danny Lucas
   April 29th, 2008 at 10:28 am

   Wow! Jim! What a coincidence you bring this day!

   When Bishop Alfred Watson proposed he slug the Holy Spirit right into my face at Confirmation (ooooohhh, to this day),
   I had to choose MORE names, to go with the ones mom and dad thought would be enough for a lifetime.

   Here is Danny “Irving R. Levine” Lucas, smacked dead center decades ago and still reeling.

   Marniemead above points out:

   “It’s been a thought for nearly 20 years. Finding someone willing to pay for that type of news has been difficult. I’d love to hear more.”

   And there is the problem.

   Notice she wants to collect those advertising revenues and subscribers, but has NO INTENTION of hiring the caliber of communicator required to get those ad revenues.

   Bishop Watson was careful to explain that the Holy Spirit would fill me in, on tithing concepts; that is, you have to pay back for all that you have received. Some people think a buck in the basket 52 times a year will do the trick, but then, wonder why their blessings have diminished to the proper 10% ratio of what they RETURN in thanksgiving. Decline always comes to those who do not put back, from whence they have received.

   (I have always wanted to use “whence”; I think it is either the Irving or the Levine in me!)

   I read that Pittsburgh Repertoire yesterday, and saw much adieu about nothing. Erie is NOT a mid-West city.
   True we are not Eastern Seaboard, but we do not have Chicago links galore here.

   As Marniemead could attest, newspapers are a dying breed and they will fall faster than the Berlin Wall. Even as we speak, the NY Times is preparing the greatest bloodshed of employees since the Crusades that Al Watson told me about. Bye-Bye journalists. Hello web folks.

   You web readers can scoot over to Erie Media-Go-Round this very day to see how Jack Tirak succinctly points out the future. I will make it easy.. click here.

   The area of the Dockers (Rust Belt is so yesterday, eh?) is Great Lakes and the old automotive industry and offshoots. Brookings Institute thinks that Kentucky should be included; I don’t.

   You touch one of the Big 5 Great Lakes (H.O.M.E.S. as we were taught before Al slugged me) you are a Docker.

   Given the Global influence, it would be ruthless to exclude the Canadians; they are Dockers too.

   A new identity can be forged in that location, for the country is soon to come a calling for all that water.

   Advertising dollars are not hard to find.

   Take Green Apple with Ashley Weber.

   There is a blank page; and she makes a post observing some light shafts where the Twin Towers used to scrape the sky out her back window view. She calls it 9/11.
   A comment comes in. It talks of Sycamore trees.

   Next thing you know, ads appear all up and down the side of that post and comment, begging to cut down your tree!

   In Manhattan! Home of trees???

   This is sort of a —
   “there is no tree unless we get money from you” gambit.
   But the ads accrue.

   Or take Ian Enterline on tax day, April 15,2008.

   He has a blank page staring at his mug on the monitor, and pops down some words on The People Demand It.

   He calls it “Live Blogging C-Span coverage”.

   Some comments roll in, and the issue of taxes is explored, including some notation of certain IRS audits.

   BAM!

   IRS ads appear out of nowhere. Attorney ads can never be far behind. What was an empty page on the morning of 4/15/08 has now become an oasis of oil wells among the ones and zeros on the Internet.

   Check it out.

   More writers; more days; more posts; more comments; more key words for our mighty Search Engines; and retirement draws closer and closer as the cash piles up.

   I grant it is a trickle at first.

   But, anyone who has ever lived in Erie, PA has made a snowman.

   You start with this… O, then grow to this O, and pretty soon, that teaspoon of snow grows to a lemon, then a grapefruit, then a basketball size, and three more rolls and you cannot shove it further without the help of a John Deere, or a Molson Canadian…whichever is closer.

   Say, I wonder if putting the words “Molson Canadian” here today, in a comment, will find an ad from Molson Canadian here tomorrow?

   Be nice to your comment people.

   GoErie has never learned this.

   This has been Danny Irving R. Levine Lucas reporting.

10. George Vietze
    April 29th, 2008 at 10:47 am

    The Erie area has been brushed with the Rust Belt syndrome much too long. GE has long shed the rust, traded it for technology and education and kept the
    WORKERS who embraced those changes. Erie is known for its WORK ETHICS and has earned its WORK BELT. The day will come when will will wear ERIE WORK BELT BUCKELS and be proud. They will say Technology-Education-Research-
    and WORK! WORK! WORK!