Newspapers need to find their community or perish. Newspapers that remain primarily focused on printing press technology will perish. Their audience has moved online.
history of Newspapers. I was reading about the history of newspapers and it struck me how much early newspapers were like blogs and rss newsfeeds of the internet today. With the advent of the printing press, most newspapers started as short affairs with short news items or more involved publications advocating one person’s opinion. It was not till this century that journalism really became a profession and large newspapers became Big Business and cultural icons.
Newspapers – Stop the Presses!embrace internet technology or perish |
The Survival of Newspapers. A posting from Mashable by Vadim Lavrusik, 12 Things Newspapers Should Do to Survive, describes what is wrong with the big business of newspapers and how they need to find their community again or perish.
The Internet Media Revolution. The real issue of Big Newspapers and community newspapers is that many of them have not embraced internet technologies. Newspaper organizations are really no different from any other news media organizations either online or off-line. Now, more and more people are getting their news and information from the internet. If newspaper organizations continue to offer their news and information only via the printed page, they will perish.
Newspapers Wake Up! Focus on Community, Not Technology
From Vadim Lavrusik posting, here are 12 things that Big Newspaper and community newspapers need to do:
1. Putting web first and reporting from multiple platforms. Most newspapers, especially community newspapers, are treating their web sites as an afterthought.
2. Go niche. Anyone can publish a news feed via the internet. Community newspapers cannot survive by re-publishing stories from a news wire service. They need to re-focus on who their community is and figure out how to provide meaningful, unique information to their community of subscribers.
3. Offer unique content in print. Some news and information is better suited to print than online and vise versa. Audiences have different needs depending on the communications media.
4. Journalists as curators and contextualizers. Reporters are more than fact-checkers. They need to verify their facts still, but now they need to put these facts into perspective for their readers and draw on richer information than just the news feeds.
5. Real-time reporting integration. Many times the sources of the news are also the reporters of their own news (ex. fire department real-time video feed). News media organizations need to aggregate these raw news feeds in real-time.
6. Internal culture: Startup vs. corporate. Need to quit acting like Big Business. Bureaucracy stifle news and information when using real-time internet technology. Publishing is no longer a cyclic process that can best be managed by a bureaucracy.
7. Encourage innovation. New ways to generate news and information need to be explored. The old ways of mass media does not work well any more.
8. Charging for quotes is not the answer. Fee-based wire services do not work because the internet can distribute information much faster. Need to re-look business models and how news organizations can generate revenue.
9. Investing in mobile: E-Readers or smartphones? The internet and electronic communications is young. Community newspapers and Big Newspapers need to find ways to connect with their audience and provide value.
10. Communicating with readers. Internet technology is disrupting the mass media model. Big Newspapers and community newspapers need to open up ways for two-way communications.
11. Building community. In the past newspapers have provided valuable services building and enriching communities. They need to do this again, but integrating internet technology in their community-building efforts.
12. To have readers pay or not to pay – that is the question. Again, newspapers need to find new business models to add value and make money.
