Some sad news from an online-only News-Sentinel report by Ryan Lengerich:
The Fort Wayne sports weekly Overtime will end publication when its final edition hits stores Thursday.
Owners Aaron Suozzi and Dave Benson confirmed Monday a lack of advertising revenue plagued the publication focused on the area’s prep, college and semi-pro sports scene. This will be Overtime’s 16th issue, with the first edition published Aug. 18.
“It is too bad because it really filled a niche in Fort Wayne. I thought we put out a quality publication and our readers loved it,” Suozzi said. “A lot of people made promises to advertise with us and financially back us and didn’t follow through when it came time to follow through.”
Suozzi, 34, is a photographer with nearly 15 years’ experience in journalism. Benson, 29, has been a sportswriter for about nine years. He and Suozzi are former News-Sentinel staffers.
“I still think it can be viable because Fort Wayne is such a good sports market,” Benson said.
Suozzi said a deal was nearly struck to sell the free publication in locations throughout the area including Borders, Barnes & Noble and Mitchell Books. Suozzi and Benson had an office at 725 Fulton St. The two said they are unsure of their next career move.
I interviewed Aaron and Dave back in the summer about Overtime (listen) and I really was hoping that the venture would be a success. (That's why I offered to preview the cover of each issue for them here on Fort Wayne Observed.)
I think what ultimately may have done Overtime in was their decision to debut as a print publication and worry about a website later. Putting out a print publication costs money; after the initial cost of creating a website, publishing on the Internet is more or less free.
Had Overtime gone online first, Aaron and Dave could have built up their readership without having to pour so much money into publishing costs. And instead of having limited access via distribution points throughout the city, Overtime would have been available to anyone with an Internet connection -- anywhere in the world.
Then they would have had a product to show prospective advertisers; once they sold enough ads to pay for printing costs, they could fund distribution of a dead-tree version of Overtime.
But by that point, I bet the thought of changing to a slower, more expensive and more restrictive method of content delivery would seem silly.
Something another newspaper in town seems to have already realized.
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