Portal Paper Update

(Local lurkers have asked whether I'll resume publishing the Portal Paper, after an unsatisfactory bid over the summer to sell it as a feature in an existing newspaper. Local readers want more content for less money, and unfortunately they get what they're paying for, which at the time of reclaiming from Blogjob has been nothing at all. Blogjob tags were: “Tribute” ad in Portal Paper classifieds, Portal Paper, Priscilla’s Internet Portal.)

(And, can I throw in an Amazon ad? I think so:

Despite two egregious typos, the first print run of the Portal Paper sold out; I'm back in the computer center, printing the second run (with the missing price and contact information in, this time, thanks). If more local lurkers are in fact willing to support the Portal by lurking and paying tiny amounts of cash at a time, it may survive after all.

However, there are (and will continue to be) significant differences between the Portal Paper and my web sites. No matter how online writers try to coordinate what we publish in different venues, disparities creep in.

* Sites like Blogjob demand unique content.

* Sites for which I write guest posts don't always want to be linked to my own sites. Many business blogs prefer to let readers think all the different content on their web sites was written by store employees!

* I don't always, or even usually, take the time to link everything everywhere. (Live Journal does offer a running list of my Twitter "Tweets"; other sites that I use refuse to link to one another or even run in the same browsers.)

* Some things won't make the final cut; online I may post six recipes, animal stories, or funny links in one day, but the first Portal Paper had room for only 7-1/2" by 10" of large-print links, which meant one item in each category.

* And, most importantly...sometimes a fresh news link that I post in that day's Link Log is going to appear in a local printed newspaper, next morning, so it will no longer be a fresh news story by the time the Portal Paper prints.

"Prince Dies" was brand-new headline news when the Huffington Post e-mail came in, but by today we all knew all the printed papers were going to be competing to offer the most complete, most personal, most music-linked, etc., memorial articles. So there's no obituary for Prince in the Portal Paper, unless somebody wants to take out a "Tribute" ad and write one. That's just the way these things will go.

Another thing about the Portal Paper that may be new: Most printed newspapers repeat a lot of information about the newspaper, for reference only, in every single issue. I can't afford to waste paper and ink that way. A full half of the first issue of the Portal Paper consists of basic information about what it's all about. By next week, that information will be showing on a web site and will be reprinted only in link form.