Reinventing The Newsroom
“Newspapers have a terrible future.” – Warren Buffett, Owner of The Buffalo News, 11/3/2009
Yes, yes they do. The finer point here is that journalism has an incredibly bright future.
The problem, as I see it, is that newspapers and the corporations that own them are risk-averse creatures. They are not looking to revolutionize what they do as there are too many people in their employ and too many investors to satisfy. Innovation rarely, if ever, comes from industry stalwarts. It emerges when a market opportunity presents itself to an entrepreneur who has the capital and ability to take risks.
As it stands, circulation numbers for The Buffalo News are down again, but they have added a new revenue stream to the corporation as they are now the local printer for The New York Times.
“The Times deal is another example of how we are diversifying our business,” News’ senior vice president of marketing, Dottie Gallagher-Cohen said.
Well, kind of, but not really. That’s like Chrysler saying they are diversifying their struggling automobile business by also making automobiles. Diversifying the business would be expanding into a new market vertical or innovating with a new product. However, this represents a key problem with the survival of newspapers. They aren’t willing to expand the business footprint in any way that would put their primary revenue stream at risk. I can’t blame them, I see the bottom line thinking which promotes that logic, I really do.
However, those in charge conflate the medium with the media. They are unable or unwilling to envision or plan for a future in which the news of the day is not printed on paper and taken to to the reader. What has happened in the last several years is that consumers have essentially said that the value they derive from the product at .75 per copy is not worth their daily investment. It’s a rebuke of the business model, not necessarily of the content. Well, it’s not a rebuke of the quality content, but it’s a rebuke of the extraneous content like stock price listings, classified ads, feature fluff found on other local outlets and AP Wire stories.
So, what is a newspaper like The Buffalo News to do? After all, they are the paper of record in a one newspaper town and have the luxury to experiment with new models unlike their debt-laden brethren in other cities.
Well, since no one asked and I’ve spent the better part of the last year writing about it, I’ll tell you exactly what they can do. Also, they better hurry up and try or some new media outlet might finally get access to the necessary capital and do it on their own…wink/wink, nudge/nudge
The Buffalo News should stop dithering about with pointless add-on, out of the box social networks like the KickApps fueled MyBuffalo.com and their vertical content network featuring cars and brides and other things that aren’t journalism. I mean, why not just sell funny hats as an additional revenue stream? It makes about as much sense as attaching these niche sites to your media outlet.
Spin off a hyperlocal, open source journalism site, let’s call it WNYNow.com for the sake of argument. Assign an editor, a multimedia editor, a web design staff, videographers, 5-7 writers and a couple of photographers who will only work on the site. Starting a separate business entity allows it to operate free from the arcane union rules and also allows for market based salaries and tighter cost controls. The content is only available online and aside from advertising or marketing in the print edition, these two entities will operate separately and independently.
For enterprise or investigative pieces, allow the writers to pitch stories not to the editors, but to the readership. They should report their story openly, asking for assistance and feedback from the readers as each story develops. Ultimately, the readers have an ownership stake in the story and turn into advocates for your content. They amplify your stories using social media and become ambassadors.
For day to day reporting, the editor and writers post an open calendar of events, meetings and press events that can be covered. Ask the readers to assign a priority level and assign your staff accordingly. They get to have a voice in the editorial assignments and are also engaged as they become part of the news process. Utilize relationships with existing alternative media outlets in town to aggregate their coverage/content and curate the good information into a larger, co-operative piece of multimedia journalism.
You’ll build a loyal community of readers and you will know who they are, what they like, where they live and what their interests are. You have a valuable community into which you are now able to sell access. That’s where you begin to monetize.
As the community around your online outlet grows and traffic increases, you begin to reduce the number of pages you print in the daily paper. As you continue the process, print reporters from the newspaper either retire, go elsewhere, or accept a non-union contract to work for the online outlet. Eventually, the output flips and you’re printing a newspaper just a couple times each week or even just once per week while your daily reporting functions have moved online. Profit margins will eventually grow online as the cost of provisioning the news decreases significantly since you no longer need to procure paper and ink. You can also generate revenue from your existing print assets as you can continue to run a specialty print shop for other clients.
In short, open up the process and build a community around your core product…journalism. After all, newspapers and journalism are two separate things and as newspapers die, the transition to online media is not an evolution, it’s a revolution. Plan accordingly.
I know I am.
11 Comments
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nah, it’s an evolution- a rapid one, perhaps, but I’d still call it an evolution. The business is still about gathering and then disseminating information; all what’s changing is how information is collected, sifted, and then redistributed.
However, I think what your analysis is missing is that when the readership drives the information gathering and selection process, we free the media from the constraints of providing only content from “within the sphere of acceptable discourse.” And that, my comrade, is the revolutionary part. When an information outlet can be fiscally sustainable by providing for the needs of the readership, not the leadership, our moribund democracy is somewhat revived.
As somebody who buys the advertising for his employer, what mediums you use for spreading your word is becoming an interesting side challenge in light of this evolving model and this slowly evolving marketplace. My boss is a an avid got to have the paper newspaper. She’s in her late 50s. I’m in my mid 40s, and use online all the time except for the Sundays, my staff both under 30 are entirely online. This is a long way from when people would read the Buffalo Evening News and get the Courier Express on sundays to read Phil Ranallo’s complaints about how bad the Bills are. There is plenty of room for voices and opinion in these changing times and diversity is a great thing. I’ll come to this site for harder news, and to Buffalo Rising for lifestyle type stuff. The borders are a little fuzzier, but the individual sites are incorporating journalism and it empowers the reader to select their sections from the web. Is every blog journalism? Hell, no, but there are plenty of journalists out there and the work will continue. The News needs some help but they are at least trying. As a communications student, it is a little jarring to see the Boston Globe and others teeter with extinction. The Buffalo News has been slow to warm up to the online world, but they are taking steps. Dottie is at least finding some ways to keep the press guys busy. In this economy, that has merit.
Small hole in the theory – you assume that when you present the public with the option of what they want to read, they will chose intelligent logical discourse. But the fluff is some of the most popular content currently. Soooooo, is it not possible to end up with the newspaper equivalent of E! True Hollywood Story, or, in dixie, the Palinified news of everyone that hates true America? You get frustrated that the Buffalo News currently decides what’s important – maybe they do that for a reason. Have you read some of the comments on this site . . .
@Ethan, the product (journalism) is unchanged but the entire business model supporting the product is radically different. The way one disseminates the information, sells acesss to the readership to advertisers and the means in which they engage the community are all huge sea changes for the industry. Applying the successful parts of the print model which are demising is a ticket to failure. A revolutionary approach to strategy, revenue generation and dissemination must be taken.
The readership drives the journalism that is reported day-to-day, they don’t necessarily control the investigative, enterprise or feature articles. The editorial staff still directs the selection of that content, but open up the process to include diverse voices. So, a feature story about Buffalo ReUse or PUSH Buffalo can include people injecting positive impacts of the organization into the story as well as giving leads and data to the writer. It expands the arc of a story which is no longer constrained by column inches or appealing to the lowest common denominator readership.
@Brian, I see what you mean about readers not necessarily gravitating to intelligent discourse. But, I ask where does one find it in local media? On what outlet are people engaged to be logical, reasonable and intelligent aside from public broadcasting which struggles to compete due to budgets and lack of marketing? The diminishing profit margins in local and national media have driven the outlets to strive for the bottom. Finding the type of topics and stories that appeal to the widest demographic possible, while writing in a tone that appeals to as many people as possible. In the new framework, we treat people like adults, reward them for acting like adults and build a place for intellectual analysis of news and events. Does that mean we leave people behind? Not necessarily, but a strategy will need to be built to pull these people into the discussion. Not everyone will want to be part of the news gathering and reporting functionality, but each segment of the community may be able to feed into the process somehow so they see a bit of themselves in the story regardless of their socioeconomic standing.
@ Chris and Brian-
I actually see a hybrid of both as a viable option.
Berkshire Hathaway owns the news. Gannett Company owns the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester. Advance Publications owns the Post Standard in Syracuse. The Hearst Corporation owns the Times Union in Albany. The Times is owned by the Times, the Post is owned by News Corporation and the Daily News is owned by Mortimer Zuckerman. Far to many players in the print news business for 1 state in my opinion.
Maybe this is just impossible but what if one company purchased the major print source in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and New York? This would allow for one owner to staff the NYC branch with World and US news and Business desks along with Local Business, Life and Sports. The Albany branch could cover State Politics along with Local Business, Life and Sports. The Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse branches would just staff for Local Business, Life and Sports.
By doing this, each of the 5 major metro markets would get expanded coverage for World, US and State news but also expanded coverage on local matters. A single web portal could house all of the content and print subscriptions could be tied into access to premium web content. With syndication options, like what WNYmedia does, bloggers could also be incorporated into the same portal.
Right now, with all of the shit that goes on in Albany, the Buffalo News covers State issues for the most part with 1 person…Tom Precious. That coverage is just too thin so people look for supplemental coverage on State issues via blogs. This is what hurts the subscription numbers in my opinion.
Several months ago, Chris Smith posed a great idea where print news focus on investigative journalism and leave the “items of record” to other sources. A “plan” if you want to call it that, would allow for 1 corporation to use resources more effectively and actually create a product that could not be duplicated.
Could you imagine a day when a daily print actually contained content that was fresh and there was lots of it?
@ Lefty: While we decry the loss of multiple voices in a single town, I’m not sure consolidation of all news in the state would be met with open arms. You’re talking about a middle level of organization I think will go away entirely. I see it as more likely we’ll end up with hyperlocal sources and the AP . . . and nothing else. No Tom Precious – if you want state news, get it from the Albany hyperlocal source. And if you want coverage of the healthcare debate in Washington, 500 hyperlocal papers will get it from one AP reporter. Is that better? I don’t know.
@ Chris: I have to constantly remind myself that there are far more aging baby boomers like my mother in this world than urban hipsters who want to be part of a high intellectual news gathering organization. I think you could create the model you are talking about. . . and that it would lack critical mass to succeed, because clearly more people want to watch Dancing with the Stars than listen to On Point on NPR.
Back in June, you said you’d reply to what you said were many, many reactions from inside The Buffalo News bunker … er, building … to this article:
http://wnymedia.net/wnymedia/smith/2009/06/the-buffalo-news-rebooted/
Still waiting, dude …
This is old info.. Bloggers don’t do investigative reporting because they don’t know how..
That is the dumbest thing i have ever heard.
I second that, Marc. Bloggers don’t know how to ask questions?
@Lefty – I think the problem with your model is that one company shouldn’t own every major print outlet in the state. While the staffing issue would be nice, the singularity of ideology/philosophy would not be of benefit to the readers.