how to set up a coffee news layout ?

Jeff,

Thanks for asking about copyright.

First, I am not a chiropractor nor do I play one on TV.

You asked... "Is it legal to write a story from another story that you've read somewhere... rewording this article... or is this copyright infringement? "

When you Reword something into your own words, what you are doing is called Paraphrasing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraphrase) and it does Not infringe upon someone's copyright. Feel free to reword until the cows come home.

Michael Ross

Thanks guys.. Lots of helpful information from you all! I definitely have learned some more things and you've sparked a lot of new ideas through my research of the things you've mentioned here.
I'm moving forward!

Bob,

I've got some stuff you might want to look at...

Won't be at my home computer until week-end , though.

Millard

CoffeeNews is for sale.

http://tinyurl.com/4oggpv

I have looked into Coffeenews and come to the conclusion that it is not a sustainable business.

The real business is the franchisor NOT the franchisee. They make some content and sell it to multiple people for a few hundred dollars a month (depending on how many editions they have).

They have a forum where the franchisees talk to each other and help themselves.

You have to pay their fee even though you are publishing or not. So if you want to stop you either have to sell your 'edition' to another person or give it up. The company will not buy it back.

If you look at the history of an edition you may see that they are owned by multiple people. So the company eventually 'sells' the same edition multiple times over the years.

If I were you I would start your own publication. Do not copy the CN layout but everything else is open.

If you can find another business where you can sell the same content to many people on a monthly basis AND change $5000 initial fee for the privilege THAT would be a great business model.

With gas prices skyrocketing there may be opportunities for business that reduce the number of errands a person need to do or brings a bit of luxury to replace the many of the other things that they had to giveup due to rising costs.

Karunnt,
After really researching this further, I am completely convinced that you have spoken the truth! I got as far as requesting their franchise package, which they sent.. and that monthly franchise fee just had me to scared to sign my name on the dotted line. Whew. Bullet dodged! I'm coming across more and more examples of people doing this themselves and being successful. And.. I'm coming across more and more ads of people wanting to unload Coffee News. I seen a couple different ones on Craigslist in the last 2 weeks. Who could blame them? They told me I couldn't buy the franchise unless I bought the whole area.. due to the population... which was 4 franchises.. or.. a whopping $135 a week! What a great business model they have... for themselves. And they've raised their franchise cost to $8000 for the first business and $5500 for each additional, so it's a pretty penny to even get involved now.

So.. I've started whupping up my own. Don.. THANKS so much for sending that! I'm amazed you would do that for a complete stranger! Nice to know there's people in the world like that. And, it was a huge help... full of content ideas! I was surprised, however, to see that almost everything in it was found on the Internet word for word. I guess if you keep it small, it's probably not going to be looked at too much. But I loved the design. What a great idea! Small and sleek! It definitely spawned the design neurons hidden deep in the vortex of my brain.

Anyway.. I'm forging on... talk to ya' guys soon!

Wolfdogg,

Thanks for sharing more on their pricing.

When CN started they were Only charging $499 for a franchise. And with such a small price it didn't take them long to get up near 500 franchisees. At That time they were also only charging $70 a week for the Content - that was the Minimum price, as at That time her Take was a minimum $70 or a percentage of Gross Sales whichever was higher (which Punishes those who can get Top Dollar for their ads).

$70x500 franchisees is $35k a week - minimum.

No wonder the owner was able to Hire a couple of Helpers to find the content and upload it so the franchisees could download it to their own computers.

But within the above there are some Important Lessons to be learned...

=> Keep the franchisee fee low and you'll have more franchisees.

=> Give them something for their ongoing weekly fee - too many franchisers just call it Royalties and give nothing for it, which creates disgruntled franchisees over time.

=> Keep the weekly fee Fixed as additional Incentive for franchisees to Generate More Money.

(Years ago a franchiser came to see me about selling more franchises. With his % for royalties, % for marketing (which was one ad in the yellow pages), % for Admin and so on, he was sucking 20% of the money. So someone who did $1,000 a week had to pay $200 off the bat to this guy. They were probably paying $300 tax After that - leaving them $500 to live on and pay the business running costs - which involved a Lot of driving around.

A guy doing $1,500 a week, had to pay $300 to him. take away the additional tax money too and these guys had to earn Big just to make what they could make in a job.

If he'd charged them a flat $100 a week, or even $50, he'd have had Loyal Franchisees instead of complaining ones who began to see him as a leach. And he'd have franchisees who had Incentive and could Keep the fruits of their efforts instead of paying more of it to someone without getting any extra for the additional money.

Michael Ross

The guy (and his wife) who do this in my area...just finished a "2-Sheet edition" in South County....5 restaurants with about 150 tables total for which he got $395 per business card size ad from 20 advertisers for a 6 month term.

He gets ALL his biz from his home in Grants Pass. He goes to restaurants first because they have to see what the piece looks like....then, he phones businesses near the restaurants (and gets a nice referral List from restaurant owners)...explains the program and price and I'm not sure how he gets the advertiser's business cards to scan. He might spend a day or 2 picking them up when collecting money.

He now has a BIG area up and down the Interstate 5 corridor.

WELL worth pursuing.

Don Alm

Some of my Biz programs
http://www.midasreports.com

Sounds like he might be shooting himself in the foot in the way of what he's charging.
150 tables.. figure 10 people a day at each table (and most of the time, there will be multiple people at the table so he's probably getting at least twice as many views than that) and that's 10500 views a week. All of this for a 3x2 ad that he's charging $15 a week for?! And this is direct marketing in the exact locale of the business. That's beyond dirt cheap. He could easily charge twice and still be about 1/4 of what any advertiser would have to pay in a paper, for the same size ad. The Coffee News publication starts at $30 a week for the same size ad and goes up to $50 for bigger cities. His publication sounds like a great place to advertise!

Great idea though.. and granted.. printing costs would be extremely low with his business model.

Hello Everybody;
What a great board. I am so glad I found it. I hope I can in someway contribute to it.

Hey Wolfdogg: it sounds like you and I are at the same stage in the game. I also want to do this on my own. I am leaning towards something between a Coffee News and a Tidbits...a shopper without the classifieds.

I was originally writing this post to address what Don is refering to in post #18but having re-read the thread it appears he has sent you a copy so you can see it is totally different thing. I happened to come across it about a month ago.

Your comment about finding the content word for word on the net brings up a good point-Copyright Infringement. I am not a lawyer but my understanding is you cannot copyright an idea. Nor can you copyright a fact. Or a quote. ( I may be a little off on the quote thing.) You can however copyright the way it is presented.

You also address the question of differentiating yourself from CN in your original post. I believe what CN has copyright protection on is not only the layout but how, that is the order, in which the information is presented: news snippets (Everybody's Talking),quotes (Quoteable Quotes) ect. IMHO one should take care not to copy to close. Just like Karunnt states in post #15. I can infer from your posts you already have a good understanding this.

In my searches I have found Coffee News, Flying Cow, The Free Weekly Jive, and The Patience News. Then there is Tidbits, The Funny Paper and hundreds of shoppers. Aside from the shoppers, all franchises or business opportunities. I would sure like to learn of any others. Especially any independents out there.