New Media Reflections

According to an article I read on paidContent, Craigslist has been devastating the revenue for newspapers in regards to classified advertising. This is no surprise. If I am looking for an apartment or a job, do I want to go out and buy a newspaper with local-only listings, or do i want to go to Craigslist online and in the comfort of my home, or at my desk at work, sift through a large variety of classified ads which can be targeted to my area, or opened to a larger possibility of sources. I can access the online version anytime, anywhere. If I forget my newspaper at home, I’m out of luck. Of course, until we all have WiFi, my laptop may be useless on the road, whereas I could have my newspaper listings with me at any time. I hardly consider that important enough.

I think that the newspapers, or newsmedia, since they need to move to the online world, need to reconsider what news is. I realize they have been able to gain revenue in the past by having a classified ads section in their newspapers. But times have changed, the model doesn’t work any longer. Unless they become online powerhouses and can go up against the organization and utility of Craigslist, they should consider just dropping classified ads. What do newspapers provide for us? Personally, I expect to find news; stories of events local, national and world. I don’t consider classified ads to be news. Maybe they need to get back to their core business and concentrate on hiring good reporters who will present compelling stories that we want to read. All of the news I need can be found on TV or the internet, but it still comes down to readability for newsmedia. If one source has better writers than the other, I will gravitate to reading their version of the news. Most sources have the same information, and, just as in sales, we “buy” from who we like.

I think anytime you ask for comments on what you are offering, something useful is likely to be gleaned from it. I suggest that all of the newspapers start some sort of dialog with their users and with those who don’t use them, to try to develop a strategy and a vision of what news presentation of the future should look like. Those that don’t won’t be in business in the next couple of years.

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If you have been following my blog, you’ll know that I have been writing a lot about the decline of the newspaper in our country. What was once a mainstay of American culture is failing and disappearing fast. Unfortunately, it’s not that there is something really taking over; it’s a transition without a new model to transition to.

The newspapers have gone to online content, which for the most part, was a mirror of what went out in print.That seems to be working at some level, but not the revenue stream. They can’t sell advertising like they used to in print production. That doesn’t mean they can’t sell advertising, they just haven’t figured out how to profit from it.

I think part of the problem is that they are thinking printed newspaper online. That is a mistake. It reminds me of how things change when a movie is produced that is based on a popular novel. People will complain that it deviates from the book. Well, of course it does. One is an item you hold in your hand and read quietly, the other is a public production with sound and visuals. You also have characters that have been interpreted by someone other than your own imagination. I think newspapers that go online need to think in the same direction.

There has been some suggestion that micropayments may be the way to monetize online content. Personally I find that irritating. There are two online headline versions of print magazines that I read regularly. I always hate it when I find an article I find fascinating but then get a message that I have to be a subscriber to the magazine to read the rest of the article. If they offered that I can finish the article for five cents, I may consider it, but would still find it obnoxious. You could have a system where you deposit a certain amount in an account with the publisher, then draw on it as you read articles. That would be more palatable to me.

What I would really like to see the newsmedia do is translate what they do now to online. That is: offer online subscriptions. Just as people have been accustomed to paying to have a newspaper delivered daily or weekly, we could pay for the online version say, monthly. That would give me access to all of the content without interruption to verify a micropayment for an article I want to read.

If the newspapers feel a need to transition, I would suggest they go with the online model, but still produce a weekly printed “magazine” section that is mailed to people’s homes. Truthfully, I’m so busy now, even on my non-work days, that if I have a Sunday paper, I tend to pretty much just read those magazine sections and toss the paper. By mailing it they would save the cost of distribution. I have to believe that postage would cost a lot less than all the handling and distribution that occurs with current newspaper delivery.

To further revolutionize news dissemination, I think the online versions of newspapers need to think of their product more as a website rather than an online version of their newspaper. It would have to be interactive and multimedia to hold the interest of modern viewers.

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