The daily grind of keeping content up and making sure it’s of high quality is one of the big challenges, but just the time I need to spend to put the word out is another challenge. I don’t have a ton of marketing money, so I’m doing a lot of word of mouth stuff and my business card seems to be the biggest marketing device I have these days. I understand that the rest of 2010 will be a bit like a beta test, as I work to add components to the site and continue to add readers.

The good news is that once UnionvilleTimes.com gets up and running and starts generating revenue at a decent clip, I can add other modules in adjoining areas, without having to reinvent the wheel. I’m a little disappointed in some of the national ad networks — and things haven’t played out exactly to plan with some of the big companies I’ve been working with. I did half expect that, and while it would be nice to have more national ad revenue, I also knew that UT might have to sink or swim on its own merits, something I anticipated in creating the business plan. Ironically, I stand to make more money in the long term without a corporate overlord and being able to make all my decisions locally. Of course, that also improves the odds of ending up making nothing.

Anyhow, I’m starting to put together a media kit and finally feel like we have enough readership to start talking to local businesses about becoming advertisers without feeling like I’d be taking them for a ride. We’re getting ready to roll out a weekly E-newsletter — the digital version of having a local weekly newspaper. As I don’t have a print version to protect, I can be a bit more timely than the local print papers in terms of content and they can’t match that without cannabalizing their print versions and hurting their overall revenue.

Long term, its a winning strategy. I don’t have the overhead issues they have, but have a better publishing platform.

I

As of Oct. 1, I stopped writing for print — while my time at the Chester County Press was interesting, it wasn’t exactly a fit for my experience and skills — and so UnionvilleTimes.com has launched. While it is expected to be part of a much-bigger news effort — one with a national footprint — for now, I am laser focused on the events and people of the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District.

And while writing remains my first love, I’ve already started putting videos up on the site and may look at doing live on the Internet audio programming, if there’s an audience for it. We’ll be trying a few different things to see what works and what doesn’t — there’s no rule book now for how to make this work. So check it out and drop me a line and let me know what you think.

So, I am. Starting Oct. 1, I’ll be running my own local venture, in association with a national outfit (details will have to wait, thanks to non-disclosure agreements) and I’ll be updating more of the details of the where and when in the coming days. Let’s just say I got a unique opportunity to change the face of community journalism, not just here in Pennsylvania, but across the country. Like any startup, it will be something of an uphill climb, but I think these folks have the right idea and the time has come for something like this.

Right now, I can tell you the landscape is about to change dramatically.  A couple of very large companies are planning moves into the local news space, at least on the Internet, and they’re going to be able to pool national advertising audience to generate enough ad revenue to make it viable. Obviously, a lot remains uncertain — and I’m not at liberty at this moment in time to share some of my thinking on editorial/design models — but stay tuned. I think it’s going to get interesting again and change the face of local news coverage for good.

And yes, it’s a bit silly.

Back in my old Home Theater/E-Gear days, I’d stop in my local version and play dumb with the video guys and ask questions to see how poorly and incorrectly they’d answer them.

My point wasn’t to be mean or just to have fun, but to gauge the kind of strange information being put out there to my readers and what mistakes and misconceptions we needed to make an extra effort to correct.

And yet, like most tech-loving people, I’ve spent my share of spare change at Best Buy.

But during the last couple of weeks, though, my wife and I have gone through a surreal experience with them.

And it all started with a dishwasher. We bought this moderately high-end KitchenAid unit, one of the sleek models with no controls on the front. It was great, right until we started it up. Water spewed from the front left side of the unit, turning our kitchen into a giant waterslide.

Okay, stuff happens. I’ve reviewed enough audio/video gear over the years to know that. So we called the service folks and they came right out. Turns out the unit was defective. Really defective, as in missing parts — evidently it was Bring Your Beers to Work day at the KitchenAid plant up in Canada. The service guy told us point blank not to fix it, but return it, as there was an entire batch of “bad” KitchenAid units out there.

So far, so good. We weren’t thrilled, but the guy gave us a form saying he recommended a return and exchange. My wife went back to the store and worked out an exchange, getting a similar LG dishwasher instead.

That’s where the fun begins.

You see, Best Buy has this installer group called “The Geek Squad.” Unlike the commercials where they show this smiling guy, professionally hooking up your flat-screen TV, a better description is a bunch of clowns, a few dozen, climbing one after another out of a tiny car. Then the last clown slams the car door closed, the car explodes and then proceeds to set fire to half the town. And then the lead clown looks at you and says “what?”

Anyhow, said Geek Squad was supposed to come and disconnect the KitchenAid, so it could be packed up in some “special” way for return to KitchenAid (maybe Best Buy was going pack in some Yuengling to improve the balance of trade) and then another crew was supposed to come with the LG, install it and be on their merry way.

Friday morning the installers come, but no Geek Squad. After explaining that they, installers, could not possibly uninstall the KitchenAid, they called the mother ship (some scheduling department in the midwest) and left. After much gnashing of teeth and chewing on the appliance department manager, the entire thing was rescheduled for the next day.

Guess what? You guessed it. Same, exact thing. Brilliant!

At this point, not slightly perturbed, we made arrangements for them to try one last time today, Wednesday. I postponed a magazine story interview I was supposed to do this morning and everything. Then, last night, we get a call postponing it until July 3. Uh, nope.

Three strikes and you’re out, Best Buy. They were supposed to find a way to retrieve it today or it was going to be gone — we’re not going to go indefinitely without a dishwasher because Best Buy can’t remove its collective head from its collective posterior. As of this writing, it looks like Best Buy is going to eat a dishwasher — and a two-week old KitchenAid is going off for recycling, on their dime.

We demanded — and got — our money back. Tonight, we’ll buy a dishwasher from HH Gregg and see how that works.

My son Kenny at the New Garden Air Show

One of the many perks of doing what I’m doing for a living is getting to share a little of it with my kids. Last week, I got to take my son Kenny to the New Garden Air Show, which is pretty close to heaven for a nine-year-old boy.

I think he had a pretty good day. I know I did.

You may notice a new look. This is the first entirely designed from the ground up Word Press template I’ve written, called, oddly Mcgann. I’m oddly proud of it, and plan to do more things like this in the coming months.

Although a lot of stuff is the same, writing about school budgeting and development issues and so on isn’t much different than the last time I did it back in the early 1990s, it’s interesting to see how technology has changed things. I guess I’m a little like the old-timers who used to regale me with stories about working with typewriters and how spoiled I was being able to use a computer back when I was a kid in the 1980s.

The two big changes: email and being able to look up virtually everything on the Internet. It is so much easier to get things done now, no missed phone calls, no endless phone tag. (Although even while carrying a phone all of the time, something totally different from the old days, I managed to play phone tag with a state rep for more than a week, recently. Ah, memories.).

Those are good changes. Maybe even excellent changes. And I forgot how much fun this all is and that it seems to make a difference to people. Almost all of the feedback has been good so far, and I hope people continue to reach out and make their thoughts known on what I write.

There are some bad ones, however. When did bloggers take over print journalism? I’m sitting in a public meeting the other night and a reporter from another newspaper stands up during the public part of the meeting and starts asking the governmental board questions — midmeeting. Let’s put aside the fact that the question was, to be kind, asinine, and it was. It was also wildly unprofessional.

That’s just wrong on so many levels, I can’t even begin to start explaining it. You’re covering a meeting, not participating in it. Observe, report and ask your questions after the fact. Worse, the reporter in question left before the actual news part of the meeting happened, so he didn’t bother to stick around (in fact, neither of the other reporters stayed for the last 90 minutes of the meeting, when all of the news happened). And it appears that the reporter wasn’t working on a daily deadline of any sort, so I don’t get the rush to leave or why he inserted himself into the meeting.

Maybe things have changed since my last time doing this, but the discomforted looks from the officials on the dais make me think not — even they seemed to realize it was a major breech of protocol and professionalism.

I get that kids don’t want to be reporters anymore. At least smart, talented ones. The money is lousy, most of the companies are run by idiots — or worse, like all the dailies in this area, bankers. (In case you’re wondering, the last 36 months have shown us that investment bankers are like idiots who have then suffered major brain trauma and then were tasered).

But I also know how many people my age have been run aground by this economy and other publishing idiots, say at magazines and Websites, who can be hired for a surprisingly cost-effective price (If I had the money right now, I’d start my own newsgathering operation and only hire pros in their late 30s and 40s who find themselves with limited options as writers thanks to the publishing debacle. And I’d kick some serious butt, thank you).

It’s just not that hard to find good people in this economy if you bother to try, it just seems like these papers don’t even try.

]]> http://blog.mikemcgann.org/?feed=rss2&p=408 0 http://blog.mikemcgann.org/?p=394 http://blog.mikemcgann.org/?p=394#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:45:04 +0000 Mike http://blog.mikemcgann.org/?p=394 In some ways it seems like it’s been about 20 minutes since Election Day and in others like 20 years.

I’ve spent the last few months working and thinking, trying to figure out what’s next, where I fit in and how I can make a difference. I hoped, maybe naively, that I could do something to make the world a better place in politics. I think that it’s been proven at this point, though, that’s not where my future lies.

So what, then?

In general, it’s time to go back to writing. I’ve been doing Web development and I’m not bad at it, but it’s not what I should be doing. I’ve spent more than 25 years as a professional writer, editor and reporter and it’s time to go back to doing what I best.

Which brings me to this morning. There I was, covering the Chester County Commissioners’ meeting for The Chester County Press — not that it was a news bonanza, a couple of proclamations and an announcement of some grants. Then they paid the bills, approved hiring some folks dished out a few raises for a handful of employees and that was pretty much it. Not much drama.

Except for my being there, of course, which caused no small amount of double takes. Interestingly, I had a gracious conversation with Clerk of Courts Frank McIlvaine — the guy I ran against just months ago — and it was friendly enough. Even Carol Aichele, the chair of the Board of Commissioners was friendly and welcomed my coming to cover the meeting. Of course, what they think privately is impossible to gauge.

We’ll see if things stay that way — and the onus will be on me to prove that I have the professionalism to be even-handed in covering local politics, especially with elections on tap later this year and in 2011. Rest assured, if my name is on the story, people will be getting my best, most even-handed work.

]]> http://blog.mikemcgann.org/?feed=rss2&p=394 0 http://blog.mikemcgann.org/?p=390 http://blog.mikemcgann.org/?p=390#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:26:21 +0000 Mike http://blog.mikemcgann.org/?p=390 Nothing longwinded or deep today. Thanks to everyone who came out and supported me and my running mates — especially those in the Chester County Democratic Party who worked so hard. We didn’t get the result we hoped for, but the fight goes on.

We will be back. I will be back. Count on it.

And expect to hear from me in the coming weeks, both in terms of politics and a new Chester County media outlet that I expect to have a role with.

President Barack Obama. Val DiGiorgio says the budget deficit and the bad economy is all his fault, as if Bush was never president.

It was a pleasant enough night at Tel Hei, up in Honey Brook. The audience was reasonably receptive in what was to be the final forum for county-wide candidates.

It was, though, at times a bit like falling through Alice’s looking glass. First, only Val DiGiorgio and Mimi Sack showed up for the GOP, while all five Democrats attended. Sack, of whom virtually no one has anything unpleasant to say was her usual polite, civil self.

DiGiorgio — clearly rattled by mailers sent out by his opponent, Jim Reilly, went on the attack, trying to defend the both his lack of fiscal training and experience as well as the county’s giant debt load. That was to be expected. But then DiGiorgio dropped this bombshell:

All of our current economic problems have been caused by President Obama and the Democrats. When he said that, I really began wondering whether it was Val who took a shot to the head Monday night instead of Brian Westbrook.

You can agree or disagree with the decisions Barack Obama has made since coming to the White House, certainly, but you have be either, A: a lying weasel, or B: an incompetent buffoon to suggest that the current economic situation is the fault of the current president. You can’t even blame him for most of the current deficit: when G.W. Bush took office on Jan. 20, 2001, we had a budget surplus. SURPLUS. The first one in a generation. When he left office? That surplus turned into more than a trillion dollar deficit. By the end of this year, the final fiscal year planned and budgeted by the Bush Administration, the deficit is projected to jump to $1.4 trillion.

Just for those of you keeping score at home: the deficit jumped about $200 million a year the last three years of the Bush Administration. And yet, according to DiGiorgio’s math, this crazy spending is all Obama’s fault.

DiGiorgio’s comments are a lot like someone complaining about someone else forgetting to use a drink coaster, just after driving a tank through your living room.

And this is the guy that you want watching the finances of Chester County? Either his math skills are so poor that he wouldn’t pass the fifth grade competency tests or he’s such a partisan that he blithely ignores the facts.

Either way, it’s kind of embarrassing. Can’t we do better?

* * *

Frank McElwaine’s decision not to show up at Tel Hei continues his “Let ‘em eat cake” campaign of ignoring the voters’ desire to know more about him. No Website. No real claim to be able manage the office, other than sitting behind a desk for 34 years working with Big Oil. And he just doesn’t show up at the final forum of the campaign season.

“I can’t believe he didn’t bother to show up,” one Tel Hei resident said to me afterward. “Doesn’t he care what we think? Or does he think we just have to vote for him just because he’s a Republican? Well, I can tell you, I’m not. And a lot of people here aren’t either. Maybe that will get their attention.”

Words are nice, but they really don’t mean much of anything. Actions are what count and McElwaine’s actions have indicated he’ll be little more than a disconnected, no-show if elected. And don’t get me started on his tight relationship with Chester County ACTION — you know, the folks who claim Waterboarding is just “good clean fun” and want to teach creationism in the schools.

Can’t we do better?