the best way to start a newspaper?

Answer 1

Depends. Do you know anything about the business? Do you have a background in media? Lately it seems like folks are jumping on the publishing bandwagon without any idea of what they're doing (and it sounds like you're not sure of what you're doing -- otherwise you wouldn't have posted here).

Makes as much sense as waking up and saying, "I think I'll be a brain surgeon today. I have no idea what I'm doing, but, what the heck? It'll fill a few hours of the day."

If you're serious about learning about the industry, you'll need to do a lot of research and read some books published by experts. Then surround yourself with people who know what they're doing and then let them loose to do their jobs without micro-managing them.

If you don't have a background in sales, find some people who are stars in selling, then let them do it.

If you have no idea how to run the editorial side of things, find an editor and let that person loose to find staff writers and/or freelancers, graphic designers to layout the pages, photographers, etc.

And you'll need someone to run the business end of it.

Here's another great place to learn about the publishing industry. It's a message board and it's a mixture of people who know what they're talking about and people who are asking the questions. Here's the link:

http://www.magazinelaunch.com

Poke around at that site and you'll learn a lot.

Something that's very valuable at that site are the posts with recommending books to read. Do a "search" once you're there and you'll find the posts.

Answer 2

I started up a music fanzine a little while back, and I think the principles could be the same for a newspaper. This is what I did:

I wrote my own articles, did the layouts etc. And printed the first few editions out of my own money, and distributed them around the place (record stores, concert halls etc.) for free. You cant expect people to pay to read or advertise in a magazine or paper they never heard of.

One I had a good distribution pattern, I began approaching local businesses about paying me to advertise in it. Some were happy to do so because I had the numbers to prove people would see the ad's and so it wouldnt be a waste of money.

Then I used the new income to make the zine bigger and better, distribute it further and attract more advertisers. It's basically become a matter of invest-grow-repeat.

Answer 3

Online. Do you know how much actually printing a newspaper costs these days? Mailings? Better off to do an online paid subscriber type of business - the potential for world-wide distribution is immediate and the start up costs are the lowest. If you actually need to have paper printed and distributed, see how others did it and take the best of their examples and use them and the worst of their examples and do NOT use them. Good luck!

Answer 4

Start with guidelines, and write it. You need a clientel who is going buy what you write, like any good writer. You'll also need a way to print the paper too. I once thought of making a small paper on local new. I was going to write about local news, events, and staple like 10 or 15 pages together and stand on a corner and sell it. But, paper costs, interest, and cost of copiers to copy what I wrote would have exceeded the 50 cent per issue I would've been asking. You need a following to make any money. It's probably not easy to do.

Answer 5

Firstly, check what other people with this goal have said at http://www.43things.com/person/Pazzo and http://www.43things.com/things/view/33249

You might also find some handy insights at http://www.newspaper-info.com/ or http://www.highschooljournalism.org/Teachers/Teachers.cfm?id=73

There is also a nice little group of links at http://desktoppub.about.com/b/a/025319.htm

Answer 6

I don't know, but we need now ones that are not owned by a select few.

The more the better.