March 17, 2010
How to avoid what's happened to American newspapers: Part two
By Robert Niles
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Last week, in part one, I urged managers at news publications to become eager consumers of online communication technology - "Management should use and consume technology like a starving man at a free buffet." I wrote that people in the business of producing communication in new media first must learn as consumers of that media. Too few managers actually use the platforms that they are employing people to develop for, leaving them clueless about that technology and unable to provide leadership in those media.
This week, it's time for....
Step 2: Management should use its experience with communication technology to build a social network that drives reporting and revenue at its publication
Jeff Jarvis urged attendees at the Singapore event to "think like a network." With that, he meant that rather than look to do everything in-house, with paid staff, news organizations should begin to look for opportunities that a network of readers, customers and partners could provide.
At this point, most news managers should be well familiar with asking readers to help "crowdsource" news reports. This is the Web 2.0 version of the old "tip line," but with far more sophisticated data management. Instead of some intern working the phone, writing down tips from readers, those tips can be incorporated into an online database in real time, creating emerging narratives of data for reporters and other readers to construct. And if you don't want to get that sophisticated, crowdsourced tips at least can fill a reporter's in box with plenty of eyewitness reports, helping strengthen and enliven a story.
But if all you are using your network for is crowdsourced story tips, and the occasional database, you're missing the full power of what a reader network can do for your news publication. Networks provide not just editorial power to a news organization, they could provide economic power, as well.
I'm assuming that you've already followed my advice from part one, and that you're using Facebook, Twitter and other social networking tools to build initial relationships with people in the communities that your publication covers. Here are the next steps:
1. Get to know all the major bloggers covering your community.
If someone's publishing in your community, and drawing significant numbers of readers to his or her site, that person needs to be on your radar. (I'll leave to you to determine what is a "significant" number of readers in your community. Try this: Find the median number of pageviews today to the new news articles posted on your website. Anyone who gets more visitors than that on a daily basis is reaching a significant audience.)
Make a list, and keep it updated. Yes, some of these bloggers might not be folks that you'd want to have any association with. And some might be spewing absolute nonsense. But you should be aware of what's going out to the public in your community, and keeping your eyes open for potential allies and partners. (Or sources that need to be refuted.) To do that, you've got to build this list.
2. Know all major bloggers and independent web publishers covering your publication's signature beats.
Same logic, but applied to topical blogs and website in addition to geographic-focused ones. Sharp beat reporters should be reading these blogs and websites already. As a publisher or newsroom manager, you need to get lists of these websites from the reporters on your publication's top beats - the ones where you want to draw national and international readership to your website.
The Los Angeles Times has for years been identifying - and hiring - bloggers covering LA. sports and the movie industry. And I've been working with the Orlando Sentinel for years, swapping links and sharing tips on the theme park beat. Those types of relationships should become routine for every news publication.
3. Keep a list of all Twitters in your community with 1,000-plus followers.
4. Work with mathematicians at your local university to apply social networking models in finding the most influential Facebook users in your community.
Numbers 3 and 4 will help you identify the "influencers" in your local community who can amplify your messages to a broader audience that you can on your own. Newspapers and other news publishers are used to having the most prominent voices in their communities. But in a more competitive, and more distributed, communications marketplace, even the local newspaper needs help in reaching to all corners of a community.
Every newspaper I worked at employed someone (or a whole office) charged with keeping track of community demographics, to watch changes and developments within the community so that their sales and circulation teams could find the most likely new customers.
That's important work. But social networking provides news publishers an opportunity to focus its community analysis to a much finer resolution. Now, news publishers can, and must, identify specific individuals who can help the company expand its editorial and business influence within the community.
But what's in it for them, the cynics among you might ask?
Large news publishers aren't the only ones struggling in this economy. Everyone's looking for additional sources of income. Why not approach bloggers and publishers on your list, and offer to become their ad representative?
The Internet's greatest threat to newspapers lies in reducing the barrier to entry to the news marketplace, allowing thousands of new competitors to lure advertisers away from existing publishers, or at least to help reduce the price of ads in the market. But what if you were the one selling ads for those "competitors"?
Many news publishers have attacked Google because its search engine and news pages have become the new "gatekeepers" for millions of readers who might have turned instead first to newspapers for daily news and information. To me, this is a silly argument. The real damage Google's done to the publishing industry is to become the economy's largest ad sales company.
Why let Google sell ads for your local and signature beat bloggers? You've got a sales force. Why aren't they doing that work?
Let's let the network work both ways, too. Jeff Jarvis suggested at the Singapore gathering that local bloggers should be able to sell ads for their city's newspaper, as well. Neighborhood and micropublishers can reach small business advertisers that larger newspapers can't, in a cost-efficient manner. Why not structure ad packages for these smaller advertisers and let your partner bloggers sell them, in exchange for a cut?
News publishers must reimagine their publication as the nexus of a local online community, rather than allowing it to continue as self-contained entity, operating distinct from that community.
Many news critics, including Jarvis and including me, have urged publishers to report what they do best, and link to the rest. By getting better to know who's publishing in and for your community, publishers and their staff will be informed to do that. But it's also important that news publishers and managers not see social networking as only an editorial or promotional operation.
The social network provides a business opportunity, as well. So don't simply report what you do best, and link to the rest. Sell what you sell best, then invite your network to sell the rest.
In a competitive environment, you need friends and allies. By adopting the technology that enables social networks, and by building those networks within their communities, news organizations abroad - and in the United States - can better position themselves to avoid the failure that's crippling so many publications in the U.S. news industry today.
More about: management, revenue, social media
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Comments:
From 144.142.13.77 on March 17, 2010 at 11:56 AM
Why don't the people who claim the answers to save newspapers and save journalism never work in journalism? Give up the travel junkets, stop pontificating and do something. Just because you have worked at a newspaper doesn't make you an expert for the rest of your life. Try getting out to a newspaper and get your hands dirty. You might find it refreshing.I know being the traveling expert is a lot more fun and your nights and weekends are always free.
From Robert Niles on March 17, 2010 at 4:05 PM
Steve brings up a good point. Start with the large followings, then filter out ones that you feel are inflated with spam. (Looking for people with 1,000 more followers than people they follow might be a start.)As for Mr/s. Anonymous, I'm going to assume that s/he followed a link here and is not aware that, unlike, a great many people writing and talking about journalism entrepreneurship, I've been running my own news websites for years and they've been my primary source of income for the past two. I also spent 15 years working in newspapers before that.
From 63.237.196.66 on March 17, 2010 at 4:53 PM
Can you share the links to the news sites you currently run?From Robert Niles on March 17, 2010 at 8:04 PM
Sheesh, people. Google?(FWIW, I try not to use OJR articles to directly promote my personal sites, even though I do reference what I've learned from them somewhat frequently.)
From 65.13.104.20 on March 17, 2010 at 9:53 PM
Newspapers are very important, and need to readily adapt. Many are trying with online services, subscriptions and advertising. Reaching out to local bloggers, tweeters and others seems like a good idea, though depending on the size of the community, 1,000 followers may be nothing in a larger city. With respect to advertising, I'm not sure how that would work out - microblogging is about information updates in real time to people who are likely to "follow" something of interest. Circulation and advertising are down because people went from newspapers to tv's, then to the web on their computers and are now going mobile. Finding a meaningful way to advertise for a newspaper in a mobile world will become key. Oh, and they are late to the game and will be one of many competitors for advertisers dollars. I'm not sure how that will turn out. "Stop the presses!" has an all too real meaning today with respect to the number of papers closing.From Daniel Eugen on March 20, 2010 at 5:09 AM
As a consumer i must say that i don't buy newspapper from more than 5 years. The tv is my most important source of news and i prefer the online editions of the newspapers or the personal pages of the journalists. I agree that interactivity with the consumers is the key that's why alot of tv shows moderators read the blog of the show in the comercial breaks and select one or two comments they talk about right after the break. Also this journalists usualy also have personal blogs where all the comments are allowed, even insulting ones. So if it is Tweter, Facebook or a personal blog it's good cause a jounalist doesen't seem anymore just a guru way to high and unreachable for his audience.This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
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From Steve Saldivar on March 17, 2010 at 11:07 AM
Robert -Great post, as usual! Here's hoping the insight makes its way in the industry.
I'm skeptical about Step 3, however:
"3. Keep a list of all Twitters in your community with 1,000-plus followers."
There's so much spam follows that I think inflates too many of our accounts. How did you come up with this number? I'd rather see how many @replies the twitter user receives or go ahead and review their last 5 tweets to get an idea of the content they put out (and see how relevant and useful it actually is.) I'm not so sure I would base it on the number of followers they have. What do you think?