Speculation and rumors have been flying around Tallahassee for months now that online media mogul Justin Sayfie (my former boss) is launching a new news bureau in Tallahassee. Sayfie has emphatically denied any current affiliation with Sunshine State News saying he has, "absolutely nothing to do with," the organization after removing himself from incorporation documents earlier this year.
But all of the speculation and buzz about an alleged Sayfie News Bureau must have got Justin Sayfie thinking. Yesterday, he posed the following question to his Twitter followers and Facebook friends:
I'm so amazed at the interest in whether I'm involved in a new news service in Tallahassee. I have NO current involvement whatsoever.
So, I guess the question is, should @SayfieReview start a news bureau in Tallahassee and elsewhere in Florida? What do you think?
The responses to Sayfie’s post came as no surprise to me as his Facebook friends and Twitter followers expressed their overwhelming support for a hypothetical Sayfie News Bureau.
With obvious bias, allow me to make my case for a Sayfie News Bureau.
With obvious bias, allow me to make my case for a Sayfie News Bureau.
The print newspaper is dying - yeah, we get it. But the music industry did not die after the death of records, 8 tracks, cassette tapes and CDs. The print newspaper is dying, not journalism. But in order for professional journalism to survive, current news organizations must adapt their business models and, more importantly, change the way they view the internet. If news organizations stop blaming the internet for their demise and start accepting the internet as their disguised savior, journalism may be saved. However, if news organizations continue to focus on saving their print product instead of focusing on how to make money online, professional journalism is in danger of extinction.
While some news organizations have been able to adapt online successfully, most have not. So what happens when more and more established news organizations fail to adapt and face the same fate other fallen newspapers have faced over the past decade? What happens to the talented and valuable journalists who are out of work? Someone who understands how to make money off of online news will step up and fill the void. I’m not talking about “Twitter journalists” or unpaid bloggers; I am talking about paid, professionally trained journalists, creating and disseminating news online (see Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller as a model).
Florida’s newspapers have not been immune to the global free-fall in newspaper circulation. In October of 2009, the St. Petersburg Times reported a 10% decrease in circulation from the previous year while the Orlando Sentinel, Tampa Tribune and Miami Herald lost 12%, 18% and an astounding 23% respectively.
Florida is at a critical point financially and politically. The need for fantastic reporting has never been greater. But with news rooms across the Sunshine State shrinking at a rapid rate, who will cover the news with timeless professional journalistic standards? Why not Justin Sayfie? Since 2002, Sayfie has built one of the most successful models for online journalism in the State of Florida, if not the country. SayfieReview.com has been called the "online bible for Florida political junkies" by the St. Petersburg Times and the “axis around which Florida's online political world revolves” by the Tallahassee Democrat. The site has maintained such a high level of journalistic credibility that it is read regularly by 5 current and former Florida Governors, every member of the Florida Cabinet, the President of the Florida Senate, the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, numerous State Legislators, nearly every member of the Florida Congressional delegation and many member of the Capitol Press Corps.
And perhaps most importantly to the continued success of journalism in Tallahassee – Sayfie's online journalism venture is profitable!
So as Tallahassee continues to buzz about who is behind Sunshine State News, I encourage Justin Sayfie to seriously consider launching his own Sayfie News Bureau. Demand may continue to fall for the print edition of Florida’s most beloved newspapers, but the demand for the content will always be there. Professional journalism is essential to democracy, but if the established news organizations can’t make money in this new information economy, they will fail and democracy will ultimately suffer. Let us encourage those who have proven they understand the democratization of information and can make money in a new age of professional journalism.
