The Burlingame Historical Society drew a good crowd to its quarterly meeting especially considering it was right before the Super Bowl.  This quarter's topic was the How the News is Made with guest speaker Jon Mays from the Daily Journal.  Society president Jennifer Pfaff provided an overview of the various early newspapers that existed in the area before Jon spent almost an hour on the innerworkings of the news business.  I had already watched local podcaster Mark Lucchesi's episode with Jon that you can find on YouTube here.

There was some overlap between the two presentations so the podcast will give you some of what you missed by not being at the meeting.  I'll just add three observations.  Jon described how the business model has changed, mostly for the worse, because of the changing advertising and classified ad business.  The subsequent reduction in staffing levels precludes covering events like the local crab feed the way they were done back in the day.  In a sense, that is what I am doing as a citizen journalist with this post.  Noting something that wouldn't otherwise be covered.

Jon also described a recent instance of the Law of Unintended Consequences when he noted the impact of AB5 (the controversial gig worker bill) on his delivery team.  The people who deliver local newspapers don't just deliver one paper; they deliver most–maybe all– of the papers in the area simultaneously.  My SF Comical comes bundled with my Wall Street Journal everyday which I find amusing.  AB5 disrupts the ability of the drivers to work four jobs at once–literally at once as they make their rounds.  Jon noted that the forces behind AB5 don't understand his business.  That's an understatement since I don't think they understand many businesses at all.

Lastly, Jon described the student journalist program that the DJ operates after school with a kid from each of the local high schools.  This is the classic internship model with hands-on-overseen by professionals work experience.  It's good stuff and has been the origin of a few careers in the news business.  As the grandson of a newspaper editor, Jon gets it naturally.  Notice the Advance Star office on the screen.