Inside the Blackboard Free Press closure - By Jason Ricketts
Hey there Nick, and all the readers of Nick's blog! Even though the Californian asked for my perspective for the article in today's newspaper, I'll give Nick the scoop, because Nick and I are compatriots of sorts.
Someone sent me the link to Nick's blog, and all the conversation that's been taking place. Thanks so much for all the good words of encouragement!
I've been inundated with dozens of emails from the community regarding the demise of The Blackboard, and I'm trying to keep on top of it all. I hope I've sent a reply to everyone that sent in good comments, and if you haven't heard from me yet, it is because I am considering your offers and proposals and taking my time to make the right decisions. Don't lament! I'll get back to you soon with ideas and feedback considering the business proposals you've made because I really want to make the right decision on everything.
The honest truth is the newspaper shut down because it really was a death of a thousand paper cuts.
First and foremost, I am the only person running the newspaper. One person. Me. Keep that in mind. I've had a tremendous amount of help over the years, but help comes and goes and the only constant through all of this has been me.
The primary reason the newspaper is shut down is money, like any other in a capitalist society. The newspaper really is run on a shoestring budget. Six hundred bucks gets a newspaper onto the streets, and when advertisers promise to pay for that full page ad, and don't come through on the money, that revenue has to come from somewhere. Advertisers like Artie at Front Porch Music kept the newspaper alive, and his money kept it afloat for a number of months when others didn't pay. When that money ran out, and other advertiser's money, I had the choice of running up a bigger debt or getting out before I really screwed a whole number of people. I'm deeply sorry to those who got burnt now - it really does break my heart and I've lost sleep over it - but I also feel it was better to stop rather than make promises that I might not be able to follow up on later. I'm certainly not blaming advertisers, and I hope I didn't give that impression. I'm blaming advertisers that hadn't paid or tried to wheedle free advertising out of the newspaper when there wasn't anything there to fall back on.
The Music Festival was a roaring success. I can't thank everyone that was involved enough: Fishlips, the musicians and the worker bees that did all the little groundwork details. I appreciate, and I know the non-profit appreciated everything that was done that night. It created a lot of good feelings for everyone that was involved and that is something I will take and keep in a warm place in my heart. We really did a good thing that night, and had a lot of fun doing it. If anything, my naiveté on running a music gig was my own failure. I was expecting to get something from the festival to help stop the bleeding, I didn't make those intentions clear, and I also had to pay out about three hundred dollars that I wasn't expecting. Ouch! I'm not blaming anyone but myself on that and lesson learned.
Then there are the thousands of other things that go on around a newspaper. I'm sure readers have no idea the work that's involved. I don't begrudge them of that because if anything, it speaks of my work and how I might make it all look so easy. It's not.
My telephone rings constantly, from six in the morning from phone calls on the east coast to eleven o'clock at night from bar owners and contributors who just got back from a gig and want to talk about it. Plus the assholes who found my phone number on the Internet and want to sell me a home loan - telemarketers burn in hell! I can receive six or seven phone calls in a row, hang up, bang, and the phone rings again, each presenting their own problems and resolutions that require my full attention. New advertisers. Contributors pitching story ideas. Advertisers who want to change up their ad. Musicians who want to send in a CD and invite the newspaper to a Saturday gig. Authors who want their book reviewed. People who just want to chat - and since I run a newspaper, I become a weird form of priest that people confess to, thinking they may end up in print and have some of their grievances aired. Irate parents of kids who died at KMC who are grieving and want to talk to a newspaper that will listen to them for an hour or so. Hundreds of phone calls a month.
Answering email becomes a full time job. All the same things go on that happen with a phone call, but through email. A lot easier, since I can do a lot of copy and paste and bang out a dozen replies in a hour, but still time consuming.
Deadline, when the newspaper starts gearing up for production. Editing of articles, reading every word to make sure no one is threatening the president or saying racist crap or any of the other stuff that can get me sued or just simply doesn't belong in the newspaper. Hundreds of thousands of words a month: I'd guess I receive about 350,000 words every deadline, the same as a 250 page novel that I have to read in about three days. Writing my own articles and the work involved to get those just right. Putting together an events section is a pain in the ass I wouldn't wish on anyone, and making sure that everyone that sent a press release in gets some ink. New advertisers who want an ad developed. Old advertisers who want to change an ad and think it's as easy as changing a word processing document, when it's not and takes Photoshop magic. Then it all goes to layout where Pagemaker always presents it's own interesting problems. Imagine big Tetris pieces that you're trying to fit together and the constant tweaking to get everything legible and on a page. It's a big difference than text dumping something into a blog form and pushing the PUBLISH button. Then it's update the web site. Then it's getting newspaper into the community and making sure all the deliveries are made, and the gas it costs to do that. Following up with people who want the newspaper that I missed. Getting the subscriptions out and the cost of the mailings. As soon as newspapers are on the streets, I have about a week to take a (bit of a) breather before the whole process ramps up and starts again. Tons and tons of work, plus lots of incidental expenses.
don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining. I loved doing the work because I knew the community appreciated it.
I hear Nick's complaint that I didn't take the time to nurture relationships with writers, and I'm sorry if that gave him the impression that the newspaper would fail because of it. That wasn't even close to why the newspaper failed, since I had plenty of contributors. If one fell off, another one climbed back on. Seeking content was never a problem, for the three years of doing this thing. I've heard the dozens of other complaints that are all justified and true. I'm absolutely sure I could have spent fourteen hours every single day doing everything that people suggested - chasing grants to increase revenue, chasing more advertising, going to every single mixer and event and kissing hands and shaking babies - and I did that for a while. I got gray hairs and a bald spot from having no time to myself, and the stress got the better of me and made me a very crabby person. I'm sure long time contributors remember me about eight months ago when I was nothing but an asshole running on thin nerves and frayed patience. Since I backed away from a lot of the responsibilities of the newspaper, I've calmed down quite a bit, but to the detriment of the newspaper. It was a tough balance.
I hear those that want the newspaper to continue, and believe me, I want that too, very badly. I would continue everything I was doing, and be happy doing it if there were some changes.
Money is biggest problem, and sending in cash would certainly help pay the printer, although that's no stopgap solution. Sales is the second biggest problem, to continue the revenue streams. If I had some private funding or someone that wanted to spend a few hours every day to chase ads and earn commissions, the newspaper would be a huge success. We have the readership and the support to justify the advertising, we're not a blog so people can hold something tangible in their hot little hands, so it's an easy sell if someone spent the time to pursue it. A business partner to handle the financial end would be awesome - someone to say, "This is the money, here are this month's ads, and here is the page count." And off I go doing everything else that I do so well. It would only take a couple thousand dollars to get the newspaper out of the bind it's in. Personally, I really don't care about profit or lining my pockets or anything stupid like that - the partner can take all the profit and spend it on crack whores if they wanted to. As long as the printer was paid, all the advertisers got their ads, and the newspaper was delivered into the community that loves it, I'm happy.
If none of this happens, I'm sure I'll come up with something to keep me in the face of Bakersfield, because I've always been the agitator. Even if the newspaper fades away, everyone will see or hear from me eventually.
The newspaper's email address - editor@theblackboardfreepress.com - is still active and will be for the next couple of months. Feel free to shoot me any ideas. I'm not going to make any major decisions any time soon. This Saturday I'm volunteering for Brews in the Village, and getting shitfaced drunk. Sunday, I'm getting a new tattoo from my brother to add to the others. For the rest of the week, I'm going to meander about my apartment and work on my novel and stare off wistfully into space and try to clear out some of the cobwebs in my head. In about a week, I'll start answering back those who sent in their business proposals and ideas, and we'll pick up from there. I really would love to salvage the newspaper, so I put it to anyone that has any good ideas, and hopefully this will be indigestion instead of a fatal heart attack.
Thanks again for everyone's support! You're keeping my heart warm to know that people out there love what I and the Blackboard contributors did, and I would love to continue it. Let's see what happens in the next few weeks!
peace and much love
Jason Rickett
Someone sent me the link to Nick's blog, and all the conversation that's been taking place. Thanks so much for all the good words of encouragement!
I've been inundated with dozens of emails from the community regarding the demise of The Blackboard, and I'm trying to keep on top of it all. I hope I've sent a reply to everyone that sent in good comments, and if you haven't heard from me yet, it is because I am considering your offers and proposals and taking my time to make the right decisions. Don't lament! I'll get back to you soon with ideas and feedback considering the business proposals you've made because I really want to make the right decision on everything.
The honest truth is the newspaper shut down because it really was a death of a thousand paper cuts.
First and foremost, I am the only person running the newspaper. One person. Me. Keep that in mind. I've had a tremendous amount of help over the years, but help comes and goes and the only constant through all of this has been me.
The primary reason the newspaper is shut down is money, like any other in a capitalist society. The newspaper really is run on a shoestring budget. Six hundred bucks gets a newspaper onto the streets, and when advertisers promise to pay for that full page ad, and don't come through on the money, that revenue has to come from somewhere. Advertisers like Artie at Front Porch Music kept the newspaper alive, and his money kept it afloat for a number of months when others didn't pay. When that money ran out, and other advertiser's money, I had the choice of running up a bigger debt or getting out before I really screwed a whole number of people. I'm deeply sorry to those who got burnt now - it really does break my heart and I've lost sleep over it - but I also feel it was better to stop rather than make promises that I might not be able to follow up on later. I'm certainly not blaming advertisers, and I hope I didn't give that impression. I'm blaming advertisers that hadn't paid or tried to wheedle free advertising out of the newspaper when there wasn't anything there to fall back on.
The Music Festival was a roaring success. I can't thank everyone that was involved enough: Fishlips, the musicians and the worker bees that did all the little groundwork details. I appreciate, and I know the non-profit appreciated everything that was done that night. It created a lot of good feelings for everyone that was involved and that is something I will take and keep in a warm place in my heart. We really did a good thing that night, and had a lot of fun doing it. If anything, my naiveté on running a music gig was my own failure. I was expecting to get something from the festival to help stop the bleeding, I didn't make those intentions clear, and I also had to pay out about three hundred dollars that I wasn't expecting. Ouch! I'm not blaming anyone but myself on that and lesson learned.
Then there are the thousands of other things that go on around a newspaper. I'm sure readers have no idea the work that's involved. I don't begrudge them of that because if anything, it speaks of my work and how I might make it all look so easy. It's not.
My telephone rings constantly, from six in the morning from phone calls on the east coast to eleven o'clock at night from bar owners and contributors who just got back from a gig and want to talk about it. Plus the assholes who found my phone number on the Internet and want to sell me a home loan - telemarketers burn in hell! I can receive six or seven phone calls in a row, hang up, bang, and the phone rings again, each presenting their own problems and resolutions that require my full attention. New advertisers. Contributors pitching story ideas. Advertisers who want to change up their ad. Musicians who want to send in a CD and invite the newspaper to a Saturday gig. Authors who want their book reviewed. People who just want to chat - and since I run a newspaper, I become a weird form of priest that people confess to, thinking they may end up in print and have some of their grievances aired. Irate parents of kids who died at KMC who are grieving and want to talk to a newspaper that will listen to them for an hour or so. Hundreds of phone calls a month.
Answering email becomes a full time job. All the same things go on that happen with a phone call, but through email. A lot easier, since I can do a lot of copy and paste and bang out a dozen replies in a hour, but still time consuming.
Deadline, when the newspaper starts gearing up for production. Editing of articles, reading every word to make sure no one is threatening the president or saying racist crap or any of the other stuff that can get me sued or just simply doesn't belong in the newspaper. Hundreds of thousands of words a month: I'd guess I receive about 350,000 words every deadline, the same as a 250 page novel that I have to read in about three days. Writing my own articles and the work involved to get those just right. Putting together an events section is a pain in the ass I wouldn't wish on anyone, and making sure that everyone that sent a press release in gets some ink. New advertisers who want an ad developed. Old advertisers who want to change an ad and think it's as easy as changing a word processing document, when it's not and takes Photoshop magic. Then it all goes to layout where Pagemaker always presents it's own interesting problems. Imagine big Tetris pieces that you're trying to fit together and the constant tweaking to get everything legible and on a page. It's a big difference than text dumping something into a blog form and pushing the PUBLISH button. Then it's update the web site. Then it's getting newspaper into the community and making sure all the deliveries are made, and the gas it costs to do that. Following up with people who want the newspaper that I missed. Getting the subscriptions out and the cost of the mailings. As soon as newspapers are on the streets, I have about a week to take a (bit of a) breather before the whole process ramps up and starts again. Tons and tons of work, plus lots of incidental expenses.
don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining. I loved doing the work because I knew the community appreciated it.
I hear Nick's complaint that I didn't take the time to nurture relationships with writers, and I'm sorry if that gave him the impression that the newspaper would fail because of it. That wasn't even close to why the newspaper failed, since I had plenty of contributors. If one fell off, another one climbed back on. Seeking content was never a problem, for the three years of doing this thing. I've heard the dozens of other complaints that are all justified and true. I'm absolutely sure I could have spent fourteen hours every single day doing everything that people suggested - chasing grants to increase revenue, chasing more advertising, going to every single mixer and event and kissing hands and shaking babies - and I did that for a while. I got gray hairs and a bald spot from having no time to myself, and the stress got the better of me and made me a very crabby person. I'm sure long time contributors remember me about eight months ago when I was nothing but an asshole running on thin nerves and frayed patience. Since I backed away from a lot of the responsibilities of the newspaper, I've calmed down quite a bit, but to the detriment of the newspaper. It was a tough balance.
I hear those that want the newspaper to continue, and believe me, I want that too, very badly. I would continue everything I was doing, and be happy doing it if there were some changes.
Money is biggest problem, and sending in cash would certainly help pay the printer, although that's no stopgap solution. Sales is the second biggest problem, to continue the revenue streams. If I had some private funding or someone that wanted to spend a few hours every day to chase ads and earn commissions, the newspaper would be a huge success. We have the readership and the support to justify the advertising, we're not a blog so people can hold something tangible in their hot little hands, so it's an easy sell if someone spent the time to pursue it. A business partner to handle the financial end would be awesome - someone to say, "This is the money, here are this month's ads, and here is the page count." And off I go doing everything else that I do so well. It would only take a couple thousand dollars to get the newspaper out of the bind it's in. Personally, I really don't care about profit or lining my pockets or anything stupid like that - the partner can take all the profit and spend it on crack whores if they wanted to. As long as the printer was paid, all the advertisers got their ads, and the newspaper was delivered into the community that loves it, I'm happy.
If none of this happens, I'm sure I'll come up with something to keep me in the face of Bakersfield, because I've always been the agitator. Even if the newspaper fades away, everyone will see or hear from me eventually.
The newspaper's email address - editor@theblackboardfreepress.com - is still active and will be for the next couple of months. Feel free to shoot me any ideas. I'm not going to make any major decisions any time soon. This Saturday I'm volunteering for Brews in the Village, and getting shitfaced drunk. Sunday, I'm getting a new tattoo from my brother to add to the others. For the rest of the week, I'm going to meander about my apartment and work on my novel and stare off wistfully into space and try to clear out some of the cobwebs in my head. In about a week, I'll start answering back those who sent in their business proposals and ideas, and we'll pick up from there. I really would love to salvage the newspaper, so I put it to anyone that has any good ideas, and hopefully this will be indigestion instead of a fatal heart attack.
Thanks again for everyone's support! You're keeping my heart warm to know that people out there love what I and the Blackboard contributors did, and I would love to continue it. Let's see what happens in the next few weeks!
peace and much love
Jason Rickett
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Friday, September 08, 2006.
You can leave your response.
Is the demise of the Blackboard then really a demise or a continuing saga and a final ditch effort to rally community support and funding? Maybe all of that and more...
This is definitely an enlightening piece as to how an Indie paper is run and all the grey hairs that go along with it...
A big thanks to the Blackboard for the big scoop. Makes me feel like I'm doing something a little special to have Jason send his thoughts to me...
This blog has certainly become a conversation ground for those wanting to discuss the end of the Blackboard, which we all hope is just the beginning toward an even better paper of some kind...
Now Jason, go write that novel!
I really believe that the best option for the blackboard is to go online only -- I also think that eventually, enough revenue from online could be generated to subsidize starting up print again (print is still a bigger money maker than online, so reverse publishing to print should be considered when feasible ... but then, who knows, maybe then online will have matured enough to make print unnecessary).
If contributors would support a online-only Blackboard with free content (possibly in a group blog model -- look at blogcritics.org) until it gets on its feet, I think Bakersfield could have something pretty special on the alternative press front.
Every town needs an alternative press, no matter how good or bad the mainstream media is.
howardowens.com
I absolutely agree with you, Howard. I would have done it myself but I don't have the IT brains or money to set up such a blog site...
That is exactly what we did in Small Town Canada.
This is a site I am attached to at the hip:
www.westcoaster.ca
No print, pure daily online news.
It sounds like your readership would dig it. Our readership is older, attached to 'paper' BUT we are turning one next month and the numbers we've achieved in terms of daily readers are now on par with the local daily 'paper' based news.
If I can offer any help just say the word.
Online is the way to go.
i love the online idea...
Wow ! I don't check my Paperback writer for a couple of days and all kinds of stuff has happened.
Sorry Jason about Bakersfield not supporting the Blackboard.I was talking to N.L. about a deadline to The Blackboard and now it is dead ! No one will know about Rockfish at the K.C. Fair. N.L. Take a picture of the dirt just south of the train car by the clock tower. This was the site of the Blackboard Bar. I've been there before it died too. Put down your BREWS and take a picture.
Bite Me
Thank you Nic for keeping us up to date on the Blackboard sitch. I was really getting to look foreward to my Blackboard fix every month and now it's gone? Weep, Weep! :(
Thank you to Jason for all that you've done. Sorry we all didn't support you more. This community owes you a lot!
I still think that the Blackboard should re-create itself as a not-for-profit paper. That way it could apply for various grants for various reasons - much as it did in the past for its coverage of the arts and history. With more funds coming in, there could be salaries set up for people (Jason) who work on the paper regularly. I have suggested this to Jason before, and I think he likes the idea in general... not sure why he hasn't been actively pursuing it.
Remember, giving money to a not-for-profit is a tax write off. Folks can be cajoled to giving to their local alternative press without advertising for that reason.
This is not guess work. I have worked on another alternative paper in the midwest that did exactly this.
What do you all think?
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