By Gina Cuclis

RIP Russian River Monthly
It was a small community newspaper, which only published once a month, but for 13 years the Russian River monthly provided folks in west Sonoma County with information about what was happening in their community. And unlike one of its competitors, the West County Gazette, the Russian River Monthly paid its writers for their work. In this economy, I suspect the Monthly had a difficult time keeping advertisers.

When Newspapers Are Gone, Who Will Be the Watchdog?
This was asked during a panel discussion at this week's InBound Marketing Summit in San Francisco. A two-day event I attended to learn more about online marketing and social media. There was a panel of three former newspaper journalists, who now have online media careers, and the moderator, Paul Gillin, is also a former newspaper journalist who writes a blog called Newspaper Death Watch.

The moderator asked a question about the news media's role as watchdog of government. Who would be the watchdog if there were no newspapers? TV news — with its if it bleeds it leads mentality — tends to do a lousy job of covering local government. The panel thought that the major national newspapers, like the New York Times and USA Today, would continue to survive in some form so would continue to cover Washington, DC.

However, the panelists clearly wondered who would cover local government. Since we were in San Francisco, I specifically asked the panel, "If the San Francisco Chronicle were to go away, who would cover the San Francisco Board of Supervisors? Who would take the time to attend all the meetings and get familiar with all that is facing those who run the City and County of San Francisco?" The same can be said about Sonoma County, if the Santa Rosa Press Democrat were to fold.

The panelists generally agreed this was a concern. They didn't have many answers. One thought the answer is in foundations funding local news gathering efforts. My opinion of that is, well, maybe. What do you think?