Atomictumor

Word around the campfire is that the paper of choice up here, the Oak Ridge Observer, is about to abandon it’s current business model of giving away papers and subsiding off advertising and subscriptions in favor of a paid paper.

Its a ballsy move.  The thing has some good word of mouth right now, but you never know if its that way because its a well written and managed independent paper, or because its a well written and managed independent free paper.   That four letter f-word can bring a lot of goodwill.

Personally, doesn’t matter to me, because I subscribe to the thing anyway.  I like the idea of it being around, and I figure it wouldn’t go paid like this unless the needful was there.  I have a bad feeling about the move, simply because its going to completely throw a monkeywrench in the works as they’ve been standing for 4 years or whatever, but hell, who knows.

Personally, I’d much rather write a story about how they’re starting up an online edition so that when I link to local stuff, I can throw it their way…