Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Fascinating post about Web traffic

The Nieman Journalism Lab has a fascinating post about a Yahoo! link driving record Web traffic to the web site of The New York Times.

The Times got more than 9 million page views in a couple of hours as a result of the link, but couldn't make much money from the traffic.

This story relates to my previous post about how newspapers should think about building their business on the Web. Perhaps raw traffic isn't the best measure of success, or what newspaper people should be looking for. Just as fighting for tighter copyright laws isn't the right path. It's attracting the right traffic that counts - and providing services to users and advertisers that benefit them financially.

Before journalists go too far in lobbying Congress, they might do some research

Now comes the idea that one way to save newspapers is to tighten copyright laws. Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz argues that journalists should lobby Congress to force online aggregators to reimburse newspapers for ad revenues associated with their content and bar aggregators from profiting from newspaper content for the first 24 hours after stories are posted.

While I think I understand both the urgency and the frustration Schultz feels (what newspaper reporter hasn't felt frustrated listening to a radio "news person" read his story over the air without crediting his paper and what newspaper journalist isn't worried about the future), this approach seems to be another misdirected attempt to right the newspaper ship.

Perhaps before people get too excited about it, Schultz and others who feel the same way should fund a study of how much revenue newspapers are "losing" to aggregators and competitors like TV stations. I think they'd find that even if they could recapture every penny others are making by siphoning their resources, it would do little to alter newspapers' financial straits but it would do a lot to reinforce their negative image.

Set aside the unbelievable bureaucracy or legal structure that you'd think would have to emerge to enforce the proposal, or the punitive image it would engender, and just consider the anecdotal story with which Schultz begins her column. She praises, and it sounds much deserved, excellent watchdog reporting by a reporter on her own paper that exposed a corrupt sheriff. That kind of reporting can do wonders for the identity of a newspaper, for its reputation in the community and sometimes for street sales, but based on my experience it's highly unlikely that national Web sites will link to it unless it has a bizarre dimension. So forget going after The Daily Beast or others like it. And as for local television stations, well, if they're customers of the Associated Press, as most are, they're going to get the story unless the paper specifically exercises a local out. But does it really not want the huge percentage of people who don't read the paper to learn about its exclusive reporting? I think it wants those people to know about its work. It can usually make that happen just by specifically copyrighting every exclusive story and working with the AP to include the phrase, "in a copyrighted story by the Cleveland Plain Dealer."

The path of penalizing others for reporting what her newspaper has uncovered puts the focus on growing revenue in the wrong place. Yes, it's an unbelievably competitive world. But newspapers have to find ways to grow new sources of revenue, not further isolate themselves with rearguard actions designed to protect their "franchise."

The Plain Dealer has many ways to tell the world about its valuable reporting as a result of the Web. It also has many new ways to make money. Those are where the urgency should be directed. Not on lobbying Congress.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

What local newspapers should do: A final thought on the importance of photojournalism

My series on 10 steps local newspapers should take to survive and thrive in the face of the economic meltdown and the societal shift to the Internet raised a good question from a former colleague, Jay Small.

Here's what he wrote:

"I wanted to ask about something I don't see mentioned much: the role and value of photography and photojournalism in the future of content strategy. Most discussion I see zeroes in on the local public service/watchdog/Fourth Estate archetypes of journalism. Meanwhile, at street level, we keep seeing how powerful photographs and galleries can be as drivers of traffic and engagement. I, for one, do not believe video supplants still photography even online.

Is great photography strategic, or just another tool in the box?"

I'll share part of my response and elaborate:

"I think a news organization has to put at its center a public service mission because it elevates the work to a higher standard and a higher calling. That said, photo is very much a part of that watchdog mission. Think about the great documentary photojournalism that has changed the world because it's shown people things they haven't known about or wanted to see. So maybe this is a bad answer, but it's probably both strategic and a tool in the box...One thing I've been thinking about is how most news sites look pretty much the same and that means they're text driven. Yet you see Microsoft's Steve Ballmer talking about the differences between media having disappeared in 10 years. Why aren't Web sites more visual? What if I could wake up in the morning and instead of watching the Today show have a web aggregation of great news photos (perhaps with narration and certainly with captions available) floating across my screen, with me being able to stop the flow of images any time I want with my remote?"

Most people running newsrooms - and that includes digital newsrooms - came up on the "word" side. It always bugged me to be called a "word person." But it is true that the perspective of most top editors is text first. That said, we've moved into a much more visual world and readers both expect and appreciate a much richer visual experience. Jay Small is right that still photography can play a huge role in making local newspapers more central to their communities. Watching events unfold in Iran reconfirms the significance and impact of photographs from people armed with cell phones. This is probably the most significant way that the public will contribute content, if newspapers make it easy for them to do so and reward contributors by treating their work with respect. To me, photography (by staff and others) should be the lifeblood of any good news organization because it forces journalists to concentrate on what is actually happening, and not on telephone interviews or reconstructions after the fact. It puts an organization into the position of always trying to show, not tell. That approach is central to good watchdog journalism. Good photojournalism creates a sense of urgency and wonder, depth and intimacy - all things that would draw people back day after day because the experience is something they'll remember. Newspapers have been, in my view, too dry for too long. Good photojournalism makes any publication come alive, makes its readers connect and feel, puts them into the shoes of others. Good photojournalism opens the world, which is what local newspapers should be doing. I can't be everywhere in my city every day, or everywhere in the world, but people are taking pictures across the city and globe every day, and if they're put together in the right way it will make the reader feel part of something larger, make the reader care about his or her community, make the reader an engaged citizen - and at the same time give pleasure.

So, yes, Jay Small is correct. Photo is a powerful tool, but it can also be strategic, because handled well it positions a news organization in reality, in a real place in real time, a place readers can relate to, a place where they don't just see, but also feel. And if they feel, they'll remember the experience, and come back for more. That's why photojournalism is so important, but it's also why local newspapers should embrace the work of all the people in their communities with eyes - and cameras - on the street.

Friday, June 26, 2009

The 10 things local newspapers should do - compiled in one blog post

OK, I was critical of the American Press Institute's tired ideas for the newspaper industry. But what do I propose? Well, here goes: 10 ways to strengthen local newspapers in the face of the economic meltdown and the societal shift to the Web.

1. Start with the customers: Readers and advertisers. This might sound obvious. But too often newspapers still base their thinking and strategy on their own processes, traditions or needs. They have to stop thinking of readers as receivers or advertisers as sponsors, and instead treat them like participants in a common community.
• Readers should be able to customize/personalize how they use the services of their local paper. With everything newspapers offer, from the main newspaper and specialty print products to Web sites and smart phone services, the user should feel a sense of control.
• Readers should be able to contribute to the community conversation and a community’s understanding of itself in everything a newspaper does.
• Readers are looking for tools to improve their lives: financially, intellectually, emotionally, health-wise, etc. Newspapers should do everything they can to meet that need – to be a resource for a better life – and make sure their communities know that’s what they’re doing.
• Newspapers shouldn’t produce content the way they’ve always done it: basically, this could be boiled down to headline and text. Instead, they should ask what would provide the greatest benefit to readers in any medium and do that.
• Just as readers should be able to customize and personalize the services of a newspaper, so should advertisers. Newspapers need to be a resource to help businesses grow.
• Just as readers should be able to participate in the community conversation, so should advertisers. It’s newspapers’ job to help them do so. Banner ads don’t cut it.
• Just as readers need tools to improve their lives, so do advertisers need tools to improve their business. Newspapers should provide those tools and make sure that businesses know that newspapers are the place to turn to improve their competitive position in a local market.

Here are some concrete steps:
• Change the way subscriptions are sold. Switch to a membership model. (See step #2.) Enlist the community in the newspaper’s mission and offer a whole range of ways to be part of that mission, including never receiving a print product.
• Ask readers and non-readers alike what they want from a menu of options and then give it to them. This means newspapers should be asking for every e-mail address in a household and every cell phone and the capability of every cell phone, not just for the home delivery address. Each member of a household should be able to opt for a different suite of products/services and have a different relationship with the newspaper organization.
• Highlight readers' contributions on all platforms and celebrate their role by rewarding contributors with greater visibility, shout-outs and financial rewards.
• Offer advertisers ways to participate in social networking appropriate to their businesses.
• Provide advertisers with an easy-to-use suite of tools to allow them to play in the digital world.

2. Establish a clear and credible public service mission. Newspapers tout their watchdog role, but if you evaluate the percentage of their expenses dedicated to this function, the budgetary reality would undermine the claim in many, if not most, cases. If newspapers are going to follow a membership model, as I believe they should (see recommendation #1), there has to be a reason to join. Today the most common complaint is how thin many newspapers have become. Even if unfair, the belief that there’s “nothing to read” in many newspapers is widespread. The No. 1 reason to support a local newspaper should be because it’s an independent watchdog dedicated to holding government and other powerful institutions accountable and to enabling citizens to participate fully in our democracy. Ultimately, it’s not how much there is to read that matters. What matters is whether the newspaper makes a difference in the lives of its readers and its community.

If newspapers do this, the foundation of every one of its communications with the public can be this simple truth: that the newspaper, in tandem with concerned members of the community, is performing an essential function – as essential as water, power and roads. Without the newspaper, people must know, the community would be that much poorer. Today, in some cases, for perhaps understandable reasons, newspapers are not able to forcefully make that claim.

Here are some concrete steps:

• Strip down the newsroom and start over with this mission in mind. Reconstruct the entire news operation on all platforms to make sure the newsroom has this mission at its heart. This will be difficult. Many internally will ask, ‘Well, how can we stop doing this?’ Or, ‘How can we stop doing that?’ The answer is if newspapers don’t perform their central function well, nothing else will matter. If it’s not clear by now that things have to change, the battle may be lost anyway.
• Communicate to the public that this is the No. 1 priority of the newspaper and tell the community every time the newspaper helps keep politicians and others honest or makes government transparent.
• Invite the community to participate in this central endeavor. Newspapers shouldn’t just be looking for breaking news tips or comments from their readers. They should be asking for readers’ help on their most important work and offering others a platform to perform the same function. This includes sharing the best work of other news organizations on their own Web site, if anything just to reinforce the value of this work and to help measure the performance of the local paper.
• Newspapers should champion the public’s right to know, access to open records and the importance of public meetings in symposiums and other forums.

3. Realign the internal operations of local newspaper companies to make marketing, advertising and editorial partners every step of the way. This will involve a zero-based approach to the structure and commitments of the company. Newspapers tell their advertisers how critical it is to get out their message on a regular basis. Yet newspaper companies appear to see marketing as the first place to cut. Marketing doesn’t mean traditional ad campaigns, although it could include some of that. It does mean an entire organization telling a consistent story about itself and living up to that story. Google says its mission is “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.” That’s pretty easy to understand. If a local newspaper had as clear a mission – “to be the central source of news and information on (x place) and make it easily accessible and useful” – it would enable the entire organization to tell a consistent story and evaluate every potential use of resources against the mission statement.

Here are some concrete steps:
• Locate advertising, marketing and editorial types in close physical proximity so they’re working together and talking every day.
• Make each main content focus of the organization its own channel, or sub brand, with a business manager attached to the content type. Establish separate tracking for audience, reach and revenue for each channel: sports, news, multimedia and business, for example. Share that information with the staff. Give the channel managers responsibility and authority to develop new products.
• Develop or hire expertise in social networking and viral marketing. Every advertiser needs to be exposed to new ways to reach customers and offer them benefits.
• Make mobile the focus of this new approach. This should be the fastest-growing part of any newspaper and as the new frontier it will be the place where there will be the fewest institutional obstacles to experimentation.

4. Make the classifieds a separate, standalone business. Instead of trying to beat Craigslist from within a newspaper operation, free the people running classifieds to do what’s best for that business or hire new people to take the business in a different direction. (I owe this opinion to a seasoned newspaper advertising executive who encouraged me to consider this approach.) Give the new company the existing revenue stream and technological base and the authority to set their own course. If they want to buy pages in the newspaper for print ads, fine. If not, fine. Remove any contribution from classifieds from the newspaper’s budget. Don’t include any projections of a contribution from classifieds. What this will do is free the people running classifieds to stop thinking of them from a newspaper perspective and start thinking of them from a customer perspective. Their role going forward: Connect buyers and sellers. If a newspaper or some other print products work in specialty categories, fine. If not, that would also be fine. The managers would not need to use print unless it made sense. If they can’t make the business successful, it dies. This would also free the rest of the newspaper from waiting for the return of classified revenue in key categories. It will make it clear to everybody left at the newspaper that they have to find new sources of revenue, that they can’t live on the hope that what once worked will come back and save them.

Here are some concrete steps:
• Create a new company with the mission of connecting buyers and sellers. Do not burden the new management with the existing staff. Let them hire the team to achieve their goals.
• Reset the revenue budget of the newspaper to determine the expenses it can support under the new business structure.
• Establish a team to find new sources of revenue not tied to existing classified categories

5. Make the local newspaper a transactional site. The newspaper needs to provide a way for local users to research products online and to buy them through the newspaper’s business directory/web site. This recommendation is obviously is related to recommendation #4. Instead of remaining a “classified ad taker,” the surviving newspaper company would focus on actually aligning itself with local businesses, many of which would probably never advertise in the newspaper. Just as newspapers can’t rely on classifieds, they also can’t survive off display advertising. Newspapers need new ways to bring in revenue. One such path would be to become a middleman for local commerce. Many local businesses are stumped by the web and new technology and newspapers could be the ones to provide them a bridge to connect with customers online and on portable devices. These companies would welcome somebody making their business more successful, especially if they knew that the price of doing so would not be a significant upfront cost but would instead be a percentage of the revenue. This is one place the newspaper’s brand could help. Doing this would reinforce a newspaper's emphasis on looking out for the people, whether in monitoring government or in helping them make intelligent decisions as consumers. Newspapers could be of service to their readers by providing access to inventories or sales by local outlets.

Here are some concrete steps:
• Adopt business directory software that allows local businesses to manage their own Web sites, take advantage of the newspapers’ expertise in search engine optimization and connect with smart phone users on the go who might be in their vicinity.
• Communicate to the community that one of the roles of the newspaper is to organize all the information they might want to know about the community, including where to buy things or to get services.
• Use the membership model with these businesses to make them promoters of the newspaper. Just as businesses like to tout their membership in a better business bureau, they should be exposed to the benefits of being able to tout their membership in newspapers’ encyclopedia of what’s available in their communities.

6. Newspapers should revamp their approach to print advertising. If they do, it will free them up to change their approach to the type of content they print. Today, the approach to editorial content is in part driven by the need to fill holes around ads. As a result, at least partially, you see “A” sections filled with wire stories that can be easily cut to fit. Yet in other areas of modern life, high quality product design has become a standard consumer expectation. If you want proof, all you need to do is go to Target. Or go and test drive a modest, compact car. Even those are well designed now. Yet in many newspapers much of what they print still looks like an after thought. They present small and unwieldy partial pages that editors “fill” with “wire” content that feels like yesterday’s news. That can’t continue. Newspapers need to adopt a more coherent approach to print advertising that allows them to elevate the quality of their content. This will provide a basis for them to charge readers more, something they’re going to need to do in many cases. In others, it may be that a free newspaper with a fixed-page count with standard advertising units sold on an auction basis is the better approach. But in either case, what’s essential is that the advertiser is connected to quality editorial content and that’s only possible if editors can actually plan for the units they have to work with. We’re long past the days where newspapers can get away with “filling” holes. Space actually dictates content. If you doubt that, just check out what people say on Twitter versus what they might say on a blog.

Here are some concrete steps:
• Establish a set of standard ad sizes and positions and make those apparent to potential advertisers on the newspaper’s Web site, the way USA Today already does. Make the ad sizes modular, so they can be adapted to any format. Even today’s broadsheet papers may want to produce some tabloid sections or even editions in the future. If newspapers put the customer first, they will make it easy for them to understand the sizes and make it easy for them to build ads in those sizes.
• Provide an online way for smaller advertisers to build and distribute standardized print ads. Take the work out of it for them.
• Adopt this approach in all specialty publications.
• Reinvent the editorial content of the newspaper based on the ability to use modules that can be placed in any position. Stop using “wire” to fill holes. Make every content decision intentional, with the reader in mind. Ask not whether something would fit. Ask whether anybody would want to read it.

7. Flip the model on its head. Everybody on a newspaper’s staff needs to understand that the newspaper is one of the products, not the identity of the organization. We now live in a digital world. The mindset of the organization, on every front, must be that everything starts online and is distributed or made available in whatever form the reader wants it, wherever and whenever the reader wants it. This is very difficult to accept, because as soon as an organization does adopt this approach it stops being a manufacturing company producing and delivering a physical product every day and enters new, more challenging territory. Today you often hear people say “nobody has figured out how to make money on the Web.” This is generally an excuse to continue to depend on print, which of course remains the dominant source of revenue for local newspapers. But is the claim really true? The answer is no. Plenty of folks have figured out how to make money on the Web. It’s traditional advertising-based businesses that have struggled. But maybe they would do better if they didn’t see themselves as they always have. It’s time to find out.

Here are some concrete steps:
• At newspapers that haven’t already done this, conduct anonymous media consumption audits in every department and share the results with the entire staff. This will ensure that everyone understands the scope of the shift in habits and behavior that has occurred.
• Create groups on Facebook and Twitter for the organization. Make sure that if people don’t monitor these services they’ll miss important information for their work.
• Hold virtual meetings. Shift from an office-based organization to a tools-based organization, providing staff with the mobile tools they need to be effective wherever they are. Ability to use the tools needs to be a job requirement.
• Train, train, train. A newspaper's staff needs the opportunity to learn. But they have to take the initiative, too. Training can be virtual. It doesn't need to be traditional classroom work. Newspapers need independent thinkers and independent actors. If people can't be both, they probably don't belong.

8. Stop pretending that if the newspaper’s staff didn’t do it, the work is not good enough. Other companies routinely hire contractors to produce content according to their exacting standards or collect content produced by others and repackage it in ways that benefit the consumer. So should newspapers. As newspapers examine their organizations and what their budgets can support, they need to be committed to maintaining a core team central to the newspaper’s mission and they need to be ruthless about finding the most efficient ways to do everything else. Newspaper should shift away from the “staff” and “salary” model to a model where a core team works with independent contractors and freelancers who are rewarded based on what they sell or on the amount of traffic they drive. Right now we see organizations cutting compensation across the board. Is that the right way to motivate someone to be part of a newspaper? I don’t think so. Newspapers need to be leaner but to make this switch successfully they also need to reward even better the staff they keep. Based, of course, on their performance and impact on the success of the organization.

Here are some concrete steps:
• Evaluate every job and activity of a newspaper to determine which continue to be necessary. Determine which of those jobs or activities must be carried out by a member of the staff.
• Establish a training program and compensation model for outsiders who contribute editorial content or sell products that bring in revenue.
• Establish an “experts desk” that actively recruits people from the community knowledgeable about a whole range of topics, from cooking to health to weather to biology. Make them part of the newspaper family.
• Establish a “business building desk” that actively recruits people who might be able to help grow the newspaper’s business.

9. Stop incremental cutting. It’s true that nobody knows where the bottom is or how bad things could get. But what’s damaging motivation or hope for many at newspapers is that the cutting never seems to stop. It gives the impression that management doesn’t know what it’s doing and thinks it can cut its way to success, which nobody on the staff believes. It also creates a climate of fear. The biggest question on many employees’ minds becomes, “Who’s next?” Employees want a vision. They want a plan they believe has some chance of success. Hanging on and hoping to survive won’t cut it. This ultimately rests on the top people at any newspaper. They need to offer their employees a plan they can believe in, as painful as it might be to achieve. Then employees will have a clue where they might be heading and can decide whether they buy into going in that direction. Nothing is worse than death by a thousand slashes. The best advice for politicians or companies in trouble is often to get the truth out on the table all at once. Don’t let it dribble out day after day or week after week. The former approach may be painful. But generally it’ll be painful for a short period, and then they can try to move on. It’s amazing the problems people can recover from if they face them. The same good advice holds true for newspapers. If they would do this, they might create the prospect that the survivors in the organization could earn more rewards for their work.

Here are some concrete steps:
• This recommendation is related to many of the previous recommendations – for example, making the classifieds a separate business and removing their contribution from a newspaper’s bottom line. The first thing a newspaper needs to do is come up with an entirely new expense budget that leaves it a cushion even in a worst-case scenario.
• Stop making all compensation cuts “across the board.” As soon as good people can find alternative employment they will, if they don’t see any rewards for their own performance.
• Invest in technology and systems to reduce repetitive work that can be done by machines.
• Give the surviving staff the tools they need to do their jobs, even if it means cutting more people to make that possible.

10. Stop pretending newspapers can be all things to all people. Newspapers are prisoners of their own past. They have to break free. The future is actually more exciting than anything in the past, if newspapers can find a way to participate in it. The best way to acccomplish that goal would seem to be to stop thinking like newspapers. In this new world of many niche publications and a few giants – CNN, The New York Times, Yahoo!, Google, MSN – what can the local newspaper do better than anybody else? I think the answer is clear: Connect its own community and help it understand itself. To do this, newspapers don’t need to develop their own unique technologies or tools in every market. Google is the same wherever you go. But what they do need to do is be the leading source of local information – and that doesn’t just mean news. The Web has opened the door for newspapers to become resources about all the dimensions of a community, places where people can find out what they want, when they want, how they want. But that doesn’t mean newspapers can do everything. Advertisers and readers are going to want to be associated with a highly respected organization that delivers real value. Advertisers want results. News doesn’t necessarily give them the results they want. So it can only be one part of a newspaper’s offerings. This doesn’t mean it isn’t central to the organization's mission. But it does mean that to think doing it well is going to be enough to save most newspapers is probably folly. Editors by definition are constantly making decisions. It’s time to make a lot of tough decisions. But now, instead of editors or publishers doing that alone, they need to involve their entire staffs in refining the focus of their organizations, in determining where effort is best expended. The basic building blocks remain the trust and identity a newspaper can establish with aggressive watchdog reporting, by looking out for the interests of the individual and the community. Newspapers have to convincingly make people in their communities feel a part of that mission, feel that they’re being served by the newspaper. But if a newspaper is going to establish that bond, what must it stop doing? That’s a tough question, but one it’s time to answer.

Here are some concrete steps:

• Why does every day of a newspaper seem largely the same? Sure, papers run different sections on different days - entertainment guide on Friday, etc. - but the basic structure is predictable. But are readers' needs and advertisers desires the same every day? I don't think so. Detroit’s papers have it at least partly right in producing limited page count single-copy editions on the days they don’t home deliver. It’s time to treat the print newspaper as a product, intentionally designed for the user. Make every day have value. Name it and tell readers what makes it worth buying. If it can’t pay for itself, change it until it can or eliminate it.
• Study the paper and its Web sites for all “commodity content” available easily from other sources. Reduce the volume of that content dramatically and replace it with unique content or use the cut as savings and repackage the remaining content to heighten its value.
• Determine what your newspaper is going to be known for and make sure everybody in the organization – everybody – knows what’s on the list and why.
• To return to the beginning of this 10-part series, start with the customer and the world they live in. Ask them what matters to them and let them know what they tell you and what you’re going to do about it.

There were two related blog posts published during this series:

One addressed the question why I didn't do at the Rocky Mountain News what I now say local newspapers should do? Read it here.

The other offered links from readers in response to the series. Read it here.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

What local newspapers should do #10

This is the final post in a series of 10 on what local newspapers should do to survive and thrive in the face of the economic meltdown and societal shift to the Internet.

10. Stop pretending newspapers can be all things to all people. Newspapers are prisoners of their own past. They have to break free. The future is actually more exciting than anything in the past, if newspapers can find a way to participate in it. The best way to acccomplish that goal would seem to be to stop thinking like newspapers. In this new world of many niche publications and a few giants – CNN, The New York Times, Yahoo!, Google, MSN – what can the local newspaper do better than anybody else? I think the answer is clear: Connect its own community and help it understand itself. To do this, newspapers don’t need to develop their own unique technologies or tools in every market. Google is the same wherever you go. But what they do need to do is be the leading source of local information – and that doesn’t just mean news. The Web has opened the door for newspapers to become resources about all the dimensions of a community, places where people can find out what they want, when they want, how they want. But that doesn’t mean newspapers can do everything. Advertisers and readers are going to want to be associated with a highly respected organization that delivers real value. Advertisers want results. News doesn’t necessarily give them the results they want. So it can only be one part of a newspaper’s offerings. This doesn’t mean it isn’t central to the organization's mission. But it does mean that to think doing it well is going to be enough to save most newspapers is probably folly. Editors by definition are constantly making decisions. It’s time to make a lot of tough decisions. But now, instead of editors or publishers doing that alone, they need to involve their entire staffs in refining the focus of their organizations, in determining where effort is best expended. The basic building blocks remain the trust and identity a newspaper can establish with aggressive watchdog reporting, by looking out for the interests of the individual and the community. Newspapers have to convincingly make people in their communities feel a part of that mission, feel that they’re being served by the newspaper. But if a newspaper is going to establish that bond, what must it stop doing? That’s a tough question, but one it’s time to answer.

Here are some concrete steps:

• Why does every day of a newspaper seem largely the same? Sure, papers run different sections on different days - entertainment guide on Friday, etc. - but the basic structure is predictable. But are readers' needs and advertisers desires the same every day? I don't think so. Detroit’s papers have it at least partly right in producing limited page count single-copy editions on the days they don’t home deliver. It’s time to treat the print newspaper as a product, intentionally designed for the user. Make every day have value. Name it and tell readers what makes it worth buying. If it can’t pay for itself, change it until it can or eliminate it.
• Study the paper and its Web sites for all “commodity content” available easily from other sources. Reduce the volume of that content dramatically and replace it with unique content or use the cut as savings and repackage the remaining content to heighten its value.
• Determine what your newspaper is going to be known for and make sure everybody in the organization – everybody – knows what’s on the list and why.
• To return to the beginning of this 10-part series, start with the customer and the world they live in. Ask them what matters to them and let them know what they tell you and what you’re going to do about it.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

What local newspapers should do #9

This is the ninth in a series of 10 posts on what local newspapers should do to survive and thrive in the face of the economic meltdown and societal shift to the Internet.

9. Stop incremental cutting. It’s true that nobody knows where the bottom is or how bad things could get. But what’s damaging motivation or hope for many at newspapers is that the cutting never seems to stop. It gives the impression that management doesn’t know what it’s doing and thinks it can cut its way to success, which nobody on the staff believes. It also creates a climate of fear. The biggest question on many employees’ minds becomes, “Who’s next?” Employees want a vision. They want a plan they believe has some chance of success. Hanging on and hoping to survive won’t cut it. This ultimately rests on the top people at any newspaper. They need to offer their employees a plan they can believe in, as painful as it might be to achieve. Then employees will have a clue where they might be heading and can decide whether they buy into going in that direction. Nothing is worse than death by a thousand slashes. The best advice for politicians or companies in trouble is often to get the truth out on the table all at once. Don’t let it dribble out day after day or week after week. The former approach may be painful. But generally it’ll be painful for a short period, and then they can try to move on. It’s amazing the problems people can recover from if they face them. The same good advice holds true for newspapers. If they would do this, they might create the prospect that the survivors in the organization could earn more rewards for their work.

Here are some concrete steps:
• This recommendation is related to many of the previous recommendations – for example, making the classifieds a separate business and removing their contribution from a newspaper’s bottom line. The first thing a newspaper needs to do is come up with an entirely new expense budget that leaves it a cushion even in a worst-case scenario.
• Stop making all compensation cuts “across the board.” As soon as good people can find alternative employment they will, if they don’t see any rewards for their own performance.
• Invest in technology and systems to reduce repetitive work that can be done by machines.
• Give the surviving staff the tools they need to do their jobs, even if it means cutting more people to make that possible.

Next: Stop pretending newspapers can be all things to all people.
Previous: Stop pretending that if the newspaper’s staff didn’t do it, the work is not good enough.

Why editors need to take the word "news" out of newspapers

Today was another example of newspapers trumpeting stale news on their front pages, reinforcing the impression that there's no point in reading them because they're so far behind in reporting what's happening.

USA Today lead headline: Obama sharpens response on Iran
Wall Street Journal above the fold: Obama rips Iran in Tactical shift
New York Times lead headline: Obama condemns Iran's iron fist against protests
Denver Post (bottom right using a McClatchy Newspapers story): Obama condemns Iran's crackdown, lauds protesters

This "news" in Wednesday's editions comes from a midday (Eastern Time) news conference on Tuesday. I heard it through the day on the radio and TV and read many updates on the Web, including on some of these papers' sites. Yet, still, this is what editors decide to deliver the next morning.

I worry how damaging this is for the future of newspapers. The first thing I read most mornings is the WSJ news digest on the the front page. It's truly useful because it gives me a good sense of what happened in the intervening 24 hours. But I'm not interested in a longer story about something I already know about unless it truly takes me into new territory.

I think the insistence on sticking with a conventional approach to news could be one of the factors that will drive newspapers into the ground - except for those loyalists who just can't give up on reading a paper. Maybe that's a rational approach to running a business, but it sure is dull and it sure doesn't seem to demand much from the newspaper or its staff.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

What local newspapers should do #8

This is the eighth in a series of 10 posts on what local newspapers should do to survive and thrive in the face of the economic meltdown and societal shift to the Internet.

8. Stop pretending that if the newspaper’s staff didn’t do it, the work is not good enough. Other companies routinely hire contractors to produce content according to their exacting standards or collect content produced by others and repackage it in ways that benefit the consumer. So should newspapers. As newspapers examine their organizations and what their budgets can support, they need to be committed to maintaining a core team central to the newspaper’s mission and they need to be ruthless about finding the most efficient ways to do everything else. Newspaper should shift away from the “staff” and “salary” model to a model where a core team works with independent contractors and freelancers who are rewarded based on what they sell or on the amount of traffic they drive. Right now we see organizations cutting compensation across the board. Is that the right way to motivate someone to be part of a newspaper? I don’t think so. Newspapers need to be leaner but to make this switch successfully they also need to reward even better the staff they keep. Based, of course, on their performance and impact on the success of the organization.

Here are some concrete steps:
• Evaluate every job and activity of a newspaper to determine which continue to be necessary. Determine which of those jobs or activities must be carried out by a member of the staff.
• Establish a training program and compensation model for outsiders who contribute editorial content or sell products that bring in revenue.
• Establish an “experts desk” that actively recruits people from the community knowledgeable about a whole range of topics, from cooking to health to weather to biology. Make them part of the newspaper family.
• Establish a “business building desk” that actively recruits people who might be able to help grow the newspaper’s business.

Next: Stop incremental cutting.
Previous: Flip the model on its head.

Monday, June 22, 2009

What local newspapers should do #7

This is the seventh in a series of 10 posts on what local newspapers should do to survive and thrive in the face of the economic meltdown and societal shift to the Internet.

7. Flip the model on its head. Everybody on a newspaper’s staff needs to understand that the newspaper is one of the products, not the identity of the organization. We now live in a digital world. The mindset of the organization, on every front, must be that everything starts online and is distributed or made available in whatever form the reader wants it, wherever and whenever the reader wants it. This is very difficult to accept, because as soon as an organization does adopt this approach it stops being a manufacturing company producing and delivering a physical product every day and enters new, more challenging territory. Today you often hear people say “nobody has figured out how to make money on the Web.” This is generally an excuse to continue to depend on print, which of course remains the dominant source of revenue for local newspapers. But is the claim really true? The answer is no. Plenty of folks have figured out how to make money on the Web. It’s traditional advertising-based businesses that have struggled. But maybe they would do better if they didn’t see themselves as they always have. It’s time to find out.

Here are some concrete steps:
• At newspapers that haven’t already done this, conduct anonymous media consumption audits in every department and share the results with the entire staff. This will ensure that everyone understands the scope of the shift in habits and behavior that has occurred.
• Create groups on Facebook and Twitter for the organization. Make sure that if people don’t monitor these services they’ll miss important information for their work.
• Hold virtual meetings. Shift from an office-based organization to a tools-based organization, providing staff with the mobile tools they need to be effective wherever they are. Ability to use the tools needs to be a job requirement.
• Train, train, train. A newspaper's staff needs the opportunity to learn. But they have to take the initiative, too. Training can be virtual. It doesn't need to be traditional classroom work. Newspapers need independent thinkers and independent actors. If people can't be both, they probably don't belong.


Next: Stop pretending that if the newspaper’s staff didn’t do it, the work is not good enough.
Previous: Newspapers should revamp their approach to print advertising.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

What local newspapers should do #6

This is the sixth in a series of 10 posts on what local newspapers should do to survive and thrive in the face of the economic meltdown and the societal shift to the Internet.

6. Newspapers should revamp their approach to print advertising. If they do, it will free them up to change their approach to the type of content they print. Today, the approach to editorial content is in part driven by the need to fill holes around ads. As a result, at least partially, you see “A” sections filled with wire stories that can be easily cut to fit. Yet in other areas of modern life, high quality product design has become a standard consumer expectation. If you want proof, all you need to do is go to Target. Or go and test drive a modest, compact car. Even those are well designed now. Yet in many newspapers much of what they print still looks like an after thought. They present small and unwieldy partial pages that editors “fill” with “wire” content that feels like yesterday’s news. That can’t continue. Newspapers need to adopt a more coherent approach to print advertising that allows them to elevate the quality of their content. This will provide a basis for them to charge readers more, something they’re going to need to do in many cases. In others, it may be that a free newspaper with a fixed-page count with standard advertising units sold on an auction basis is the better approach. But in either case, what’s essential is that the advertiser is connected to quality editorial content and that’s only possible if editors can actually plan for the units they have to work with. We’re long past the days where newspapers can get away with “filling” holes. Space actually dictates content. If you doubt that, just check out what people say on Twitter versus what they might say on a blog.

Here are some concrete steps:
• Establish a set of standard ad sizes and positions and make those apparent to potential advertisers on the newspaper’s Web site, the way USA Today already does. Make the ad sizes modular, so they can be adapted to any format. Even today’s broadsheet papers may want to produce some tabloid sections or even editions in the future. If newspapers put the customer first, they will make it easy for them to understand the sizes and make it easy for them to build ads in those sizes.
• Provide an online way for smaller advertisers to build and distribute standardized print ads. Take the work out of it for them.
• Adopt this approach in all specialty publications.
• Reinvent the editorial content of the newspaper based on the ability to use modules that can be placed in any position. Stop using “wire” to fill holes. Make every content decision intentional, with the reader in mind. Ask not whether something would fit. Ask whether anybody would want to read it.

Next: Flip the model on its head.
Previous: Make the local newspaper a transactional site.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Links from readers in response to series on what local newspapers should do

A number of readers have sent me worthwhile links in response to my series on 10 steps local newspapers should take to survive and thrive in the face of the economic meltdown and societal shift to the Internet. I'm sharing a few of those today. The series will resume with part 6 on Sunday night.

Among the links I think are worth checking out:

Interesting research on how users view the Internet vs. other media.

More on the same topic.

From a site called TED, Ideas Worth Spreading: "While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics." From John Moore, managing editor of the Ventura County Star in California.

"In August, journalism and mass communication educators from across the globe will gather in Boston to share tips on how to survive and thrive in today’s evolving world at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication's convention. To kick off the convention, AEJMC asked them to imagine what the future of journalism and mass communication might look like." Here is where you can find links to the three winners presentations. From John Leach, a one-time colleague of mine on the advisory board of the University of Colorado School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a former web leader at the Arizona Republic.

This one from John Leach is even better.

And if you missed this lengthy article in May, it's definitely worth considering.

Given the topic of my series, this post on Buzz Machine by Jeff Jarvis presents a project on new business models worth following.

Here's a tech person who's waded into the newspaper world and has an interesting project. Chris Treadway, CEO of Notice Technologies, launched a self-serve local advertising product to help local businesses advertise easily/conveniently on the Web and social networks. The live demo is at youpons.net. The ads are in the form of 140 character text (or less) and they are geared to help local businesses find leads/customers from the Internet.

Finally, a company called Matchbin out of Utah may be flying under the radar of big media but it's offering an interesting web package to help weeklies and small dailies. I think their suite of products, which were presented to me after a chance encounter with one of the investors, is worth looking at. Two main reasons: It's built on the model where local papers don't have to invent the features and functionality they need and they're branching out from traditional newspaper advertising to business directories and mobile.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

What local newspapers should do #5

This is the fifth in a series of 10 posts on steps local newspapers should take to survive and thrive in the face of the economic meltdown and the societal shift to the Internet.

5. Make the local newspaper a transactional site. The newspaper needs to provide a way for local users to research products online and to buy them through the newspaper’s business directory/web site. This recommendation is obviously is related to recommendation #4. Instead of remaining a “classified ad taker,” the surviving newspaper company would focus on actually aligning itself with local businesses, many of which would probably never advertise in the newspaper. Just as newspapers can’t rely on classifieds, they also can’t survive off display advertising. Newspapers need new ways to bring in revenue. One such path would be to become a middleman for local commerce. Many local businesses are stumped by the web and new technology and newspapers could be the ones to provide them a bridge to connect with customers online and on portable devices. These companies would welcome somebody making their business more successful, especially if they knew that the price of doing so would not be a significant upfront cost but would instead be a percentage of the revenue. This is one place the newspaper’s brand could help. Doing this would reinforce a newspaper's emphasis on looking out for the people, whether in monitoring government or in helping them make intelligent decisions as consumers. Newspapers could be of service to their readers by providing access to inventories or sales by local outlets.

Here are some concrete steps:
• Adopt business directory software that allows local businesses to manage their own Web sites, take advantage of the newspapers’ expertise in search engine optimization and connect with smart phone users on the go who might be in their vicinity.
• Communicate to the community that one of the roles of the newspaper is to organize all the information they might want to know about the community, including where to buy things or to get services.
• Use the membership model with these businesses to make them promoters of the newspaper. Just as businesses like to tout their membership in a better business bureau, they should be exposed to the benefits of being able to tout their membership in newspapers’ encyclopedia of what’s available in their communities.

Next: Newspapers should revamp their approach to print advertising.
Previous: Make the classifieds a separate, standalone business.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Good question: Why didn't I do at the Rocky Mountain News what I now say local newspapers should do?

This from Jay Rosen on Twitter: "People have asked me so I'll ask you, @JTEMPLERMN: you're blogging about them now, but why didn't you DO these things as boss of the Rocky?"

A good question.

Here's my Twitter response:

"Think of what I'm writing as things I learned from running the Rocky. I did what I could."

I also heard something similar from Tom Davidson, who asked:
"RT @jayrosen_nyu: Asking @JTEMPLERMN: you're blogging about them now, but why didn't you DO these things when you were boss at the Rocky?"

Here's an edited version of my Twitter response to Mr. Davidson:

Good question. I did what I could. I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses. But Rocky was in a JOA. (JOA stands for joint operating agreement, a Justice Department sanctioned business deal that otherwise would violate anti-trust laws because it allows "competing" newspapers to combine their business operations to keep both editorial brands alive.) That's very unwieldy. In JOA, business and editorial separate. And web even more complicated. Advertising and editorial hosted by different companies. Think of what I'm writing as lessons from being in the trenches for many years, wishing I could have done things differently. (I would add here, that it's important to understand that as much authority as I had, and Scripps was great about giving me rope to do what I thought was right, there's nobody in such a complex organization who can control the whole thing. You can try to use your influence, but that's about as far as it goes on many matters.) I'm not pretending I have the answers. I am saying what I would try to do if I were in a situation where all forces could align.

The issue of all forces aligning is the key. That's not happening at many, perhaps most, local news organizations I know. It's what's potentially exciting about new people coming into ownership roles in the business or creating new local news organizations. Starting from scratch, as it were, perhaps they'll be able to make all forces align and help everyone, inside and outside the organization, understand what it's trying to do and why that's worthwhile for them.

I then asked Mr. Davidson: Does that make sense? I think we did a lot of things really well and smartly at the Rocky. But conversation needs to be bigger.

In part, that's what I'm trying to do now: Make the conversation bigger.

I'm trying to look ahead free from the responsibility of running an existing newspaper. I learned many lessons at the Rocky Mountain News. But I know I have much more to learn. (For example, how to do basic coding on my blog for google analytics and to replace the blogger icon with my own favicon. Only half kidding.)

We tried many things in Denver prior to the closing of the Rocky and the dissolution of the JOA. But for all involved it was a very unwieldy structure, with its own unique problems. In a JOA, the newsrooms are completely separate and independent from the business operation. That has its advantages. But it also makes it very difficult to build a team dedicated to the same cause or to build new businesses. The Web was even more complex than print. I don't want to make excuses. The Rocky, The Denver Post and the Denver Newspaper Agency tried many things. I tried many things on my own and learned a lot in the process. I'm grateful for the experience but also enjoying the perspective being a "free agent" gives me.

Finally, I felt I shouldn't just criticize the American Press Institute's white papers, but instead offer up some of my own thinking.

Hope this helps. Happy to discuss further.

Monday, June 15, 2009

What local newspapers should do #4

This is the fourth in a series of 10 posts on what local newspapers should do to survive and thrive in the face of the economic meltdown and the societal shift to the Internet.

4. Make the classifieds a separate, standalone business. Instead of trying to beat Craigslist from within a newspaper operation, free the people running classifieds to do what’s best for that business or hire new people to take the business in a different direction. (I owe this opinion to a seasoned newspaper advertising executive who encouraged me to consider this approach.) Give the new company the existing revenue stream and technological base and the authority to set their own course. If they want to buy pages in the newspaper for print ads, fine. If not, fine. Remove any contribution from classifieds from the newspaper’s budget. Don’t include any projections of a contribution from classifieds. What this will do is free the people running classifieds to stop thinking of them from a newspaper perspective and start thinking of them from a customer perspective. Their role going forward: Connect buyers and sellers. If a newspaper or some other print products work in specialty categories, fine. If not, that would also be fine. The managers would not need to use print unless it made sense. If they can’t make the business successful, it dies. This would also free the rest of the newspaper from waiting for the return of classified revenue in key categories. It will make it clear to everybody left at the newspaper that they have to find new sources of revenue, that they can’t live on the hope that what once worked will come back and save them.

Here are some concrete steps:
• Create a new company with the mission of connecting buyers and sellers. Do not burden the new management with the existing staff. Let them hire the team to achieve their goals.
• Reset the revenue budget of the newspaper to determine the expenses it can support under the new business structure.
• Establish a team to find new sources of revenue not tied to existing classified categories

Next: Make the local newspaper a transactional site.
Previous: Realign the internal operations of local newspaper companies to make marketing, advertising and editorial partners every step of the way.

What local newspapers should do #3

This is the third in a series of 10 posts on steps local newspapers should take to survive and thrive in the face of the economic meltdown and the societal shift to the Internet.

3. Realign the internal operations of local newspaper companies to make marketing, advertising and editorial partners every step of the way.
This will involve a zero-based approach to the structure and commitments of the company. Newspapers tell their advertisers how critical it is to get out their message on a regular basis. Yet newspaper companies appear to see marketing as the first place to cut. Marketing doesn’t mean traditional ad campaigns, although it could include some of that. It does mean an entire organization telling a consistent story about itself and living up to that story. Google says its mission is “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.” That’s pretty easy to understand. If a local newspaper had as clear a mission – “to be the central source of news and information on (x place) and make it easily accessible and useful” – it would enable the entire organization to tell a consistent story and evaluate every potential use of resources against the mission statement.

Here are some concrete steps:
• Locate advertising, marketing and editorial types in close physical proximity so they’re working together and talking every day.
• Make each main content focus of the organization its own channel, or sub brand, with a business manager attached to the content type. Establish separate tracking for audience, reach and revenue for each channel: sports, news, multimedia and business, for example. Share that information with the staff. Give the channel managers responsibility and authority to develop new products.
• Develop or hire expertise in social networking and viral marketing. Every advertiser needs to be exposed to new ways to reach customers and offer them benefits.
• Make mobile the focus of this new approach. This should be the fastest-growing part of any newspaper and as the new frontier it will be the place where there will be the fewest institutional obstacles to experimentation.

Next: Make the classifieds a separate, standalone business.
Previous: Establish a clear and credible public service mission.

What local newspapers should do #2

This is the second in a series of 10 posts on how to strengthen local newspapers in the face of the economic meltdown and the societal shift to the Web.

2. Establish a clear and credible public service mission.
Newspapers tout their watchdog role, but if you evaluate the percentage of their expenses dedicated to this function, the budgetary reality would undermine the claim in many, if not most, cases. If newspapers are going to follow a membership model, as I believe they should (see recommendation #1), there has to be a reason to join. Today the most common complaint is how thin many newspapers have become. Even if unfair, the belief that there’s “nothing to read” in many newspapers is widespread. The No. 1 reason to support a local newspaper should be because it’s an independent watchdog dedicated to holding government and other powerful institutions accountable and to enabling citizens to participate fully in our democracy. Ultimately, it’s not how much there is to read that matters. What matters is whether the newspaper makes a difference in the lives of its readers and its community.

If newspapers do this, the foundation of every one of its communications with the public can be this simple truth: that the newspaper, in tandem with concerned members of the community, is performing an essential function – as essential as water, power and roads. Without the newspaper, people must know, the community would be that much poorer. Today, in some cases, for perhaps understandable reasons, newspapers are not able to forcefully make that claim.

Here are some concrete steps:

• Strip down the newsroom and start over with this mission in mind. Reconstruct the entire news operation on all platforms to make sure the newsroom has this mission at its heart. This will be difficult. Many internally will ask, ‘Well, how can we stop doing this?’ Or, ‘How can we stop doing that?’ The answer is if newspapers don’t perform their central function well, nothing else will matter. If it’s not clear by now that things have to change, the battle may be lost anyway.
• Communicate to the public that this is the No. 1 priority of the newspaper and tell the community every time the newspaper helps keep politicians and others honest or makes government transparent.
• Invite the community to participate in this central endeavor. Newspapers shouldn’t just be looking for breaking news tips or comments from their readers. They should be asking for readers’ help on their most important work and offering others a platform to perform the same function. This includes sharing the best work of other news organizations on their own Web site, if anything just to reinforce the value of this work and to help measure the performance of the local paper.
• Newspapers should champion the public’s right to know, access to open records and the importance of public meetings in symposiums and other forums.

Previous: 1. Start with the customers: Readers and advertisers.
Next: 3. Realign the internal operations of local newspaper companies to make marketing, advertising and editorial partners every step of the way.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

What local newspapers should do to survive and thrive in these challenging times

OK, I was critical of the American Press Institute's tired ideas for the newspaper industry. But what do I propose? Well, here goes: 10 ways to strengthen local newspapers in the face of the economic meltdown and the societal shift to the Web.

Today I publish my first recommendation. I'll build my list over the next 10 days.

1. Start with the customers: Readers and advertisers. This might sound obvious. But too often newspapers still base their thinking and strategy on their own processes, traditions or needs. They have to stop thinking of readers as receivers or advertisers as sponsors, and instead treat them like participants in a common community.
• Readers should be able to customize/personalize how they use the services of their local paper. With everything newspapers offer, from the main newspaper and specialty print products to Web sites and smart phone services, the user should feel a sense of control.
• Readers should be able to contribute to the community conversation and a community’s understanding of itself in everything a newspaper does.
• Readers are looking for tools to improve their lives: financially, intellectually, emotionally, health-wise, etc. Newspapers should do everything they can to meet that need – to be a resource for a better life – and make sure their communities know that’s what they’re doing.
• Newspapers shouldn’t produce content the way they’ve always done it: basically, this could be boiled down to headline and text. Instead, they should ask what would provide the greatest benefit to readers in any medium and do that.
• Just as readers should be able to customize and personalize the services of a newspaper, so should advertisers. Newspapers need to be a resource to help businesses grow.
• Just as readers should be able to participate in the community conversation, so should advertisers. It’s newspapers’ job to help them do so. Banner ads don’t cut it.
• Just as readers need tools to improve their lives, so do advertisers need tools to improve their business. Newspapers should provide those tools and make sure that businesses know that newspapers are the place to turn to improve their competitive position in a local market.

Here are some concrete steps:
• Change the way subscriptions are sold. Switch to a membership model. (See step #2.) Enlist the community in the newspaper’s mission and offer a whole range of ways to be part of that mission, including never receiving a print product.
• Ask readers and non-readers alike what they want from a menu of options and then give it to them. This means newspapers should be asking for every e-mail address in a household and every cell phone and the capability of every cell phone, not just for the home delivery address. Each member of a household should be able to opt for a different suite of products/services and have a different relationship with the newspaper organization.
• Highlight readers' contributions on all platforms and celebrate their role by rewarding contributors with greater visibility, shout-outs and financial rewards.
• Offer advertisers ways to participate in social networking appropriate to their businesses.
• Provide advertisers with an easy-to-use suite of tools to allow them to play in the digital world.

Next: Establish a clear and credible public service mission.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

New book on 150-year history of Rocky Mountain News now available

"Heroes, Villains, Dames & Disasters," a commemorative history of the Rocky Mountain News, is hot off the presses. The book was originally written by longtime Rocky editor and reporter Mike Madigan as a series to celebrate the paper's 150th anniversary, which would have occurred on April 23. But the paper published its last edition on Feb. 27, so the entire series never ran in the paper. I can speak from experience in reporting that readers loved the series. Wherever I went in the city, people told me that they were following it every day.

You can find out more about the book and order a copy on Madigan's Web site.

This is a book that I'll be sharing with my children so that one day they'll be able to it share with theirs. As I told Madigan, "The Rocky couldn't have asked for a better-written or more beautiful eulogy."

Monday, June 8, 2009

Former Cox Newspapers President Jay Smith weighs in on future of newspapers and role of Associated Press

I received a very thoughtful personal e-mail today from Jay Smith, retired president of Cox Newspapers and former chairman of the Newspaper Association of America and board member of the Associated Press, regarding my critique of the American Press Institute's proposals to help save the industry.

I asked him whether I could share it publicly, and he graciously agreed. The following is his e-mail on my previous post - How depresssing 2 - and the non-personal part of my response to him. (He also copied Tom Curley, president and CEO of AP, on his e-mail to me.)

JAY SMITH'S E-MAIL

To:
Subject: Your piece on Romenekso today

John: Although I’ve been retired for a year, I still look in on Romenekso. I saw your piece today and thought it made great sense. As one who wrestled with the so-called business model, especially in the last two decades of my 37 years with Cox Newspapers, I look back with regret on missed opportunities. The first occurred in the mid-90’s when several companies explored the possibility of acquiring Prodigy. Divided over whether the focus should be on classifieds or news, the group bickered until the opportunity passed and was missed. The second occurred more recently, but still can be salvaged.

It involves the Associated Press on whose board I served for several years. Individually, newspapers do not have the technological firepower to compete in the Internet world. Those that have (Cox with its AutoTrader.com entity; Tribune/Gannett with CareerBuilder have put their stakes in the ground). Collectively and on their behalf, AP does have the capacity to help newspapers develop new online businesses that can generate revenue, whether from subscribers or advertisers. More important, AP has access to a nation of newspapers. While few newspapers can gin up content on their own for which users will pay, there is content that, when properly collected and edited, does have real value. For instance, how much might, say, the soft drink industry pay for a daily report of EVERY news item of interest printed in every US newspaper? Such real-time information can be critical to anyone whose living depends on decisions made by the Coca-Colas and Pepsi-Colas of the world.

While this is but one example, you can let your imagination run wild and develop hundreds, if not thousands, of others. In effect, the AP can vacuum up and create a multitude of individual, albeit small, news and information businesses that collectively could approach something of real value for AP and its members.

Sadly, I fear, the leaders of newspapers and newspaper companies have yet to place their faith in such a venture. Until and unless they do, our former colleagues will continue to thrash about in pursuit of the salvation they so desperately need. Jay Smith, former president of Cox Newspapers, Inc.

THE FOLLOWING IS MY RESPONSE

Jay,

Thank you for your thoughtful response to my blog.

I agree with you that individually newspapers don't have the technological firepower to compete in the Internet world. I feel it's now incumbent on me to share on my blog some of my own ideas for how local news organizations committed to the role of furthering our democracy by informing and engaging the public can survive and even thrive in this new era. I'll try to do so over the coming weeks.

I agree with you that AP is one of the organizations positioned to help newspapers create new online businesses. In my corporate role with Scripps, I tried to work with AP to do just that. But it's not easy, as you know, when most folks at a newspaper are just trying to get their daily work done and AP has a million balls in the air. I don't think I was successful.

It seems to me that newspapers, even within large companies like Scripps, are essentially one-of-a-kind businesses in a world where that no longer works, unless you have a really unique product. Local publishers need to be part of a larger national network using shared tools and approaches. I look at what's happening with the iphone and the way Apple opened the door for developers to create new apps and think that local news organizations need to find some similar way to be on a common platform that is open to outsiders, of course with some gatekeeping mechanism to make sure new services/tools make sense. I'm just not sure how we get there. I don't think the industry can get there if all it does is try to hold on to its legacy revenue streams and its legacy business. One thing that concerns me is that newspapers don't seem to be working with local businesses to help them find their own foothold on the Internet and at the same time possibly place themselves in the middle of transactions. This might enable them to find a new revenue stream they couldn't have tapped before. When I read that the new iphone is going to be able to tell where the user is and provide information down to the block level, I think about how newspapers could hep local businesses participate in this new world. Those businesses are also at a disadvantage because they don't have the technological wherewithal either to make the most of the potential of this new era.

As I think you know, my background is as a journalist. I was publisher of the Rocky, but it was an unusual situation because the president and CEO of the Denver Newspaper Agency had revenue responsiblity. I think we've entered a different stage in our business where the publisher can't just be a chief revenue officer. I don't see how local news organizations will be successful if the publisher doesn't feel as responsible for content and services as an individual owner might have in previous generations. I also don't see how the walls between editorial/marketing/
advertising can remain in place. I think local news organizations need a clear and common set of values. But then I think they need to operate more like the way I saw CNN act when it was in Denver for the Democratic National Convention. The marketing people sat in the same room as the journalists. As it seemed did the advertising people. We're all in this together, yet you wouldn't know it from the way we run our organizations.

Thanks again for writing.

Best,

J






Saturday, June 6, 2009

How depressing 2: Chicago meeting of newspaper business leaders should scare anyone who cares about the industry

It’s regularly and rightly said that most newspaper journalists were too slow to jump into the possibilities of the Internet. What’s less often said, but I believe even more true, is that the business side at most newspaper companies was even worse. If you want any proof of how bad things are on that front, just look at the recent Newspaper Association of America meeting in Chicago, where the American Press Institute and others presented suggestions to industry leaders for saving their businesses.

Imagine you’re a young business school graduate trying to decide where you want to start your career. (OK, I know there are no jobs, but imagine it anyway.) You attend a newspaper industry summit and hear one of the big ideas from an organization at the heart of this world is to compete with Craigslist. What do you think you would think? Talk about an industry looking in the rear view mirror. Isn’t that an idea that might have had legs, oh, maybe five years ago? How could it represent in the eyes of that young business school graduate any kind of exciting opportunity today? The advice boils down to, “Let’s win back our business from the guy who’s eating our lunch.” How is the newspaper industry going to attract any of the best and brightest into its ranks if its ideas are stale, at best?

What might even be more troubling about this proposal is how newspaper people seemed to denigrate the Craigslist brand, when all they need to do is talk to people – including in their own buildings – to find out that most of those who’ve used the site seem to genuinely value it. Why? Because it gets results and it’s free.

Veteran newspaper business analyst Rick Edmonds, writing on Poynter’s Web site, says that API’s white paper on taking on Craigslist quoted one publisher as describing the free site as “a flea market on the bad side of town.” What does that make newspaper classified sites if they’re trying to take back their old business from Craigslist?

It almost seems like newspaper business folks don’t know what business they’re in anymore. But one thing is clear: the industry is on the defensive. The “ideas” to make money from content that API presented at this meeting seemed more about getting paid for their existing assets than serving readers and communities in ways that would build a future business. Clearly, many in the industry already think their news reports have more value than they’re being compensated for. That’s why they keep talking about pay for content, which was the thrust of API’s other white paper. But the big question is whether most newspapers are producing content people would pay for. My answer, with some exceptions, is no.

The first recommendation of the API white paper on paid content is, you guessed it, to “adopt a paid content model.” The way the first model for getting paid is described reflects the tone of the entire document: “Put a wall around unique news content, establish a marketplace for news, and let consumers pay for it a nugget at a time.”

I’m not arguing that there isn’t a place for paid content. Clearly there is. But the idea that most newspapers have “unique” content that people would pay for is questionable in the first place. As is the idea that the money a paper would receive for its online content would offset its decline in print revenue or make up an adequate stream to pay for the continuing business. Newspapers in many communities (especially mid-size and large) are no longer in a monopoly position where they can “establish a marketplace” for what they offer. The marketplace already exists. It’s out of newspaper publishers’ control. And there are plenty of others – TV stations, radio stations, football teams, specialty web sites, retailers, and, yes, even bloggers – happy to provide much of the “news” that some newspaper folks still seem to think is their exclusive franchise.

The white paper goes on to tout the “successful” subscription Web sites at papers like the Albuquerque Journal as examples other newspapers might follow. Now, because of my former role with the E.W. Scripps Co., I happen to know something about the “successful” Web site of the Albuquerque Journal. By what definition is it successful? You don’t find Scripps emulating the Albuquerque model at its own papers even though it’s fully aware of the economic results of that approach in New Mexico. Why not? Smart people committed to building new revenue streams are running Scripps.

API’s second recommendation is to “capture revenue from rights.” OK, that may be a problem worth addressing. But the white paper says the total dollar amount the industry is losing is $250 million. That’s 10 percent of the decline in advertising sales in the first quarter of 2009. So even if it recovered every penny it was losing, which is unlikely, it would barely make a dent in the economic condition of the industry. Is this really a big idea?

The third recommendation is to “seek fair compensation” for their content from aggregators who are already paying them. Wait a second; this is at a meeting of the same people who’ve been responsible for getting compensated up till now. And this recommendation is coming from an industry group whose board is larded with senior executives from what looks like every company of any significance. Put yourself in the position of shareholders who learn that the executives running the company they invested in haven’t been getting “fair compensation” for their product. You’d think they might ask why they were paying these people big salaries to run their company when they weren’t getting “fair” compensation for its owners. This would be like a recommendation in a report on how to improve journalism saying reporters should tell the truth. What, you mean they haven’t been up till now? That’s pretty disappointing.

No. 4 is typical pabulum: “Invest in innovation.” That sounds good, but if you look at what most newspaper companies are doing it comes down to one word: Cutting. They’re not investing. How should they do this under current conditions?

No. 5 is even better: “Refocus on readers and users.” Again, put yourself in the shoes of the shareholders, for whom the people on the board behind the API study are generally supposed to be working. You mean, they might ask, you haven’t been focused on making money from readers and users? What’s wrong with you? Why were you leaving money on the table?

Then the white paper tells the industry leaders the three steps they’re going to need to take if they’re going to become consumer-centric.

“ Become part of the social web. Newspaper executives should take it as a personal and professional challenge to participate in social media: Share photos and video online. Follow industry experts on Twitter. Create a Facebook or LinkedIn profile. This is extremely valuable market research. Learn all you can.”

Of course leaders should always be learning. That’s a given. But are they serious? Isn’t this a little late? If newspaper industry leaders aren’t doing this already, do they really belong in their positions? Why should shareholders pay executives to learn all they can when they should be able to find ones who already know what they’re doing? If people need advice like this, should they be running newspaper companies?

The next step: “ Encourage journalists to develop expertise. Create deep content with special value for communities of interest. Launch specialty sites that revolve around content and community building.”

How do you encourage journalists to develop expertise at the same time as you’re dramatically reducing the size of editorial staffs, making it necessary for most journalists to cover more topic areas? Don’t get me wrong. I’m a believer in the value of expertise and in the value of specialty sites and publications. But there seems to be a yawning gap between this recommendation and the world most newspaper people are living in. How should newspapers that are in the red or dangerously close to that point achieve this objective?

Finally: “Create a marketing services function. Focus on helping your business customers to use the Internet more effectively to meet their goals.”

This, to me, might be the most important recommendation in the entire paper. If newspaper customers are more successful as a result of newspapers’ help, newspaper companies should be more successful. But how does a company do this when it’s strapped, doesn’t have the expertise in house, and few people with this kind of knowledge want to join it because who wants to become part of an industry widely perceived as dying? If you could work for Google helping businesses use the Internet more effectively or for the San Francisco Chronicle, losing $10s of millions a year, which would you choose? Which company is going to get the better talent? I think the answer is obvious.

Finally, the white paper gives some guidelines for “moving forward” on the economic action plan.

Here’s #7. “Infuse the workforce with people who are technologically savvy and audience attentive.

Am I the only one who senses a disconnect here? Very few newspapers are hiring. And if they were, why would people who are technologically savvy and audience attentive choose to join companies that for the most part aren’t? Those people want to join businesses that have a story to tell, businesses that can paint a picture of a brighter future. What is it in the offerings from API that would make people want to join a newspaper company? (We’re going to beat up on Craigslist?) The first mantra of the newspaper business, according to API, seems to be, “By god, the users will pay, because we say what we have to offer is valuable.” The second seems to be, “If anybody messes with our stuff, we’ll force them to pay.” And the third might be: “Businesses that are paying us should pay us more.”

As someone who still loves newspapers and the possibilities of thriving local news organizations, I find the thinking of this industry group depressing. What does it say that these API white papers may represent the best ideas of the industry’s business leaders?

Friday, June 5, 2009

How depressing 1: Vancouver Sun drops Roy Peterson

Roy Peterson and the Vancouver Sun's other great cartoonist, Norris, were among the people who made me care about newspapers. That's why I was shocked to read that Peterson wouldn't be in the Sun's pages anymore, after nearly 50 years contributing to the paper.

But what was perhaps most depressing about the whole thing was how the editors handled what happened. News organizations constantly harp about the need for transparency when writing about the institutions they cover. Yet when it came to the end of a storied career at their paper, the editors buried the lede and didn't even bother to comment about why his work would no longer grace their pages. Doug Todd, a good journalist based on my casual encounters with the paper in recent years, wrote a nice tribute to Peterson. But he spent more than 200 words before he got to the paragraph that in a back-door way announced the end of his days at the paper. And there wasn't a single quote from someone in authority at the paper about the enormous contribution Peterson had made. Editors owe it to their communities to share their thinking, and when a giant of their organization like Peterson leaves, they owe it to the person and the community to recognize his signficant contribution.

How depressing that this happened in this way. I'd love to see the Peterson cartoon about how his own paper treated him.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Why newspaper "home runs" matter

Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter is on to something when he urges newspapers to get on to a big story and swing for the fences if they want to survive. He uses the example of the expose by The Daily Telegraph in London of spending by members of parliament. Carter is right, to a point. Newspapers have to make people feel they need to pay attention to them by doing work that matters. Here's how he puts it: "So here’s an idea: get on a big story with widespread public appeal, devote your best resources to it, say a quiet prayer, and swing for the fences." But there's another aspect to newspapering, and that's habit. Many people make a newspaper part of their daily routine because of everything from the crosswords to the comics. It's hard to keep up a home run streak. But if you're never hitting them, then the public in any community comes to take for granted its newspaper and doesn't see the value in following it. Major efforts like the ones he describes are the brand builders, the rallying cry both for the staff and for the community. Without them, it's hard to imagine newspapers having a future and it's hard to imagine newspapers credibly arguing that they're essential because of their watchdog role. But without a whole other array of content, the furniture that makes readers want to come back every day, newspapers won't be successful either.