This may sound crazy right now and it is, but in 2012, NSBNews.net will become a Central Florida Internet newspaper, based right here in New Smyrna Beach, and within a few years, statewide.
I have the domain names locked down for 50 Florida cities, a social network with close to 11,000 contacts and integration with Google News Services.
If I could deliver news about a tornado occurring in New Smyrna Beach while up in Connecticut for a class reunion last year, then anything is possible. Back in colonial times, newspapers were produced by printers with town criers bellowing out the headlines.
By the late 1900s and early 20th century, newspapers were the key source of news, and by the 1960s, were being gobbled up by corporations like Knight Ridder, Gannett and Cox. I've worked for the latter two. With the advent of cable in the early 1980s, afternoon newspapers started to disappear. Then two-newspaper cities were going by the wayside.
Fast forward to the 21st century and people read NSBNews.net on their electronic gadgets. such as smart phones and tablets, never mind laptops and desktop computers. And what you are going to see are more independent Internet newspapers like NSBNews.net pop up, just like the print shop news sheets of colonial times. Print newspapers are holding on for dear life because of the advertising. Plus many of the executives in the industry would become obsolete. They wouldn't have a clue what I can now do online.
My feeling is why should you have to pay 1 cent for something you can get online for free. And look at your morning newspaper and ask yourself how different it is from what was available to uyou the night before on that publication's website.
And print newspapers are cutting back. For example, if it weren't for NSBNews.net, New Smyrna Beach residents wouldn't have been informed that the Hampton Inn project is back in gear. The Daytona Beach News-Journal still hasn't provided that news. Wonder why? It's not rocket science. All I did was push the black tarp down and look through the chain link fence.
I'm old enough that I started my first job in journalism after college with a typewriter. But I've learned to adapt since leaving print journalism for good in 2008.
Even with all of my journalism industry awards and experience, there is no future in print journalism -- not for me. And from what I've learned being fully online and independent, many of these established print papers are in bed with the politicians.
As long as I can make enough to take care of my family, I'm happy. And for nearly four years, I have been able to do that. I'll have more on where NSBNews.net is headed in the weeks ahead.
Thank you for your continued interest in NSBNews.net. And on behalf of my wife, Serafina, and my co-publisher Peter Mallory, we wish everyone the happiest of holidays. God bless...
