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Living Can Kill You

New Tecumseth Free Press Online; Gzowski has died

J.D. Lasica’s latest OJR piece is out, and this one focuses on one-person consumer and community reporting, done with the help of the Web. For online journalism, niche reporting is where it’s at and its nice to see some light being shed on the topic, too.

Here in Canada, Tony Veltri made the move online after almost 10 years of print reporting, in which time he developed strong sources in the central Ontario municipality. Veltri drew on his expertise to launch New Tecumseth Free Press Online nearly three years ago.

The publication is a one-man show that seems to serve its niche audience very well, and as a result, it appears to be making money.

If you know of other such publications in Canada, let me know, and I’ll try to spotlight them here.

Shift’s Neil Morton is predicting the slow death of printed newspapers. His latest column attracted the attention of Jim Romenesko’s MediaNews is a unique—and convincing—take on the (relatively) old adage “the Web will be the death of newspapers”.

The resulting discussion the on MediaNews’ letters page included a posting from Slate’s publisher, the says the “continued shifting of both readers and consequently advertisers to the Web is inevitable”.

His optimism is admirable, let’s just hope it’s true…

Peter Gzowski has died at the age of 67.