Opinions & Editorials

February 2009

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New Mayor Could Make Promising Future
By Ariane Vander

We've seen many new faces come and go from the city mayor's office, but Teresa Gates shows some signs of improvement. The 34-year-old former legislature and now newly-elected Mayor has been keen on new developments in the community that would require many strict budget cuts yet create more jobs through proper financing. "The wheel isn't broken, it's just been spinning one way for too long," Gates said in a speech. It's no secret that her predecessor ran the city's debt up from $30million to nearly $60million, sinking us even further into the hole. "You have to know how to spend money and spend it wisely," she says, remarking on those before her.

Since being sworn into office, the new Mayor has already begun setting plans into motion for the community face-lift. Along with the construction of new schools and needed street repairs underway, she also aimed to decrease the homeless population problem. "Many of those individuals we see on the streets on a day-to-day basis are just like you and me, it could be any one of us," she says, noting the increase of home foreclosures recently. In January, debates commenced as she donated a lump sum to local homeless shelters for improving infrastructures and installing mini health care facilities. The action was precedented by her belief that it would stimulate the lingering sick individuals to get back on their feet. With the work needed to get back on track, perhaps we should all go out on a limb.

Editorial: Printed News Moving Online
By Dennis Frye

If you ask people today where they heard a particular news story from, most of them would tell you from some source other than a newspaper. With 24 hour news channels and internet, a person's ability to hear of news quickly and in vast quantities is a standard of life. Is a daily or weekly newspaper on the edge of extinction?

Washingtonpost.com is a great example of a traditional print newspaper being successful by moving online. In a time when most printed newspaper are losing money and cutting expenses, which usually means jobs, the Washington Post is a model for all. They recognized how to get better at what they do by evolving. They may have lost some readership for the printed version but increased their online readership. They've maintained and even increased staff. In this developing global online/electronic economy avenues will only increase around the world for businesses to expand online. With more and more access to the internet and thus it's vast stores of data, back issues, growing news outlets and ways to connect to it all, the traditional 'pay for news' model is becoming obsolete.

The basic market adage that 'price determines everything' will continue to take it's toll. Media outlets that are now starting to bridge the gap between online profits versus print profits will find that they need only charge to cover the cost of printing (ink, paper, labor, machines and distribution) to keep a printed version going. Most profits now are made from the advertisers in the paper, not the 75 cents you feed the papermachine.

Soon with electronic devices such as Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPhone with apps now to read ebooks, the printed version may be too cumbersome like CDs for music. Why carry around a pack full of CDs when you can carry a small mp3 player that holds thousands of CDs worth of music? One electronic reading device could download and hold dozens if not hundreds of traditional papers along with entire book collections all in the size of one paperback book. And unlike the music, news articles just don't have the shelf life. I'm not going to sit by a fire with a cup of tea and read a nice classic article from my collection. We don't know what the future holds, but we can definitely know what direction it is headed.

February 2009

New Mayor Could Make Promising Future By Ariane Vander