ThePrintedBlog Was A Good Idea, If Done Correctly…

I’ve been following the story surrounding ThePrintedBlog, a startup that recently failed that centered around publishing blog posts and other user-generated content into a bi-weekly newspaper in cities such as Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

The idea worked in the beginning, but tried to grow to fast.  The idea was simple- take blog posts and publish them (with the bloggers permission) into a newspaper-type format, and then offer them free of charge at subway stations, news stands and other areas around its cities.  The idea was monetized by third-party advertisements, and the revenue of such was shared with the bloggers who appeared in the various publications.

The startup recently shut down, but I think the idea had a lot of staying power if done correctly.  The founder admitted this fact in an interview with the New York times, stating that he tried to grow to fast, and that if he’d started with one edition that sold at one subway station in Chicago, he could have bootstrapped it effectively without needing outside funding to keep afloat.  The lack of funding was the eventual nail in the coffin of the startup that cost the founder an estimated $250K to get off the ground.

Using innovative initiatives such as putting commercial printers in the homes of the delivery personnel, the startup was on the right track from the beginning and managed to publish several issues before cutting the cord, but it leaves me wondering if the idea would work elsewhere in the country.  If a pilot program was introduced in a smaller city, with around 100,000 people that were very focused on their local media, I think it would have a lot of traction.  The only problem being the lack of local, online, user-generated content via blogs.  Smaller communities usually lack a lot of good online content that would be suitable to publish for the masses.

Another thought would be to distribute the newspaper free-of-charge to the entire community (a smaller one of course to get things started) and subsidize the third-party advertising that runs alongside the content with a section dedicated to local advertisers.  You could charge a flat-fee for local companies to include coupons, announcements, etc. and could help offset the costs of printing, distribution and other expenses while not having to worry about circulation.

In the end, I have to commend the founder of ThePrintedBlog for giving it his best, I think he had some excellent ideas and executed them to the best of his ability.  I still think we’ve haven’t seen the last of this concept yet….thoughts?