Really interesting analysis, and IMHO it highlights the difference between the legacy organizations that are fighting to perpetuate an obsolete model with poor product/market fit and new entrants. MendoLocal.News doesn't do "back to school" stories. We are too busy covering real news, including education news. I like your product idea, but the first product is real news reporting.
The challenge is your asking a leopard to change its spots. You’re asking news organizations to become software organizations, and that requires fundamentally different skill sets, roles, economic models etc.
Rather than expect local publishers to build tools, the bigger opportunity is probably for software companies to build software that can be leveraged locally vs a thousand publications all building ad Hoc crud.
Agree with your position wholeheartedly, just don’t think the ask is that realistic.
Kevin, you are spot on about the fundamental disconnect between traditional news operations and software product organizations. News organizations can't just flip a switch and hire engineers.
However, the specific distinction I’m trying to make here is that the tools I’m advocating for—the ones listed in that second column—increasingly do not require being a software organization.
My examples (supply list pricing via Glide/Softr or a bus-route lookup via AI-assisted coding in a weekend) were selected precisely because they do not require a product team or a developer budget line.
I agree with you that the industry-wide answer isn't "a thousand custom crud apps." The problem is that while we wait for the perfect centralized software, we are ceding the entire utility landscape on the single most scheduled day of the year.
This isn't an ask for them to hire engineers; it's an ask for them to see what the no-code stack and AI can build today with the reporting they already have.
When I was starting vibe coding, even the easy stuff was difficult, so there is still a significant learning curve that requires people in the newsroom who are both excited, given the time and rewarded for trying new stuff.
The challenge is that it will require organizations who are willing to modify roles and rewards etc. so that people have the time to struggle and not get much of anything done as they figure things out, because as I tell my daughters, you have to suck before you can succeed.
There is no going to good or great without traversing the I/we suck phase.
Disagree. There are new news organizations that develop like crazy today. Coding has been fully democratized. The traditional news organizations are doing everything they can to prevent new news organizations from thriving — California's new Civic Media Partnership is the latest state-funded effort to kill real local news. And even more Ff-ed up is AB 2323, which is headed for Newsom's desk. The larger news organizations think we are too small, too weak, and too poor to fight for our readers access to deeply reported, fact-based information. They are wrong.
Really interesting analysis, and IMHO it highlights the difference between the legacy organizations that are fighting to perpetuate an obsolete model with poor product/market fit and new entrants. MendoLocal.News doesn't do "back to school" stories. We are too busy covering real news, including education news. I like your product idea, but the first product is real news reporting.
The challenge is your asking a leopard to change its spots. You’re asking news organizations to become software organizations, and that requires fundamentally different skill sets, roles, economic models etc.
Rather than expect local publishers to build tools, the bigger opportunity is probably for software companies to build software that can be leveraged locally vs a thousand publications all building ad Hoc crud.
Agree with your position wholeheartedly, just don’t think the ask is that realistic.
Kevin, you are spot on about the fundamental disconnect between traditional news operations and software product organizations. News organizations can't just flip a switch and hire engineers.
However, the specific distinction I’m trying to make here is that the tools I’m advocating for—the ones listed in that second column—increasingly do not require being a software organization.
My examples (supply list pricing via Glide/Softr or a bus-route lookup via AI-assisted coding in a weekend) were selected precisely because they do not require a product team or a developer budget line.
I agree with you that the industry-wide answer isn't "a thousand custom crud apps." The problem is that while we wait for the perfect centralized software, we are ceding the entire utility landscape on the single most scheduled day of the year.
This isn't an ask for them to hire engineers; it's an ask for them to see what the no-code stack and AI can build today with the reporting they already have.
When I was starting vibe coding, even the easy stuff was difficult, so there is still a significant learning curve that requires people in the newsroom who are both excited, given the time and rewarded for trying new stuff.
The challenge is that it will require organizations who are willing to modify roles and rewards etc. so that people have the time to struggle and not get much of anything done as they figure things out, because as I tell my daughters, you have to suck before you can succeed.
There is no going to good or great without traversing the I/we suck phase.
Disagree. There are new news organizations that develop like crazy today. Coding has been fully democratized. The traditional news organizations are doing everything they can to prevent new news organizations from thriving — California's new Civic Media Partnership is the latest state-funded effort to kill real local news. And even more Ff-ed up is AB 2323, which is headed for Newsom's desk. The larger news organizations think we are too small, too weak, and too poor to fight for our readers access to deeply reported, fact-based information. They are wrong.
https://www.theobserver.media/california/bill-requiring-public-notices-to-be-published-in-newspapers-print-editions-heads-to-gov-newsoms-desk-d5152164
Yes, I stand corrected. There are a small minority that are embracing news as an Information Technology service, but it’s a distinct minority.