You Don't Build Communities, You Enable Them

from the enable-people;-don't-define-them dept

There's an interesting debate going on among some newspaper industry watchers, concerning how newspapers should approach the question of "community." Paul Gillin has written that the concept of newspapers building communities is a fallacy and that newspapers shouldn't even try. He notes that the idea of a community around newspaper content usually just doesn't make much sense, and newspapers are simply hopping on the buzzword bandwagon in yelling "community" without any real sense of how to build one. As he notes, a newspaper's strength isn't in building community, but in creating content.

Steve Yelvington blasts back that Gillin is quite mistaken and that community is the most important thing that newspapers should be focusing on: "Failure to build community is one of the many reasons so many newspapers are in so much trouble right now."

To some extent, both Steve and Paul are correct -- and I don't think they actually disagree as much as Steve makes it out in his post. The traditional newspaper business model worked because the readership was a community of sorts. They were a community of "local" readers who could be advertised to. The problem for newspapers is that they didn't necessarily understand this, focusing solely on the content creation side. But they didn't realize that other sources of information were creating other places where similar (and different) communities could form and be advertised to. That started eating into that "community" of newspaper readers, because there was no plenty of competition providing a much better community experience.

So, yes, Steve is correct that newspapers do need to get back to cultivating a community -- but Paul is correct that simply yelling "community!" and thinking you can throw some "community features" on a site aren't going to do very much. What the rest of the internet has shown is that you build community not by building a community, but by enabling a group of people to do what they want. And that can include commenting on the news, creating the news or sharing the news among many other things. There isn't a magic bullet to create a community -- but newspapers should look to see what they can do to enable a community to form and then get out of the way.

Filed Under: community, newspapers

Man Sues Newspaper For Laying Off Reporters

from the everything-must-stay-the-same,-always dept

It's no secret that plenty of newspapers have been cutting staff and even the size of their papers in recent months. It's really a reaction to the fact that newspapers spent way too many years in denial that they were no longer the only news sources in town. So now they finally have to adjust, and one first step is shedding some overhead. However, one newspaper subscriber to the News & Observer in North Carolina is suing the paper over its recent cuts. It sounds like it's mostly just a publicity stunt, but Keith Hempstead, a lawyer (and former reporter), says he renewed his subscription in May, just before the paper announced cuts. Thus, he claims, he's getting less than what he was promised when he subscribed -- and that's somehow fraud. It's doubtful this lawsuit will go anywhere and the "point" Hempstead is making actually seems backwards. Marketplaces change and companies in those marketplaces need to change to keep up with the market. Suing them for changing is hardly going to encourage newspapers to embrace necessary change.

Filed Under: fraud, lawsuits, layoffs, newspapers

LA Times Just Realized That Print And Online Newsrooms Should Be The Same?

from the a-bit-slow-on-the-uptake,-huh? dept

Nearly three years ago, we were surprised to hear the NY Times proudly announce that it was going to merge its online and offline newsrooms. What we couldn't believe was that in 2005 a newspaper actually still had thought it made sense to treat the two separately. However, apparently the Times was way ahead of some other newspapers. Buried in the ho-hum news about massive LA Times layoffs is the news that, as part of this reorganization, it's finally going to merge its web and print operations as well. When you're sitting around wondering where newspapers went wrong, the fact that they wanted to keep web and print operations separate is probably a good place to start.

Filed Under: layoffs, newspapers, print, web
Companies: la times, tribune company

Newly Independent Pop Band McFly Gives Away Free CD With Newspaper

from the it's-all-in-the-tour dept

Last month we wrote about the British pop band McFly, who had announced that it was ditching its record label, because the label wasn't interested in experimenting with new ways to get music to fans. So now that the band is independent, it's jumped right on the bandwagon of experimentation. In fact, it's following the footsteps of Prince, back before he started freaking out. That is, they've done a deal with a big UK newspaper to distribute copies of their new album for free with the newspaper (thanks to Nick for sending this in). As we've noted in the past, this is a fantastic strategy for both newspapers and musicians. It helps both sides quite a bit, which is exactly what the band sees, noting that they just want to get more fans, and are hoping more will come see them on their latest tour.

Yet, of course, it's not making some happy: specifically those who have based their entire business models around the concept of selling plastic discs. Music retailers flipped out when Prince did this, and it's likely that they'll be upset about McFly as well. But, you don't jump into the next generation by appeasing the old generation. Also, the article quotes a former recording industry exec who complains that if bands keep doing this, record labels will lose money and won't be able to find and promote new bands. That's missing the point, of course. It assumes that it's the record labels skilled hand that is necessary in finding and promoting new bands -- which is not true at all. The same guy also suggests (in a video on the site) that record labels also won't want to give tour support. That's also quite ridiculous. If the band is making so much more money from concerts now, the smart label will still give tour support, after making sure that it gets a cut of the touring revenue as well. And, if the record labels decide not to do it, then have no fear that concert promoters will step in and provide the necessary support in their place.

Filed Under: cds, mcfly, music, newspapers, uk

Readers Want Context and Organization, Not Just 'Content'

from the web-as-afterthought dept

I wrote last fall that the New York Times was finally starting to get the web, and I think the Washington Post is in the same category of taking the web a lot more seriously than it did a few years ago. But although the biggest newspapers are now taking the challenge seriously, they still have work to do. Case in point: the Washington, DC, area had a big storm a while back, and Scott Karp went to the Washington Post website expecting (reasonably enough) to find information about it. Unfortunately, despite being a DC-based publication, the Post's home page had very little information about the storm. Indeed, the home page wouldn't have mentioned it at all if there didn't happen to be a story on the most-read articles list. Unfortunately it was a formulaic story from the print edition that was great for a non-Washingtonian who doesn't know anything about the storm, but it's not terribly useful to a Washingtonian who can see the storm happening outside his window. What locals need is detailed, real-time information. After seeing nothing relevant on the WaPo's website, he went over to Google, typed in "power outages in northern virginia," and the first hit was a page from Dominion Electric showing power outages around its service region. Karp went back to the Post's website, and after more searching finally found a blog focusing on DC area weather—precisely the sort of thing that the Post ought to be making more prominently displayed during major weather events.

I think there are a couple of lessons to be learned from this. First, as Mike has said before, good content is often less important than useful services like organizing and filtering information. The Post had the content Karp wanted -- an up-to-date blog and links to useful resources -- but because its website was poorly organized, he wasn't able to find it easily. Some newspapers claim that Google lives parasitically off of other content producers, but I think this is a good illustration of why that's not true; there was plenty of content out there, but without Google, Karp might not have been able to find it. The other problem is that for all of the Post's progress it still seems to regard itself largely as a newspaper that happens to publish its articles on the web, rather than a general media company that happens to publish a paper edition. Sometimes a traditional newspaper article is the best way to cover a story, but often (as in this case) it's not. The Post, like a lot newspaper outlets, still seems to put too much emphasis on its print content, even in circumstances were a shorter, timelier, and more densely-linked story would be more useful to readers.

Filed Under: context, news, newspapers, organization, websites

Are High School Newspapers Obsolete?

from the just-go-online dept

When I was in high school years ago, I was both an editor for the school newspaper and a co-founder/editor of an "underground" newspaper that a group of friends put together to compete with the official school newspaper (it probably won't surprise folks to find out my first article for the underground paper was an examination of why an underground newspaper is perfectly legal and can't be prevented by a school administration). Both experiences were quite useful (and fun), but with so much talk these days of the challenges facing the normal newspaper industry, is it worth it for high schools to still publish newspapers? After all, these days, students who want to report on what's going on in a school no longer need the "sanctioned" press, thanks to the internet.

What got me thinking about this was reading an article about a high school principal who decided to shut down the high school's newspaper (via Romenesko) after he got offended by an editorial on flag burning that included a photo of a student burning a flag. The whole thing seemed ridiculous -- because there's nothing to stop the students from taking the content, and putting it all online and not needing any stamp of approval from the school administration.

Obviously, there's something to be said for the learning experience that can be provided by working together on a project, and the potential mentoring of a school newspaper advisor (though if I remember correctly, our advisor didn't actually do much), but that could just as easily be done through other means, including classes/extra-curricular activities focusing on helping students create their own content for online purposes, rather than under the umbrella of any official school newspaper.

Filed Under: high school newspapers, newspapers

Google's Moral Obligation To Newspapers: Help Both Sides Be Better Off

from the it's-called-capitalism dept

Almost exactly a year ago, we wrote about a reporter insisting that Google had some sort of moral obligation to help prop up journalism. As we noted at the time, this seemed ridiculous. Journalism's problem wasn't Google, but an unwillingness to adapt in a changing marketplace. In fact, it seemed as though Google should be looked on as a friend. It helped drive traffic to newspaper websites while also providing a very efficient ad platform for monetizing. Yet, the reporter seemed to think that because Google was raking in billions and newspapers (while still incredibly profitable) were seeing their markets shrink, Google should simply hand over money out of a moral obligation to fund journalism.

So, at first I was surprised to see reports coming out that Google CEO Eric Schmidt had gone on record claiming that Google does, in fact, have a moral obligation to help journalism -- but as you read the details, you see that he means in exactly the way we were talking about. He means that the moral obligation isn't to give them money, but to give them the tools by which they can make more money. I still don't see that as a "moral obligation," but simply good business for everyone involved (including consumers of the news).

Filed Under: business models, eric schmidt, moral obligation, newspapers
Companies: google

Cablevision Might Be Better Off Not Talking To Newspaper Experts

from the just-a-thought dept

Long Island-based cable company Cablevision is buying Long Island-based newspaper Newsday from the Tribune Company. While not all of Cablevision's shareholders are happy about this, it seems pretty likely the deal will go through. What's interesting, though is that Cablevision's Charles Dolan is admitting that the company knows very little about the newspaper business, but he's promising to "consult widely and seek advice from people who have backgrounds and are professionals in the field." To be honest, my first reaction on reading that is that doing so is the exact wrong thing the new owner of a newspaper should be doing. It seems like there are so many folks in the newspaper business these days who are still living in the past, trying to pretend they can bring back the glory days when there was no real competition. What newspapers need these days might be a completely different mindset, rather than one encumbered by the legacy thinking that has made it so difficult for many newspapers to adapt to the changing market.

Filed Under: experts, newspapers
Companies: cablevision, newsday

Belgian Newspapers Demand Google Pay $77 Million For All The Traffic Google Sent Them

from the of-all-the-ridiculous-lawsuits... dept

Back in 2006, we couldn't believe that a group of Belgian French-language newspapers could be so confused about how the internet works that they would sue Google for daring to send them more traffic. Of course, if the newspapers were so upset about Google sending them traffic, they could have taken rather easy (robots.txt) means of preventing the indexing -- something they finally did after someone explained to them how search engines work.

But, of course, that's not what it was really about. It's always been about the money. So, it should come as no surprise that the same group of Belgian newspapers is now demanding that Google pay them $77 million. Google should counter that these newspapers owe them every damn cent of ad revenue that was generated by anyone clicking through from Google to those newspaper sites -- plus an additional fee for being so kind as to "advertise" those newspapers websites to those who had never heard of them before.

Filed Under: belgium, copyright, newspapers, search engines
Companies: google

The Associated Press Competing With Its Own Member Papers

from the future-of-news dept

This should be the last post related to last week's "Future of News" workshop. One of the panelists at the workshop was Steve Borliss, who has a new piece up arguing that the Associated Press helped turn the news business into a cartel in the 20th century. He suggests that by limiting access to the AP network, incumbent papers could prevent potential rivals from competing effectively, because no local paper could hope to replicate the AP's national and international news-gathering resources. But now, as we noted last week, the Internet is upending this cozy relationship. For one thing, people can now easily get newspapers from multiple geographic areas, and they're beginning to notice that every newspaper seems to be running a lot of the same AP stories, forcing papers to develop more original content if they want to stand out from the crowd. But more importantly, the AP itself is becoming a competitor to the newspapers. For example, after newspapers complained about Google News sending them traffic, Google signed a deal with the AP allowing it to host AP articles directly, cutting the papers out of the transaction entirely. We wondered at the time if newspapers would be upset about the loss of traffic from Google News, and now this seems to be happening, with a group of Ohio papers forming their own Ohio-centric wire service in competition with the AP. As the Internet causes media outlets to increasingly compete with one another across geographic boundaries, expect to see a lot more cases like this, where former partners become competitors.

Filed Under: competition, internet, newspapers, wire services
Companies: associated press