An update from Butler Report

ButlerReport is due to end beta testing at the end of August after a few technical and design issues are resolved. What these issues are have not yet been discussed. In fact we don’t even know what they are exactly; we just know that our timetable says we have to talk about them, whatever they are.

Butler Report has landed in the right place at the right time. Hard media - real newspapers - are under tremendous pressure to make a buck and are laying off people all over. Much of the advertising revenue they relied on is now being spent online and Google has vacuumed up a large portion of it. For clients looking for a measurable return on investment (ROI) for their advertising dollars this shift makes sense.

There are two side effects of this shift: loss of employment in the newsrooms, and the erosion of the news reporting mechanism, reflected in the reduction in quality news reporting. Those ad dollars paid for the reporters to go out in the field and gather news. It paid for editors to review the raw news and make it readable, researchers to check accuracy. Online news publishers aren’t in any rush to replace them BUT they want the same quality of news for their readers – the upside without the costs.

The dynamics of news readership have changed dramatically over the past 10 years and that in itself is a tale for another time. I know of two people in my vast circle of acquaintances who purchase and read a newspaper daily – both are retired doctors. Their habits are echoes from another time.

My source of news is in researching the ButlerReport therefore online sources, a smattering of CNN and the BBC on PBS in the evening. I never read magazines. Traditional print media news is outdated before the ink has dried; even sooner. However the means of gathering news has not changed, nor will it. We still need feet on the ground, investigators, reporters, photographers. We need editors, interpreters, researchers – all of the vehicles that turn a raw story into factual news. Without them, news will become Wiki-news – a collection of fuzzy facts mixed with opinion and served as gospel. Not at all kosher.

Our readership has grown exponentially since our launch. This is due to a number of factors; good planning, viral and organic growth (what great words), word of mouth, promotions, online and common sense marketing. Our technical guru, Bill, pooh-poohs all of this and told us recently that our growth has to do with a device that he installed on our servers. I may be as dumb as a bag of rocks when it comes to electronic happenings but even I know that a flux capacitor doesn’t work without a capacitor drive and we don't have one of those. What we do have are a curiously large number of images of Danica Patrick on the walls of our server room, reflecting our tech's intense – near obsessive - interest in motor racing. All this said we have quite a way to go before we even the scratch of the surface of Matt Drudges Drudgereport 19million monthly visitors.

Our format has been fluid by design and will remain so until we get it right. We get to examine hundreds of different formats from our weekly news gathering. Our news coverage is as good as - perhaps better - any we've seen worldwide. Compared to most, Butlerreport has more worldwide news coverage, the ability to make great headlines, news sections, large image formats and the other bits and bobs you see on the site. We have readers – a growing number – in practically every country of the world - the doohickey tracking software tells us so. That’s where our audience lies.

We’re open to suggestions and comment and welcome constructive criticism. Please contact me at directly at edaly@goldcoastmedia.net. And thanks for visiting.

Read more great news at the ButlerReport: www.butlerreport.com