Could Local Newspapers Make Money From Snow?

Adam Tinworth
Adam Tinworth
[![Sofa in the snow](https://i0.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2010/01/4265878930_a465e45807_b-thumb-470x352-1557.jpg?resize=470%2C352)](http://www.onemanandhisblog.com/assets_c/2010/01/4265878930_a465e45807_b-1557.html)
Laura has a thoughtful post up on her blog on the sort of[ app she’d pay for around a weather event like last week’s snow:](http://pebbledash.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/what-i-would-pay-for-from-local-newspapers/)
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For me it would be mobile + reliable travel news. I would happily pay to download an iPhone app from my local paper that has: reliable data on what services are running on the bus routes; which trains will be affected by the bad weather; and which parts of town aren’t worth attempting to walk through.
It’s an interesting idea, but I’m not sure I’d be as quick to purchase it. You see, I got pretty much all the travel information I needed during the period, just by having a few key searches saved in my Twitter application: lewisham, sutton, southeastern. By browsing the streams of tweets from these searches, I was quickly able to get a sense of the situation at both Sutton and Lewisham stations, and the practibility of getting to work by train. And I wasn’t the only one to feel that [Twitter was enough](http://thenextweb.com/uk/2010/01/07/twitter-shines-uksnow/).
Now, admittedly, during that period I had no meeting important enough that I had to be at a particular place at a particular time. And there was an amount (if small) of effort and knowledge needed to glean the information I did. Would there be enough people who needed the information Laura suggests, and who lack the time and inclination to discover it themselves? 
appsiPhonelocal newspapersPublishingsnowtravelweather

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Adam is a lecturer, trainer and writer. He's been a blogger for over 20 years, and a journalist for more than 30. He lectures on audience strategy and engagement at City, University of London.

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