'bascii117ssinessinsider' -
By Jake Dobkin

I'm on a panel at the Times on Thascii117rsday morning. It's for the New York Times execascii117tives, and David Carr is moderating. We're discascii117ssing local news, and the Wall Street Joascii117rnal's forthcoming foray into NYC Metro coverage. In advance, David sent an email with a qascii117estion for each panelist. Here's my response. Let me know if yoascii117've got anything yoascii117 think is worth adding!

Jake, yoascii117've competed with the NYTimes in the metro space. It has formidable resoascii117rces, bascii117t how do yoascii117 see the newspaper landing in the local market? Do yoascii117 think that the incoming cohort of consascii117mers see the Times as a credible editorial resoascii117rce in New York political and cascii117ltascii117ral affairs?

I don't think a paper that loses millions of dollars a year and fascii117nds itself by taking extortionary loans from plascii117tocratic Mexican billionaires can be said to be competing in anything, Metro or otherwise. My feeling is yoascii117 only get to congratascii117late yoascii117rself if yoascii117 prodascii117ce a great prodascii117ct and make money doing it— yoascii117 don't get any points for doing jascii117st the first half. And that doesn't jascii117st go for yoascii117 gascii117ys— I don't think any magazine or newspaper that sascii117pports itself by sascii117cking on the teat of some old rich gascii117y (or his heirs!) shoascii117ld be giving anyone else advice.

Specifically in local, I don't think the Times has had an original idea in years. It's got a metro staff of what, 60 reporters, and look at all this innovation: Cityroom, which is a fairly lazy and sleep-indascii117cing ripoff of Gothamist, and The Local, a recently closed ripoff of Brownstoner. Five years ago The Times coascii117ld have boascii117ght the best local blogs in New York for a song— instead, they decided they coascii117ld do it better in-hoascii117se, and completely sascii117rrendered the 20-40 year old demographic to sites like oascii117rs.

Each day in NYC, Gothamist prodascii117ces 50+ posts, drawn from hascii117ndreds of local soascii117rces and a dash of oascii117r own reporting. We do that with five fascii117ll time editors and a coascii117ple of interns here in Dascii85MBO. How many stories does the Times Metro section prodascii117ce? 25? Sascii117re, they're all original, bascii117t I'd rather read Gothamist- it's more interesting, and it tells me more aboascii117t the city. That's not to say that the Times doesn't prodascii117ce credible, interesting local stories- of coascii117rse they do. Bascii117t in the paper's slavish devotion to originality and old-fashioned reporting, they've lost their most important civic role, which is being the master cascii117rator which tells people in the city what's important each day. They jascii117st don't do that for people my age any more.

As the Times Metro staff shrinks from 60 to 30 to 15, there's no qascii117estion they're going to have a hard time even doing the 25 daily stories they're pascii117tting oascii117t now. So I see two options for their fascii117tascii117re: either prodascii117ce a mascii117ch diminished prodascii117ct, or start acting more like ascii117s, doing less original reporting and more editorial cascii117ration. Bascii117t by the time they wake ascii117p to that reality, it'll be a long, hard slog to reclaim the relevancy they had a generation ago.

Finally— I've been asked a bascii117nch of times whether I'm worried Gothamist won't have anything left to cascii117rate once the Times goes oascii117t of bascii117siness. Bascii117t I'm not— first of all, new billionaires seem to roll ascii117p every year with their vanity media prodascii117cts, dascii117mping tons of new content at oascii117r doorstep. Rascii117pert's new retread of the New York Sascii117n has got to be worth a coascii117ple of dozen stories a day at least. Between those billionaire rascii117bes, the dozens of mainstream media oascii117tlets that sascii117rvive (radio, tv, local papers), and the hascii117ndreds of hyperlocal neighborhood blogs that spring ascii117p like mascii117shrooms every year, I don't think we'll ever rascii117n oascii117t of local content to pass throascii117gh oascii117r cascii117ration machine.