Newspapers Add Value with "Unexpected Relevance"

When we get to the newspaper unit in LBCC's Media and Society class, one aspect of newspapers we agree that we like is how you happen upon stories, photos and other items that catch your interest as you turn the pages. You learn about things that you weren't necessarily looking for. You become engaged with something you didn't expect.

In a new blog post, new media expert Jeff Jarvis discusses this phenomenon: "Serendipity is not randomness. It is unexpected relevance."

He goes on to explain:

There’s a reason we find value in the supposedly serendipitous. ... When we read a paper and find a good story that we couldn’t have predicted we’d have liked, we think that is serendipity. But there’s some reason we like it, that we find it relevant to us.

Maybe that relevance is the unknown but now fed curiosity, maybe it’s enjoyment of good writing or a certain kind of tale, maybe the gift of some interesting fact we want to share and gain social equity for, maybe it’s a challenge to our ideas, maybe an answer to a question that has bugged us. In the end, it has value to us; it’s relevant.

To me, this discovery of something new waiting within the pages is one of the top reasons I keep buying and reading newspapers, and why we will always need editors and others to bring these gems to our attention.

As Jarvis notes, this wondrous sense of serendipity is one of the things that many media observers believe will be lost with the decline of newspapers. I agree when he suggests a somewhat similar sensation occurs through the use of Facebook and Twitter, where we're constantly discovering something new.

But it just doesn't feel the same as that comfortable encounter with the inky printed medium.

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(Photo credit: "Surprise from above" by zetson, courtesy of Flickr.com/Creative Commons)

Ted Rall Cartoon: How (Not) to Save Newspapers

Ted Rall spotlights the strategy that too many newspapers continue to cling to...

... and another story tip from Reportr.net: Paywalls not the answer for newspaper online revenue...

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On Newspapers: Looking Back and Ahead

In his final column for Editor & Publisher, Steve Outing takes a trip into newspapers' recent past and offers some predictions for the industry's future. As he notes, hindsight is always 20/20. Nevertheless, it's interesting to explore what newspapers might have done to head off the calamity they face today and the future that some still may achieve.

As much as I have loved newspapers, since the Web came along in late 1993, it hasn't been the paper, per se, that I loved -- but rather the type of journalism that newspaper companies were able to produce. While far from perfect, newspapers were able to afford the big editorial staffs, which other media forms could not, to cover their communities well and (often) uncover mistakes, corruption and wrongdoing by government and business.

Unfortunately, he notes, newspaper executives failed to see the transition to digital technology and early on could have explored Internet businesses to complement their news-gathering operations, including developing mobile and other platforms for delivering news content. Lord knows they had the money to spend, and spend they did -- on other "old" media properties instead of looking ahead.

"Ahh, that sounds so simple," he concludes. "If only someone had created a time machine in the mid-1990s, then comic-strip artists and late-night comics wouldn't be making fun of newspapers as today's buggy-whip makers."

Outing sees a variety of scenarios for the future of newspapers, ranging from small independently owned operations that can succeed in print (for a little while) to larger operations collaborating with independent journalists, bloggers and news aggregators.

Newspaper companies that do survive and prosper do so by devoting significant resources (at executive and technical levels) to mobile as the next platform of opportunity. They don't repeat the mistakes of a decade earlier made with the Web, but instead raise mobile to a top priority. ... Newspapers that do well adapt quickly to the instant nature of crowd-sourced news (e.g., aggregating and filtering eyewitness reports from Twitter), rather than fight it.

The newspapers that will succeed are those that go on the offensive, innovating and experimenting with new platforms and news-gathering models.

It's an interesting read.

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Photo credit: "Jumbo Multi-wheat Krispies + New York Times on the Kindle" by inju, courtesy of Flickr.com/Creative Commons

Bankrupt Newspapers Get Golden Opportunity

New media guy Jeff Jarvis puts forth an interesting proposition: Bankrupt newspaper companies should use their bleak financial condition as an opportunity to take a bold step into the future. Ditch the presses and all the rest of their "old media" overhead and become entrepreneurial, going all-in online and better serving readers:

Bankruptcy enables a newspaper company to shed its past. It can get out of contracts and leases for paper, printing plants, delivery, trucks. ... It offers a one-time chance to rethink, reinvent, and rebuild the company for the future. Is it better to stretch out the pain and never get anywhere? And if tough decisions and actions are not made, the likelihood that the company will die and all will be lost only increases.

It's like they say about insanity: Why should bankrupt newspapers reorganize a broken media business model and expect different results?

Part of their new strategy has to be a streamlined staff and a focus on "hyperlocal" journalism that gets down to the neighborhood level. They need to partner with readers, encouraging content contributions and collaboration.

Hyperlocal also means dropping national and international news that readers already get elsewhere. A good example of this local focus is The Daily Record in Dunn, N.C., which has been the subject of various stories touting its intense commitment to "getting names into the paper."

For more on this topic, see:

• Jarvis on "The Opportunity of Bankruptcy"
• Corvallis businessman Chris Nordyke on the "hyperlocal" newspaper
• Jarvis video on hyperlocal journalism
  
• The Daily Record in Dunn, N.C.

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Photo credit: "Slush Paper" by Pete ツ, courtesy of Flickr/Creative Commons

Dave Eggers: "Print Lives!"

Anybody who has taken Media & Society knows what a huge fan I've become of Dave Eggers - educator, entrepreneur, writer, buccaneer... Besides his writing, I most admire his enthusiasm for the written word and his gung-ho quest to engage young people with reading, writing and publishing.

Along those lines, here's an e-mail Eggers sent out via gawker.com and his faith in the future of print! In part, he writes:

Reports that no one reads anymore, especially young people, are greatly overstated and almost always factually lacking. I've written about youth readership elsewhere, but to reiterate: sales of young adult books are actually up. Total volume of all book sales is actually up. Kids get the same things out of books that they have before.

And about journalism, he had this to say:

We're convinced that the best way to ensure the future of journalism is to create a workable model where journalists are paid well for reporting here and abroad. And that starts with paying for the physical paper. And paying for the physical paper begins with creating a physical object that doesn't retreat, but instead luxuriates in the beauties of print. ... As long as newspapers offer less each day— less news, less great writing, less graphic innovation, fewer photos— then they're giving readers few reasons to pay for the paper itself.

Onward, Mr. Eggers!

(If you haven't seen the TED.com video above, you must! Called "Once Upon a School," it chronicles Eggers' quest to encourage communities to involve children in reading and writing -- and even buccaneering!)

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Jarvis to Newspapers: You Blew It!

New media advocate and journalism professor Jeff Jarvis has three words for the newspaper industry: You blew it.

In one of the better rants laying out the ineptitude of the industry to adapt in the new millennium, Jarvis comments on the state of newspapers in this BuzzMachine missive in connection with the Newspaper Association of America meeting in San Diego last week:

You’ve had 20 years since the start of the web, 15 years since the creation of the commercial browser and craigslist, a decade since the birth of blogs and Google to understand the changes in the media economy and the new behaviors of the next generation of - as you call them, Mr. Murdoch - net natives. You’ve had all that time to reinvent your products, services, and organizations for this new world, to take advantage of new opportunities and efficiencies, to retrain not only your staff but your readers and advertisers, to use the power of your megaphones while you still had it to build what would come next. But you didn’t.

You blew it.

Jarvis, author of the book "What Would Google Do?" and a professor at City University of New York, chronicles all the opportunities missed by the newspaper industry, which was too busy protecting its own turf, ignoring customers and resisting change while Google and others recognized the digital revolution and ate their lunch.

Jarvis has little sympathy for newspaper publishers who have only themselves to blame for their industry's demise. He concludes:

So now, for many of you, there isn’t time. It’s simply too late. The best thing some of you can do is get out of the way and make room for the next generation of net natives who understand this new economy and society and care about news and will reinvent it, building what comes after you from the ground up. There’s huge opportunity there, for them.

Take that!

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(Photo credit: "Jeff Jarvis" by eirikso, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Seattle Times Publisher Speaks at OSU

Frank Blethen, publisher of the Seattle Times, will deliver the annual Tom McCall Lecture Thursday, April 2, in OSU's LaSells Stewart Center, Southwest 26th Street and Western Boulevard in Corvallis. The talk begins at 7:30 p.m.

The topic of his talk is "Reclaiming America's Independent Press and Saving Democracy." With the newspaper industry reeling, it should be interesting to get Blethen's perspective on newspapers and the media in the new millennium.

(Photo credit: Lillian Love, LBCC)

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Odes to the P-I, Rocky Mountain News

I don't really have much to say about these videos. One chronicles the end of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in print, though it continues online.

The other focuses on Denver's Rocky Mountain News, which remains online in a state of suspended animation. (Former staffers of the Rocky Mountain News have just launched a new online news site called INDenverTimes.com.)

Sadly, these videos speak for themselves. They are "must-see" if you are a fan of newspapers. Unfortunately, I fear they are not the last of their kind.

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Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

Jeff Jarvis: The Great Restructuring

It's a sobering glimpse of reality and what may be in our future, but it's also a compelling new post on Jeff Jarvis' Buzz Machine.

As the author of "What Would Google Do?" points out:

I try to argue in my book that what we’re living through is instead a great restructuring of the economy and society, starting with a fundamental change in our relationships - how we are linked and intertwined and how we act, nothing less than that. ... Yes, entire swaths and even sectors of the economy will disappear or will change so much they might as well disappear.

Jarvis isn't very optimistic about industries that once produced what seemed like limitless quantities of cars, newspapers, advertising, business travel...

Some pretty bleak stuff. But that doesn't mean Jarvis isn't optimistic about the future. He sees big-time opportunities for entrepreneurs, new services and education. I've got his book on my list of things to do over spring break.

Along the same line, check out Eric Ulken's column: "Newspapers' Supply-and-demand Problem (Why You Should Quit Doing What Everyone Else Is)" on the Knight Digital Media Center.

(Note: YouTube video is Jarvis speaking at a conference earlier this year.)

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The State of Journalism: 6:26 p.m. Jan. 24, 2009

One of my students posed these questions on the "state of journalism" for another one of his classes at LBCC:

1. What do you think is the biggest challenge facing journalism today?

The biggest challenge facing today’s journalists remains the same as ever: Gathering, analyzing, organizing and disseminating information for the benefit of readers and citizens in a democracy. Just like other industries, the media goes through periods of upheaval, change and innovation. We’re seeing that now, especially in the economic struggle of newspapers. From a consumer point of view, however, information has never been so plentiful. The challenge for those in the media is adapting to the technological and economic realities of the new millennium and satisfying the unprecedented demand for information.

2. How has the economy put pressure on journalism to adapt?

The media benefited from an immensely profitable economic model throughout the 20th century. Nothing in this world is guaranteed, however. And while they were enjoying healthy profits, the media – newspapers in particular – weren’t innovating aggressively enough or investing in serving the next generation of news consumers. For the past decade TV has been quicker to adopt new technology and adapt to the demands of its customers, whether incorporating the latest in video technology or expanding online.

3. What can students entering journalism do to avoid extinction?

As in any profession, journalists – whether veteran reporters or those just starting out – must stay current in their skills and knowledge. Those now in college not only must become well acquainted in the tasks and traditions of journalism, but they also must master rapidly evolving technology. It used to be that new journalists could find work if they excelled in writing, editing or photography. These days they have to be able to excel at all these tasks in addition to all aspects of online journalism, from writing and maintaining a blog to shooting, editing and posting video reports.

4. What are the benefits of journalists being forced to learn multitasking?

Journalists capable of mastering all the tools available for gathering and disseminating information always have been in highest demand. That hasn’t changed. Just as the most successful newspaper reporters learned how to incorporate the skills of radio and television journalists, today’s young reporters need to be knowledgeable about all these mediums as well as online. Those who can maintain the utmost versatility will continue to capitalize on all the opportunities the media has to offer.

5. What's the best advice you ever received as a journalist?

Practice, practice, practice. In the broadest sense, this means get out of the office, ask questions, get answers, and share what you learn. Journalism isn’t that difficult. As with anything else, the more you practice the better you become. The more stories you write, the more interviews you conduct, and the more photos you take, the better journalist you will be.

Note: To paraphrase Charles Dickens: “These are the best of times, these are the worst of times…” While some aspects of the media are struggling to redefine themselves and their economic reality, I believe it’s never been more exciting to be a journalist, especially a young, college-age journalist. The opportunities for applying the research, analysis, writing and presentation skills of a journalist have never been in greater demand.

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(Photo credit: "Reuter's (sic) Got Mojo" by inju, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Newspapers 2.0: Reinventing the Media

Newspapers, it would seem, are rapidly coming to the end of their press run. It's shocking to many just how fast the bottom has fallen out of the industry. (Penny stocks, anyone?)

As they struggle to continue their print editions, newspapers are joining in the scramble for the elusive online business model that will keep them the premier information providers in many markets.

In today's edition of MediaShift, Mark Glaser surveys the alternative business models that newspapers are trying in order to survive into the next decade.

Obviously, newspapers spent way too much time counting their profits and not protecting their information franchises over the past decade. Now faced with reality, most still don't get it. It's not just about making the transition from print to online, but evolving to become the go-to source of information and related services in their markets.

Which brings me back to Charlie Beckett's notion of "supermedia," where journalists and consumers collaborate through a variety of evolving media, including Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, and whatever comes next in the social networking revolution. I don't think it's enough for newspapers to evolve into and create local "portals," which just look like another place to hit readers with ads.

Media entities -- for-profit and non-profit alike -- have to find new ways to add value for some next-generation audience of media consumers. A daunting challenge, indeed.

Other industries have had to reinvent themselves, and not everybody has survived. Why should newspapers be any different?

Note: This just in ... study shows just how cautious newspapers are toward new media. See Reportr.net.

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(Photo credit: "The Newspaper on the Press" by Vin Crosbie, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Crowdfunding: The Next Era of Journalism?

How much would you pay to hire a journalist to report and write a news story that matters to you and your neighbors? Several groups are now experimenting with "community-funded journalism," which relies upon online donations to enlist the skills of a journalist.

Several interesting write-ups on the concept can be explored, starting with a post by Mark Glaser on MediaShift, who begins:

Bands do it. Filmmakers do it. President-elect Barack Obama made an artform out of it. "It" is crowdfunding, getting micro-donations through the Internet to help fund a venture. The question is whether crowdfunding can work on a larger scale to help fund traditional journalism...

He puts the spotlight on two efforts, one in San Francisco called Spot.us and the other in Northfield, Minn., called Representative Journalism, which is funding one reporter to cover the town of 17,000 residents.

Spot.us was the subject of a New York Times article in August. Crowdfunding may not be the answer to newspapers' revenue ills, the article notes. Then again, nothing else seems to be stemming the tide of newspaper cutbacks and layoffs.

As New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen notes in that story:

“The business model is broken. We’re at a point now where nobody actually knows where the money is going to come from for editorial goods in the future. My own feeling is that we need to try lots of things. Most of them won’t work. You’ll have a lot of failure. But we need to launch a lot of boats.”

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(Photo credit: "Reporter" by alex-s, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Eugene Weekly: Newspapers Don't Get It!

On the heels of a New York Times article stressing the imperative of newspapers and the rest of the media to change or perish comes a good shout-out by Eugene Weekly in its weekly Slant column. It began by noting the recent SPJ conference, "Building a Better Journalist," and continued:

"Excellent presenters from around the Northwest focused on how news organizations can reinvent themselves. Lots of talk about Web sites, blogs, YouTube, Twitter and new 'economic models' for success, but little discussion about how journalism itself is to blame for the financial woes of traditional media. Give the public lively, compelling, relevant content and they will stick with you. Give people superficial, predictable stories and recycled press releases and they will flock to something more stimulating, such as Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher , or conservative talk radio. National content in print form is yesterday’s news, so political junkies turn to interactive political Web sites."

As I shared this take with students in my Media & Society class at LBCC nods of agreement spread around the room. After all, they don't read newspapers, but they are media consumers and big on the Internet.

Eugene Weekly concluded: "Newspapers need to rise to the challenge with better content, rather than dumb down and pander to their shrinking advertiser base."

For more on this topic, see my blog, "Journalism: A Return to Its Partisan Roots?" from earlier this week.

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p.s. Fans of U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio and his no-nonsense approach in Congress will find much to like in his Q&A with Eugene Weekly.

(Photo credit: "Reading Over His Shoulder" by Point-Shoot-Edit, courtesy of Frickr.com)

Newseum Shares Front Pages to Remember

Thanks to my LBCC English Department colleague Greg Rathert for reminding me of a great resource not just for newspaper junkies. Every day the Newseum displays newspaper front pages from around the nation and around the world.

They are always particularly striking on "big" news days, such as elections and other events. It's fascinating to see how other parts of the country perceive the news, and how the media shares that news with its readers.

And if you've never been the the Newseum, be sure to include it among your stops the next time you venture to Washington, D.C. It's well worth the trip.