Ever hear of social media? Shared content? Mark Miller has a pay site that he appears to make a living off of (and he reports on all prep sports). Pretty sure he would be glad to take 5 minutes to post his news to JS Online in exchange for broader exposure. Since the JS would have no cost, it is something that other major media players call a win~in. Heck, maybe they could even have Mark on their radio or TV assets too? Welcome to the 21st century where speed is key.
I agree with you 100%, but there are 2 barriers here:
#1 JS isn't the most savvy media organization, and cross-promotion with other sites is probably seen as more of a threat than a benefit.
#2 No free lunches. Even if Mark works for free, somebody at JS has to monitor/manage that information. It's not a big job, but from what I know, the JS is streamlining like crazy, so they aren't really keen on taking on more projects. Their business plan (right or wrong) seems to be to consolidate and become more efficient as readership drops.
*Personal Take*
"media" is becoming more specialized, and with online distribution channels, a person's bookmarks, Twitter and RSS become like a de facto newspaper. Instead of reading different sections of a newspaper, I visit different websites/blogs, each specializing in the content I want. Harder and harder for a media conglomerate to compete with that.
JS has the inside line on very localized, Milwaukee-specific news. Everything else, they are way down the list.
