4 Ingredients to Newspaper's Survival

[Jason Kintzler]

Last night, I spent a couple hours on journchat, a weekly media and PR chat developed and moderated by Sarah Evans, a Mashable contributor and PR pro. While the topics are wide-ranging and cover both sides of the aisle, one topic seems to always inject a fair bit of negativity into the discussion, especially from the journalists' perspective: the dying newspaper industry.

Today, I read a blog post from my mentor, Brian Solis, titled "Newspapers are Old News" which addresses some of the recent statistics about the declining revenues of the newspaper industry. As a former print journalists and broadcast tv anchor I have a fair bit of insight into the industry, so I'm not coming at this with too much naivety. I also understand social media and how it relates to industry, something that seems to be missing from the models of so many print publications.

I read Ryan Sholin every chance I get. He's quickly becoming the champion of the evolution of newspaper. I applaud his positive approach to the recent status of the industry and hope more journalists will follow his mission to (as he puts it), "make small town newspaper.coms rock."

Who Hurt Newspapers?
I don't think newspaper is going to completely "die" anytime soon. However, I think poorly managed newspapers will. Adapting to change is something every industry will encounter at some point. Farmers did it in the 80s. Some adapted to change, others just asked for government handouts. Sound familiar? News is not going away. The "internet" didn't kill newspapers either. So, what's hurting them? It's those news-savvy companies with better business models and insight into the social web that are beating them to the punch.

You're familiar with the obvious, Yahoo News, Google News and others, but it's the newer sites like Jason Goldberg's socialmedian that are laying the foundation for the next generation of news sharing (aka distribution). I recently talked about it here (second video). With socialmedian, you clip news that is relevant or important to you and your friends, peers, co-workers, followers, etc., It's not about popularity (ie. Brittany Spears story the most read of the day), it's about what is of interest to you, or people you follow. It's not a newspaper editor deciding what the news of the day is. It's not a producer deciding what the order of the newscast is either. It's you, the reader serving as your own producer.

How Can Newspapers Recover?
I've blogged about this many times in the past, but I truly believe this is how newspapers can compete, in some cases win and even capitalize on new advertising opportunities. The term "hyperlocal" means more news coverage of community-level events. While that's a good idea, I think newspapers (and broadcast news) need to further define it. Here's how:

1. Micro-community - We've all grabbed our favorite section of the newspaper, or even subscribed to a specific RSS feed from a particular section of the newspaper, right? We do this because we're not interested in certain topics. Back in the day, people read newspapers from cover-to-cover, but that's just not the case anymore.

The newspaper serves the community, but the sections within serve a more specific community. I call this micro-community. By going deeper into these areas, reporters become Community News Managers. Take for example sports. You log-in to your local sports news online and discover a myriad of specific content. You are part of a micro-community that reads, shares and builds this local sports section online. You submit scores, photos from the game, directions to the venue or hotel room availability. The best part? Advertising gets more targeted. Businesses can advertise to specific readers engaged in a particular topic.

2. User-Generated Content - Why this one hasn't happened more yet has me scratching my head. The ability for people to submit video, cell phone pictures or even text messages and tweets to their local news source is a must in this new world of social content. Every newspaper and television station should enable viewers/readers to upload or share content with them via their website. Post a YouTube link, Tweet at us, "text message your storm photo here" - that kind of thing. When readers and viewers can interact easily, the role of producer and/or reporter changes. Instead of digging, they're filtering and editing content from deep within their community as opposed to cutting and pasting AP copy or CNN video feeds.

3. Engage Your Audience - Allowing them to submit content like cell phone video, real-time sports scores, or even updates from a breaking news story is one thing, but actually engaging your viewers is another. I blogged about posting (edited or filtered) tweets from viewers before, but I think television could pick up on a few newspaper tactics in terms of commenting and story evolution. While we reporters like to think we've told the whole story, wouldn't it be interesting to open up the website to more commentary via Seesmic or other video and text sharing sites? Maybe a http://tweetchat.com using the hastag #KXXX-TV or #CityCouncil, etc., The "Man on the Street" format of old is still relevant, it's just the medium for delivery that has changed.

Some newspapers are starting to pick up on this. They understand that engagement is more than comment-enabled stories. Scared of comments? Then qualify your users (viewers or readers). Make them sign up for the "newspaper community" before they can comment and maintain these comments by editing and moderating them. Just because it's on the website doesn't mean it has to be automatic. Engage, but with caution.

4. Become the Community News Source - Stop relying on outside sources. Stick to what you know. Dig up local news and own it. When a national story breaks in your community, you'll be the content provider. You will have the connections, the reporters and the community support that your national competitors won't have. By engaging your community, you will grow readership and redefine your newspaper or tv station's brand.

While not every publication is ready for this kind of shift in business/distribution model, I believe those that do will see a significant advantage over their more stagnant competitors. News organizations must first invest in the model, not the tools. You're not all as powerful as the New York Times who creates new social content widgets every week. But, you're nimble. Don't try to reinvent the news business, instead, adapt to what's working on the social web and implement it gradually and more cost effectively.

Doom-and-Gloom
So, to all of you doom-and-gloomers satisfied with watching the downward spiral continue, I suggest you start looking for a new profession. For those journalists embracing this change, my hat's off to you. The future of news may not be entirely made of paper, but good content and reliable, ethical journalism will still have its place in the world.

The newspaper's of tomorrow won't be published by the newspaper's of today unless they embrace and engage a new model of survival. Are you contributing to the change, or settling in for slow demise?

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[Adil Malik]

Hi, totally agreed with you, newspapers of poor quality will disappear and really having tough time and internet is really a useful medium but not the only reason due to which newspaper readership is hurting. There are many reasons.

Nice post.

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[David Oates]

Completely concur! I'm getting tired of Newspapers crying that their profession has been dismantled. Truth be told the better mousetrap has been built, and journalists who can deliver quality, relevant coverage in this medium will see their products valued greatly by general and niche publics! Thanks for capturing this well.