Good afternoon,
The local news landscape comes with wild west atmosphere these days.
We have seen the precipitous decline of the News Journal/DelawareOnline over the years as advertising dwindled and the most newsworthy content was put behind a hard paywall.
The Delaware Business Times, like most print-focused business journals, also went the paywall route to help pay for reporting. Free access WDEL soldiers on with a smaller staff minus stalwarts like Mark Fowser and the late Allan Loudell.
Meanwhile, consolidation has taken place in the online-only space, thanks to local Shop Rite store CEO Chris Kenny who snapped up the MildfordLive and TownSquare Delaware sites, while repackaging content and hiring former News Journal editor Betsy Price to write and edit the statewide DelawareLive.
The fluid environment has also brought us national networks that package themselves as local sites.
A recent story from NiemanLab identified hundreds of sites that as the headline notes are “masquerading as local news.” The story indicated that most of the sites tilted to the conservative side of the political spectrum. NiemanLab stopped short of using one earlier tag – “pink slime.”
When it comes to Delaware, there seems to be no ideological tilt, mainly because of a lack of actual news or commentary.
In the business news space, a Chicago company Franklin/Archer has rolled out sites in all 50 states under names that seem to mimic those of business journals.
One such site operates under the name Delaware Business Daily. It is in no way associated with Delaware Business Now. In fact, the name was once used by the predecessor to Delaware Business Now when we were operating a hybrid weekly PDF business journal.
Franklin/Archer also shares content with an entity known as Metric Media. Metric, which operates as a nonprofit has a number of sites in Delaware and elsewhere, claiming it is undertaking the lofty mission of bringing news to community. The Metric and Franklin/Archer sites have been linked to Brian Timpone, an Illinois businessman.
To date, locally generated content from Franklin/Archer and Metric appear to be nonexistent.
That could change, but it is hard to envision aggregators hiring staff members in all 50 states in the Covid era.
Meanwhile, stay cool over the weekend and do what you can to support local businesses. – Doug Rainey, chief content officer.
