Newspaper Disruptor – Changing the newspaper game one day at a time

HATCHing a better world is possible

October 13, 2023 JoeyYoung Comments 0 Comment

Toward the end of my favorite movie, “Almost Famous,” you see William Miller in his room, looking through Polaroids and trying to figure out how he is going to put everything he experienced into words for Rolling Stone magazine. Much like that, I find myself looking through my own photos, exhausted and trying to contemplate the unbelievable experience I just had attending the HATCH Heartland Summit in Nebraska City, Nebraska. I was skeptical of my invitation to HATCH. I don’t…

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Instant Pot wants chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. How it relates to the media business

June 20, 2023 JoeyYoung Comments 0 Comment

Stories like Instant Pot’s bankruptcy protection always grab headlines. How can a brand so popular, with almost a cult-like following be going out of business? It’s something we should be better at seeing by now. Cult-like followings don’t result in sales if there isn’t anything for customers after the original purchase of the product, which is well-made and can be used constantly without replacement. Why does your favorite band come out with a new album about once a year and…

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News is changing all over the country, not just here

March 1, 2023 JoeyYoung Comments 0 Comment

Lindsey and I purchased The Clarion, our first little newspaper a little over 10 years ago. The Clarion covers all those sleepy little towns between Wichita and Hutchinson along K-96 Highway. When we purchased The Clarion all of the core communities, Maize, Colwich, Andale, Mount Hope, and Haven were different, had differing levels of economies and were split between three school districts ranging from 6A to 3A. Now, those communities are vastly different and in far more ways than I…

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A little about Press Club

August 12, 2022 JoeyYoung Comments 0 Comment

(This column originally ran in Harvey County Now based in Newton, KS) I am not from Newton. I didn’t grow up in Harvey County, and outside of Harvey County Now, I haven’t one connection to the whole community. Without this newspaper, I probably wouldn’t know a soul in Newton or in Harvey County outside of my stint as a reporter for the Harvey County Independent when I was in my early 20s. My wife and I grew up in Reno…

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Changing the conversation about newspaper closures

May 12, 2022 JoeyYoung Comments 0 Comment

For my entire career, the newspaper industry has been dying. It’s interesting that it was dying prior to me getting into the business over 15 years ago, too. Whatever is killing us has been taking a long time to put us down, and it’s odd that I happen to know there are a lot of newspapers still doing quite well, including our own. That doesn’t change the fact that some newspapers are struggling. To ignore that fact is to be…

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Four years later – the decline is faster than I expected

November 12, 2020 JoeyYoung Comments 1 comment

In just a few days, Nov. 15, 2020, it will be an anniversary very few will celebrate. That date is very significant to me, though. I even have a printed copy of The Hutchinson News from that date sitting at my desk in Newton, just to remind me that on this day four years ago, my hometown newspaper died. I told many in my close circles back home what I thought would happen when the Harris Family put the Hutchinson…

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Why newspapers shouldn’t get too close with Internet giants

September 23, 2020 JoeyYoung Comments 0 Comment

I felt a little froggy this morning and decided to watch Editor and Publisher’s live panel on “The Future of Local NewsMedia – The Experts.” I usually slow roll my Wednesday morning after a long day of production on Tuesdays and figured, what the hell, I want to be pissed off this morning. For the most part, this panel didn’t piss me off actually. I disagreed with many on what the future looks like, and I certainly don’t buy into…

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Stop fighting about the economy. Get mad at those who made it this way.

May 16, 2020 JoeyYoung Comments 1 comment

We were lucky. We got Payroll Protection Plan (PPP) money in the first round, largely due to working with a great local banker who went out of his way with us and with several businesses in the area to ensure they were taken care of. The PPP was a half-assed, thrown-together, quick Band-Aid for American businesses, created by the government, that everyone from the Small Business Administration to local bankers to those it was supposed to help could see was…

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The death of local news

April 3, 2020 JoeyYoung Comments 2 comments

This was recently featured in Editor & Publisher. Read this, and then you will understand my rant. Giving away your product, unless your product is mass distribution printed newspaper, is a death sentence for local news. How someone with this message is still considered an expert is beyond me. Giving away content, acting as if what we do doesn’t have value, and relying on advertising alone is exactly what got this industry in trouble in the first place. That along…

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