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Google News Directories posts fresh stories by zip code or city with three newspapers consistently appearing in Volusia County: The Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal and New Smyrna Beach-based Headline Surfer as shown in the posts for a gas station robbery just after 7 a.m. today under Daytona Beach heading. Of the three news sources, only Headline Surfer allows unfettered access without having to pay a subscription fee of some kind, whether for an online subscription or through home delivery of a print newspaper.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Print media wants to have its cake and eat it too at your expense. The Daytona Beach News-Journal is now forcing online readers to pay a subscription to access its online content, following the lead of the Orlando Sentinel locally. That means Headline Surfer, the true 24/7 Internet newspaper, stands alone as the only online source in Volusia County to provide free access to all of its content around the clock.
We may be David vs. their Goliaths, but the print newspapers have to find new revenue streams to keep up with the mass exodus of readers from home-delivered print newspapers to online news, which, until the New York Times, set the benchmark by charging for online access, was free.
Earlier this year, the Sentinel started charging and as of Monday, the News-Journal followed suit. You can read the details by clicking on our story at http://headlinesurfer.com/content/410247-daytona-beach-news-journal-charging-online-access.
Not only does Headline Surfer show up in the search engine news directories, but also ranks high in general news searches.
Take the Daytona Beach gas station robbery, for example. I did a search at 7:40 a.m. using search key words "gas" "station" "robbery" and "daytona."
The Orlando Sentinel's online story (Daytona Beach police searching for robbery suspect) popped up, showing Headline Surfer's locator map, followed by Headline Surfer's headline (Daytona Beach cops: Man with winning lottery ticket robs gas station on Internation...). In the case of this search only the Sentinel and Headline Surfer stories show up with the above-used keywords.
Placement of stories in the search engines is based on how many clicks the stories get from readers either by going to the particular websites or through the Google News Directories. Newspapers that are integrated with Google News are not allowed to use "adware" or any other artificial enhancers to get their rankings in the search engines.
Headline Surfer, launched April 7, 2008, primarily by a staff of one (your's truly) is highly competitive with daily breaking news while the print newspapers have dozens of reporters and editors working their daily news cycles.
Considering that I also do all of the advertising and marketing, plus two weekly online shows (The Roundtable and The Sunday Conversation), we are proud of the content we produce. That doesn't even include the thousand-plus original videos.
When it comes to news coverage, we may be limited in our resources, but we certainly make the most of our opportunities. And while the Daytona paper justifies charging for its news coverage, don't you wonder why with 300-plus employees, we're the only media outlet actually doing the public candidate debates in the general election? We've already had three in Oak Hill and have more planned in Port Orange, Daytona Beach and in Deltona. We were the first to hold debates in the primary as well.
And while the Daytona paper had its "marketing" partners in the colleges, Headline Surfer managed to squeeze eight debates in a day-long marathon session at the Brannon Center in New Smyrna Beach. We'll be the lone media outlet to have a true public debate between State Senate candidates Dorothy Hukill and Frank Bruno. Bank on it!
You'll be able to see such a debate online with no conflicts of interest as was the case with the Tiger Bay affair.
I understand the need of print media to charge for its editorial content for home delivery. But online? No way. We wish them luck in their endeavors. We, however, will never charge for news. That's what advertising is for.
What I make in advertising is a drop in the bucket compared to what the local and regional print newspapers bring in, but as long as I can provide for my family and report the news, I'm happy.
After all, I know what is being produced here is being read, viewed and talked about. And that's what it's all about.