Coastsider's Barry Parr sees profitability as coming; describes dispute over use of public-meeting videos

Coastsider, the local news site for the rural coast 20 miles south of San Francisco, is getting close to being able to support the hours put in by its part-time founder and only regular contributor -- technology consultant and former daily-newspaper editor Barry Parr (MGP2006 participant).  Parr gave that assessment today at the J-Lab Citizens media Summit II in Washington, D.C. Parr says he puts in about two hours a day. On another point, Parr says he is being stymied by local officials who are asserting he doesn't have the right to webcast videotapes of public meetings. "I've talked to lawyers who said they'd love to litigate," says Parr. "I think it would be fun to litigate it and clearly it is a public issue in many ways. Part of the reason they don’t want me to use that video is they are afraid we are going to use it to embarrass people on the boards.” Here's what Parr said about getting paid: “I got to tell you my longter goal is to turn this into a business. It is pretty close to being able to pay me a decent hourly wage for the time I put into it.  …. To make this a real business would require also doing print. … and print is a very challenging thing to do …. The other thing I’m not really good at is collecting money for advertising.  ….. I think the advertisers need to feel that print is in peoples’ hands. I certainly believe in online as an advertising medium. It’s got some challenges. …. It is really challenging to explain online advertising models … it is so simple to me and it is completely confusing to peole anytime I try to explain it.”