Thought this conversation should include the work of e-thePeople.org, a nonprofit that helps online news publications harness politician-generated content.
Our Voter Guide - which was used by 100 media outlets last year - lets political editors quickly build hyper-local election guides by getting the candidates to do the work. The news staff sets a series of questions for candidates; the candidates' answers are then posted side-by-side with their opponents' answers.
We're now working on a sister project - a "citizen guide" - that lets newspapers create a one-stop destination for readers to find out about their elected officials. Our hope is, as with the Voter Guide, we'll not only be giving citizens a great resource but also helping newspapers with their ongoing content crunch by harnessing the content (blogs, tweets, etc.) that politicians are already putting out on the internet.
alexander-social media guy
· 9 months ago
These are great and creative strategies. I specifically like the Twitter headline one because twitter is so concise and handy. I can get right to the bottom line info without all the fluff.
George Snell
· 9 months ago
Hi Woody: Some excellent suggestions for newspapers, but unfortunately, Elvis has left the building. Newspapers cannot be saved and in less than 10 years -- there will be few left. And that's a good thing: the time for newspapers has come and gone. I say this as a former ink stained wretch who toiled for more than a decade in newspaper news rooms.
That said - the "news" industry is thriving and that's what newspapers need to become - news companies anchored on the Web. By tapping into the social media they can begin to present the news in ways modern audiences want: video, audio and, yes, text. This news will be interactive and mashable (no pun intended) - spark debate, interaction, and more even more details.
But newspapers? They're history.
KarenMW
· 9 months ago
The reality that newspapers are evolving is inescapable, though I believe some form of hard-copy newspapers will survive, even if only at a very local, neighborhood level. After a recent cartoon where the world relied only on bloggers (who, without newspapers for fundamental information were useless), Tom Tomorrow added his personal take at this blog post: http://thismodernworld.com/4709
Lynette
· 9 months ago
Missing the point, or maybe confusing the issue. (Contradicted yourself?) The 'newspapers'' core product is news and information-the delivery is not. Newspapers' sites are News and Information sites-maybe you should read these top 10 again. L
Geoffrey van Wyk
· 9 months ago
Are these ten ways meant to save the paper medium for news broadcasting or just saving the news broadcasting companies that uses paper as broadcasting medium? It must be the latter, because a coffee table book does not do anything toward prompting a person to buy a newspaper.
Kashif Aziz
· 9 months ago
Using Cover It Live, Twitter and Yahoo Pipes, I am producing "Live Coverage" of Long March in Pakistan.
Good initiatives, but one needs to take full advantage of the medium to get their message across. Lots of people follow the NYTimes, but they are not using to tool to it's full power IMHO. If you want to see the 'right' way to use Twitter at a newspaper look to The Chicago Tribune and their twitter.com/ColonelTribune account. That is the right way to engage readers and take full advantage of the medium.
Robert Quigley
· 9 months ago
Exactly, Steve. I don't think there's a "wrong" way to use Twitter, but the way Colonel Tribune (and many others) are using Twitter to interact with the audience is more interesting than the NYT, IMO. The Times has a lot of followers because, well, it's the Times.
Ben Parr
· 9 months ago
You did a great job with this article.
We create more information than ever before. Compare the amount of information on the NYT website to all the information in existence in 1900. I bet it isn't even close.
The companies that adapt survive. I'd be torn to see newspapers die and am glad some are adapting.
G
· 9 months ago
Great list! Am I the only one that noticed that the Seattle P-I's traffic fell 20% in Jan. vs 2008? With no audience there no newspaper -- online or offline.
Some well thought out, solid ideas about using social media to create and deliver content and drive revenue through various subscription models and ancillary products, but where is the advertising revenue that has historically supported the newspaper business? The traditional newspaper business model is dying a rapidly accelerating death. I agree with George Snell's comments that we need to frame the discussion differently and start talking about the "news industry" or some term that captures "news companies anchored on the web". With that said, we still need to come up with a business model that supports this evolving business.
Thrifty Nickel
· 9 months ago
Great post this info is very important
Zac Echola
· 9 months ago
I don't really see many ways to make money here, though.
"Saving the Industry" isn't a matter of redefining journalism, per se, it's a matter of recapturing advertising dollars. Posting links to twitter and the New York Times' APIs don't do so much to get ads, so much as they're designed for increasing traffic.
Traffic is a great thing when you're trying to sell convince an advertiser, but it's worthless without a useful advertising platform. Most news sites have a horrible business strategy (lots of banner ads!). We need a better model than simply applying the display ad mentality to the Web.
I'd suggest a much different approach to "save the industry."
Instead of building all these highly targeted social networks that don't scale well, news companies need to look at leveraging existing networks.
Much in the same way twitter headline rolls increase traffic, Facebook Connect gives news developers tons of user information to better segment audience for potential advertisers. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, why not tap into the larger network from an ad standpoint as well?
And it goes further: Look at newspaper RSS feeds. Usually they're without ads, despite the fact that every newspaper site has them. They're missing a big opportunity there.
Classifieds has been destroyed by craigslist and eBay, but newspapers haven't done much to counteract that. They should be aggregating classifieds and upselling their audience and reach to people willing to pay.
They should be providing contextual ads that are site agnostic, among many other things.
Very little of that kind of business innovation is actually happening in the industry, to its detriment.
Dr Wright
· 9 months ago
Its great to see some newspapers will be saved by doing this. In years to come people will ask, why are they still called newspapers, but at least they will still be around.
Are they really using these effectively? Do they know how?
George Snell
· 9 months ago
I disagree that newspapers will survive in hardcopy. Why? It’s not a good delivery system in the 21st century – even at the neighborhood level. And I don’t believe blogs will replace newspapers either. News articles and blog posts are two different animals. I simply think news outlets will become web based and replace newspapers. They will still have editors and reporters and follow the strident rules of journalism. We just need to work out the revenue model to make it succeed.
Sameer
· 9 months ago
Hi Woody,
Nice strategies for saving the print industry. But I feel, that your fourth point "Promoting and monetizing user-generated content" is going to be the best bet for print media. Also, the fact that you mentioned about Social Journalism reminds me of Janis Krums who had covered the news of the Hudson plane crash through his tweets. Though he was not a journalist, but he started, participated and propagated the news and that was covered by many newspapers. We can call this Citizen Journalism. See the full story here - http://vizedu.com/2009/01/citizen-journalism/ I guess that's the way forward for the print media to stay alive.
hanmi
· 9 months ago
Every crisis has some inherent advantage. The newspapers can concentrate more on websites to increase their revenues. Since people rely more on websites run by the newspapers, the traffic will be more to them
Mark Joyella
· 9 months ago
This is an excellent post, and as important for the future of print as it is for the future of television, specifically local television news, where the concept of using SM is still a rare and elusive concept for many, even as the town paper outfits its reporters with video cameras and starts posting video--often really, really inventive video storytelling. I believe if TV stations don't embrace SM, they stand to lose a battle they were winning... that of being "the" source for local news content as everything (print and TV) migrates online, for better or worse.
Mark
Dr. Syb, The Multimedia Maven
· 9 months ago
Woody, You already know that this article is beyond relevant. We are desperately trying to get our students to embrace the multimedia mindset. Ironically, it has been a challenge because some are already wedded to the notions of traditional journalism. My biggest concern in all of this is similar to that of the late Neil Postman in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death. I know we are sacrificing a great deal when text becomes cumbersome and time evaporates. I use social media and consume more news through Twitter than any other source because of my commuter single parent lifestyle. Somebody needs to more boldly address the reality that a lot of people just don't have time or the desire to consume in-depth news. I know it's hard to hear, fathom or understand but that's just keeping it real.
sergi_bosch
· 9 months ago
i work for MNG and the Los Angeles Daily News (#7) in your list. i look forward to our company leveraging the power of social media.
Mark Carillon
· 9 months ago
this makes twitter the most popular networking site and tool not only for online businesses but to the industry as a whole... great news!
ScoobyDude
· 9 months ago
This tactic kinda reminds of the iList classified site where you can promote your ad by linking your iList account to all your social networks. Its really a great idea, good for businesses, especially during these times. Great article, btw.
Pawel Nowacki
· 8 months ago
I think that citizen journalism is the best choice for newspapers. As in our country page www.wiadomosci24.pl works for a large newspaper in Poland - www.polskatimes.pl
Newspapers with great content will always have relevance for me. Reading Thomas Friedman in the NYTimes or E.J. Dionne in the WAPost will always be worth reading regardless of their publications social media presence. I think the switch from print to digital has created a brush fire effect for publications. The strong pubs with good content will survive while the lower level AP-only pubs will rightfully go away.
Sadly, I think it's simple--if you give your content away for free, folks will take it! If papers want to survive as the first source for most news (which they still are), they have to lock down free access. And they have to do it as a group.
All Comments
Our Voter Guide - which was used by 100 media outlets last year - lets political editors quickly build hyper-local election guides by getting the candidates to do the work. The news staff sets a series of questions for candidates; the candidates' answers are then posted side-by-side with their opponents' answers.
We're now working on a sister project - a "citizen guide" - that lets newspapers create a one-stop destination for readers to find out about their elected officials. Our hope is, as with the Voter Guide, we'll not only be giving citizens a great resource but also helping newspapers with their ongoing content crunch by harnessing the content (blogs, tweets, etc.) that politicians are already putting out on the internet.
Some excellent suggestions for newspapers, but unfortunately, Elvis has left the building. Newspapers cannot be saved and in less than 10 years -- there will be few left. And that's a good thing: the time for newspapers has come and gone. I say this as a former ink stained wretch who toiled for more than a decade in newspaper news rooms.
That said - the "news" industry is thriving and that's what newspapers need to become - news companies anchored on the Web. By tapping into the social media they can begin to present the news in ways modern audiences want: video, audio and, yes, text. This news will be interactive and mashable (no pun intended) - spark debate, interaction, and more even more details.
But newspapers? They're history.
L
http://www.chowrangi.com/live-coverage-of-pakis...
Very appreciated!
I don't think there's a "wrong" way to use Twitter, but the way Colonel Tribune (and many others) are using Twitter to interact with the audience is more interesting than the NYT, IMO. The Times has a lot of followers because, well, it's the Times.
We create more information than ever before. Compare the amount of information on the NYT website to all the information in existence in 1900. I bet it isn't even close.
The companies that adapt survive. I'd be torn to see newspapers die and am glad some are adapting.
Am I the only one that noticed that the Seattle P-I's traffic fell 20% in Jan. vs 2008? With no audience there no newspaper -- online or offline.
"Saving the Industry" isn't a matter of redefining journalism, per se, it's a matter of recapturing advertising dollars. Posting links to twitter and the New York Times' APIs don't do so much to get ads, so much as they're designed for increasing traffic.
Traffic is a great thing when you're trying to sell convince an advertiser, but it's worthless without a useful advertising platform. Most news sites have a horrible business strategy (lots of banner ads!). We need a better model than simply applying the display ad mentality to the Web.
I'd suggest a much different approach to "save the industry."
Instead of building all these highly targeted social networks that don't scale well, news companies need to look at leveraging existing networks.
Much in the same way twitter headline rolls increase traffic, Facebook Connect gives news developers tons of user information to better segment audience for potential advertisers. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, why not tap into the larger network from an ad standpoint as well?
And it goes further: Look at newspaper RSS feeds. Usually they're without ads, despite the fact that every newspaper site has them. They're missing a big opportunity there.
Classifieds has been destroyed by craigslist and eBay, but newspapers haven't done much to counteract that. They should be aggregating classifieds and upselling their audience and reach to people willing to pay.
They should be providing contextual ads that are site agnostic, among many other things.
Very little of that kind of business innovation is actually happening in the industry, to its detriment.
Dr. Wright
The Wright Place TV Show
www.wrightplacetv.com
www.twitter.com/drwright1
Nice strategies for saving the print industry. But I feel, that your fourth point "Promoting and monetizing user-generated content" is going to be the best bet for print media. Also, the fact that you mentioned about Social Journalism reminds me of Janis Krums who had covered the news of the Hudson plane crash through his tweets. Though he was not a journalist, but he started, participated and propagated the news and that was covered by many newspapers. We can call this Citizen Journalism. See the full story here - http://vizedu.com/2009/01/citizen-journalism/
I guess that's the way forward for the print media to stay alive.
Since people rely more on websites run by the newspapers, the traffic will be more to them
Mark
You already know that this article is beyond relevant. We are desperately trying to get our students to embrace the multimedia mindset. Ironically, it has been a challenge because some are already wedded to the notions of traditional journalism. My biggest concern in all of this is similar to that of the late Neil Postman in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death. I know we are sacrificing a great deal when text becomes cumbersome and time evaporates. I use social media and consume more news through Twitter than any other source because of my commuter single parent lifestyle. Somebody needs to more boldly address the reality that a lot of people just don't have time or the desire to consume in-depth news. I know it's hard to hear, fathom or understand but that's just keeping it real.
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