News Online-On Air Will Replace Newspapers, Sooner Than Later

That’s just stating a fact. We see it locally, as the (Tacoma) News Tribune shuts off the lights from cubicle to cubicle. Most recently, Food Editor, Sue Kidd departs. Kidd spent over 10 years at the Trib, dining on the company credit card, writing her reviews that brought more patrons to the better area restaurants. Her advice: “Always go back a second time. Too many readers visit a restaurant once, try one or two dishes, then email me to complain mercilessly and say, “You got it wrong.” …”what you should know is that I rarely penned a review based on a solo visit. If I wrote my reviews based off a solo visit, what I wrote all those years would have read a whole lot differently.”
This is another big loss to a dying newspaper in a dying industry.
Radio and online news sources have already replaced the newspaper as the go-to news source for a majority of those that once subscribed. While the newsstand prices for the dailies have skyrocketed, the subscription offers seem like last-ditch efforts to save a starving staff. Offers of 6-months FREE, 80 percent off a trial subscription and Free car washes for life are just a few. OK, no free car washes.
A community radio station, such as 88.5 KNKX, or 94.9 KUOW (#1 in most recent ratings research by the PPM meter folks at Research Director Inc.) could easily cover the same news, crime, fashion and food beats as any local newspaper. The independent/community FM stations are the most likely to do so. At this time, KUOW and KNKX have the support of the Puget Sound listeners. KNKX ratings have slipped, according to the latest numbers. Time will tell if they can bounce back. Listeners stepped up to save the station when Pacific Lutheran University considered selling their FM property to KUOW. Listeners believed that 88.5 would be treated like a red-headed stepchild by the University of Washington’s KUOW, remembering how KUOW used 91.7 KXOT as a secondary channel for programming it would not run on 94.9 FM. Community support raised over $10 million in under six months. KNKX studios remain in Seattle, while a new Tacoma studio will open soon, realizing that it is not a “community” radio station if not located “in the community.” There are enough people that will support a radio station with a $25 monthly pledge, but these same people would balk at paying $1.25 for a ten-page daily.