First of all, we have a calendar. It’s sortable, database driven and totally user-submitted. It includes more listings than any other calendar in our market.

As far as this article is concerned on video, you’ve got to be kidding me. I’m more than a little frustrated that Roblimo has chosen to single out a local TV Web site for posting TV news clips. It’s like criticizing newspapers for posting newspaper stories. There’s a certain level of basic stuff everyone’s expected to do. We’re doing that at HeraldTribune.com.

And we’re working toward getting our photographers to record individual video clips that are separate from what the TV station produces. But give me a break already! We’re a mid-sized site with a handful of people and we’re going as quickly as we can.

Roblimo complains about our ads without accurately explaining how they work. Our pre-roll ads are just five seconds, which is about 25 seconds shorter than most sites. Our post roll ads are 30 seconds, which is the industry standard. It’s true, there are only a few advertisers so far, but it’s a new product.

What Roblimo doesn’t tell you about is his stalker-ish behavior outside this article. He’s gone as far as to call and e-mail our advertisers with wild threats about the quality of our video ads. He’s literally trying to scare our advertisers into abandoning our site. That’s not helpful to anyone.

I’ve tried to have rational conversations with him about what improvements our site is working on. I don’t know why Roblimo has such a chip on his shoulder. But I’m clearly starting to get annoyed.

http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story3441.shtml

I just stumbled upon this information and I figured I’d better pass it along while the issue was still fresh in my mind. To use “marketing-speak,” a new study concludes that there is significant crossover in newspaper readership and usage of newspaper websites. To speak like a normal human, these guys found that users of newspaper websites also make heavy use of the printed newspaper. The website doesn’t draw people away from the print newspaper, it draws them INTO IT.

The study was sponsored by the Newspaper National Network LP. To figure out who they are, go HERE:

http://www.nnnlp.com/index.shtml

To get a summary of the study, download a copy of the press release HERE:

http://www.nnnlp.com/PDFsForDownload/NNNPrint_061817.pdf

And to download and read the whole, ever lovin’ thing, go HERE:

http://www.nnnlp.com/PDFsForDownload/Study_NNN_Footprint_6-18-07.pdf

Just to give you a taste:

* The study found that “crossover” users (who used both print and online newspapers in the past 7 days) are by far the largest segment (of readers). 81% of newspaper website users also read the printed newspaper in the last 7 days. Crossover users have a deep affinity with both their printed newspaper and their newspaper website.

* Crossover users visit their newspaper website to access breaking news (96%), find articles seen previously (85%) and to find things to do/places to go (72%).

* “Newspaper websites should show sustained growth as we found that 83% of crossover users say their newspaper website will be among their primary destinations 5 years from now.”

And if you’re getting resistance from your publisher about bumping up the priority of the website, tell him or her I said to think about this point from the study:

* “While the web has brought a younger, female audience to the newspaper franchise, it has also enhanced the way the traditional readers access the brand.” Although I have spent most of my media career on the news side, I did put in a few years as a publisher. (You know what I mean.) And let me tell you, that “younger, female audience” is desperately important to advertisers in local newspapers.

Enjoy!

REG CROWDER
London, England and Brittany, France
http://www.MediaBistro.com/RegCrowder

But I can tell you that having community news stringers brought a lot of vitality to the local news pages. It is a highly “people skills” intensive process. But it brings with it huge benefits.

You should be aware that the NON-newspaper online media are making very profitable use of stringers. A few years ago I fled the pay-check-to-paycheck life of the salaried employe to be a freelance business writer based in Europe. I write mostly for online business media based in the US.

One of my best online media clients charges subscribers $1,595.00 for a minimum one-year subscription. For that, they get the privilege of going to the company’s website and downloading a new issue once a month.

Another client charges subscribers $1,195 for a minimum one-year subscription. For that, the subscribers get the privilege of downloading a new issue once every two weeks.

Both publications are highly profitable and the number of subscribers is growing steadily.

So, there is money to be made by paying attention to what the people want to buy.

REG CROWDER
London, England and Brittany, France
http://www.MediaBistro.com/RegCrowder

Most of the larger papers have staff photographers, so an upgrade to photographer/videographer would not be too difficult.

The calendar idea is the jewel idea.

Our local paper, The Gainesville (Fl) Sun has several interactive areas, including a video section, where users can submit videos; forums; ‘blogs; slide shows and a multimedia area.

The calendar is in the Sun, but difficult to find.

I think our advantage is the proximity to the University of Florida. The Sun has kept pace with technology while the newspapers in the outlying areas do not have the same level of interactive content as the Sun.

I see this as a transition time for traditional newspapers. Adoption of new technologies will take time, and in the end, the papers that move forward will survive. They would be well served by taking to heart Rob’s recommendations.

Bobby, MySQL is the dominant databased for Web-delivered content. As far as a PHP front end for a calendar, there are hundreds of them out there. It’s a matter of picking one you like and customizing it to fit your needs. I have a URL around that might help, but unfortunately I’m in Portland OR this week for OSCON and don’t have all my notes (or external hard drives) with me.

Very smart run-down. Should be required reading for all the newspapers now lurching into the Web business.

When viewing a news Web site, I like to use the number-of-subscription-solicitations-on-the-home page metric as a way to infer the leadership’s state of mind. The more they push paper subs, the less of a clue they have about what they’re getting into.