A Grassroots-level Newspaper; please discuss any ideas.

[Monte Carlo]

Briefly, I want to write and distribute a dead-tree newspaper designed for mass consumption. I want regular Americans to read this paper and make a habit of reading this paper.

In the past few years, I have done a LOT of vocal complaining about the state of news journalism these days. Local news on TV is a complete farce; a thin shell of what it once was. Network newscasts aren't much better. 60 Minutes and now The Daily Show seem like the only places on TV to get a straight message these days. Newspapers and magazines have become so concerned with printing the wrong things that they have lost their teeth; reputable papers like the New York Times are fading fast. With the length of the American attention span at 9 seconds and falling, who has time to go through a whole newspaper these days to find needed info?

Internet sites are nice, but getting noticed is hard on the web is hard enough, and then there is the fact that most Americans still have little to no experience with the internet, and don't know how to target web content at all.

My idea is to publish a small, VERY small newspaper that can be downloaded, copied, or printed onto real paper so that people may read it. It could be distributed in small amounts by a large number of people and get exposure through word of mouth.

If, for example, the members of DU were to print out 20 copies or so and bring them to work for everyone to read, that would be super duper. Say a librarian was handed a copy, or got one from off the web, and printed out a handful of free copies for the front door, that would be great too.

As for the content of this newspaper, it should be STRICTLY news, as objective as is feasible. The selling point to push is that it is all HARD NEWS; lean with as little trim as possible. There should also be an op-ed section, but very limited and non-inflammatory. The newspaper should also be EYE-CATCHING, and that means pictures and illustrations. We should use enough of them; a picture is worth ten thousand words.

The dead-tree sheets used by each copy of this newspaper - and I think this is important - is exactly one 8 1/2 x 11" piece. Fold it in half, and you get one 5 1/2 x 8 1/2" sized paper with 4 pages. People will feel like they are holding something more than a stupid flyer or pamphlet(which no one ever reads, anyway). One piece of paper is cheap - cheap enough that regular people can print out a handful of copies to distribute every day (if necessary) for low cost without having to resort to advertising.

I have put together an example of the type of newspaper that I am talking about. I will post a link to it in Word .doc format as soon as I can find a place on the net to post it.

The above is all what _I_ think. Any other thoughts, please?