The Custer County Chief is excited to announce the newspaper will be participating in a national experiment to change the business model of local newspapers. For the next six month, the staff and management of the Chief as well as readers and advertisers will be involved with helping create a sustainable business plan for community newspapers.
“The current business model for the newspaper industry was developed in 1833 when Andrew Jackson was president, a model that said news should be dirt cheap,” Teri Finneman of the University of Kansas said. “That is no longer sustainable. Newspapers can no longer make it with that model. No other business could survive on a 200-yearold business model. We have to change.”
Finneman, a journalism professor and researcher, will lead the project. She crossed paths with Chief General Manager Donnis Hueftle-Bullock and Managing Editor Mona Weatherly at the Nebraska Press Association convention in April.
