Commentary
The Real Future Of Newspapers
- by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, September 23, 2009
The newspaper of tomorrow is going to break down into two distinct paths and only one of them includes paper of any form. Local information is always of value and this is the form that printed versions will likely take. In New York City we already see this happening with Metro and other papers that are handed out to subway riders at no cost. These papers portray themselves as news, but they are not as robust or as well editorialized in their news coverage as the longer-running and more established papers of the area. They do, however, offer wide reach, strong circulation and an outlet for local businesses to advertise to a specific audience.
In the future that I see, I would imagine these papers focusing their content and advertising 100% on localized business and the immediate vicinity of the reader. Locally targeted advertising is big business and local readers will read a paper when they see value. Though mobile services like WHERE and Yelp offer local information, there is always something to be said for the tactile experience of holding a paper and ripping out local content of value.
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I don't see the printed form becoming extinct anytime soon, but I do see it evolving in this way. The second path that newspapers will follow is that of a trusted, credible source for the news and related editorial that can be distributed through digital methods and syndicated wherever the reader might be. From The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal down to The San Francisco Chronicle and The Times Union in Albany, newspapers offer an outlet for opinion as well as the news. In fact, providing different takes on news and issues so that you can form your own opinion is one of the best services that newspapers offer.
And, try as they might and profess as they do, very rarely do these papers have a 100% objective point of view. They typically offer a slightly left- or right-leaning insight when they report the news, and I think this is OK. We trust the stories we read in these papers because we know that, opinions aside, they are reported by journalists and not just by bloggers with a high school degree and a chip on their shoulder. Blogs may very well get the scoops, but newspapers get the professional journalists who can truly uncover the ins and outs of a story. It's a matter of trust -- and I trust these folks!
The future of newspapers may also overlap with those of the blogosphere. The best bloggers may be journalists in their own right who may do stories for one another, or create mutually beneficial partnerships. If I were The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, I would start creating a network of approved bloggers to reciprocate content with, because that kind of relationship would bring instant credibility to the blogger and access to scoops and editorial that those old stalwarts of publishing could use! If you can distribute your stories through a network such as this, then you can generate eyeballs; that's where the revenue still comes from in newspapers.
For every article about the future of newspapers, you'll find another that predicts their death. If I've learned anything as I get older, though, it's that nothing ever really dies in media, and idealistic stances are rarely right in the long run. Evolution is the name of the game. Though it's clear that newspapers have a ways to go to become profitable once again, there is a path (actually two) to follow. It will take strong leaders with a bold vision to make it happen.
Here's hoping they get it right!
Corey - "Though it's clear that newspapers have a ways to go to become profitable once again..."
The majority of newspapers in this country are still profitable, always have been and will be for a long time. They are just not "as" profitable as they were say 20 years ago.
Our model has always been to serve well our local markets with informed, credible, edited and verified news. Since we do that so well, even today with downsized newsrooms, we attract a large daily audience in print and online.
The challenge for us, in my opinion, is to serve our advertisers with products and services that better meet their needs and connect them with our readers.
The "real future of newspapers" is one where we continue to serve and grow our audiences and continue to connect our audiences with our advertisers albeit in different ways.
And here here to "Here's hoping they get it right!" What would your local market be like without the journalists covering city hall, school boards, sports, councils, etc.? Where will that information come from if not from reporters who have spent years cultivating sources in government, schools and other local organizations?
I, for one, intend on ensuring the local newspapers I work for continue to report the news in our markets.
Kathy Schwartz
GM, Interactive
Times-Shamrock Communications
Scranton, PA
Re: "The future of newspapers may also overlap with those of the blogosphere" I'd actually take it way further - I believe collaboration with people, communities, eyes on the ground is key.
Mumbai massacre, Hudson River plane crash, Iran elections, Zimbabwe farm razings, Michael Jackson’s death: these stories were broken by “ordinary” people, for free and without limitation.
Collaboration should not only by in sourcing news, but also in how it is disseminated and engaged with - this opens up a thousand paths.
Just think about the millions of stories and events that go unreported in this world every day – where leads and eyewitness accounts can help build a whole picture and force change where change is needed.
I fundamentally believe mainstream news organisations and the thousands of professional journalists play a vital role in this world – and here is an opportunity for them to reinforce their relevance. They can help make sense of the senseless. They can find the voice of reason in the sonic boom of hyperbole. Surely mainstream media would be giving their right arm for a piece of this crowd-sourced action?
Instead of excluding people, the ones who in essence ARE the news, we should include them in the news agenda.
I'd tell newspapers to empower their users/readers, engage with them, embrace them. Give them the tools, the platform, the opportunity to represent their communities, to create new ones, share their experiences and then bring them into your news gathering process. Don't forget, they also represent the businesses, the schools, the services in the hyper-local area...
Newspapers are having to change, because people have changed. Their consumption patters have shifted which means old methods cannot and should not be forced into these new models. It's not one size fits all.
Bold vision is needed agreed, but the really bold stuff is happening already right now. And it's not led by any mainstream media organisation.
Great article Cory. Your articles are a few that I read through regularly and enjoy. I've spent 7 years selling video services to the online side of newspapers and have watched them struggle with the print side but I too believe there is still strong potential... and your ideas are good. I hope they embrace social media and new technology quickly before too many more die off.
Cory, obviously you haven't worked intimately from the bottom on up at a newspaper. There are so many reasons why the newspaper business has lost money it would shake your monkeys from the trees and that's only in one dimension.
Good post Corey. Agree that the journalism is evolving and will include bloggers. What's not so clear is what's the revenue model going to be? Advertising alone won't cut it. And users show an almost universal unwillingness to pay for content (95% say they'll find free alternatives, according to a recent Harris Interactive poll sponsored by paidcontent.co.uk). Over the next few months, you'll start to see a lot of sites start to experiment with a variety of revenue models, including ours, Kachingle. Should be interesting how it all plays out.
I concur with Lizzie, but with one caveat: copy editing and fact-checking must not be eschewed in publicizing the raw people-ness that emerges from the me-media. Yes, there's everything to be gained from eyewitness reporting that flows in through cell phones, email, Twitter, and amateur video cameras, and not only does it have an immediacy that media consumers currently crave, but it comes at little direct cost. The INdirect cost is that it often comes from an unknown source, and this adds to the editing and fact-checking burden.
Maybe blogs would not be so bad as the only media outlet
Read more: http://persephonesplayland.blogspot.com/2009/09/more-on-bowdens-atlantic-story-power-to.html
Everybody continues to focus on the content and medium of delivery when the actual future of the news business will be in the filtering and assembly of content for individual or groups of *customers*... if the newspaper knows what each customer wants then they cultivate a more loyal customer and target more effective advertising/messaging. We need to move from the "supply side" of delivery to your doorstep, to the "demand side" of delivering the wanted content when it is going to be read... Just a new form of "pull" and not "push"...
Guy Kawasaki uses the generational example of the Ice business: the businesses that cut ice out of frozen lakes were replaced by businesses that mechanically froze and delivered big blocks, who were subsequently replaced by machines that froze and dispensed cubes at the use location ... Seems to me that the newspaper business is "mechanically freezing and delivering big blocks of ice" biz...
That's my humble opinion, and I am sticking with it ;-)