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Newspapers: Innovate or die
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Feb 13, 2006 Posted by Rich HarwoodAt an Alabama event last week for journalists, I was promoted as the “conscience of community.” But my own conscience told me I had missed the mark in my talk. If I could do it all over again, here’s what I’d say about the future of newspapers in America, plain and simple.
I want to be clear; I offer these 10 steps because I care deeply about newspapers. I’ve been working with major metro and small town newsrooms, the national Journalism Values Institute, and other efforts since the mid-1980s.
Even with the advent of the Internet, cable TV, and other news sources – no, especially because of their rise – I believe society needs newspapers to help people and communities make their way in the world. So, here are my 10 steps newspapers must take to survive and flourish.- First, newspapers have lost
their readers and are losing their soul. They
must regain their relevance in people’s lives
and reinvigorate their bottom line. Both steps
are imperative. But this will require
newspapers coming to grips with the need to
re-imagine their position in a fast-changing
marketplace. Tinkering won’t do.
- Second, journalists must see that
Americans have retreated from public life. Next
step: Combat this retreat if they want active
readers and a vibrant community. Translation:
Learn how to truly engage people – or die.
- Third, newspapers must answer the
following question: “What space do they wish
to occupy in their community?” Right now,
chasing readers, trying online gimmicks,
dumbing down news, and mindlessly cutting costs
obfuscates this underlying question. Stop!
Answer the question. Focus.
- Fourth, newspapers should position
themselves as boundary-spanning organizations
in communities. Few organizations, if any, cut
across dividing lines today and help people
connect the dots in their lives, gain depth on
important matters, and engage people with
consistency over time. Seize this comparative
advantage.
- Fifth, newspapers must build their actions
on a deep understanding of their communities.
Promoting the one-time story, the special
project, the new “public life team” simply
won’t cut it. Newspapers must know their
communities like the back of their hands.
- Sixth, people are in search of coherence,
a sense of possibility, and meaning in their
lives. And yet, as one senior member of a news
organization bluntly told me after my Alabama
speech, “If I was a single mother, I
wouldn’t read my paper. She can’t see
herself in our pages.” Help people and
communities figure out what’s happening
around them.
- Seventh, newspapers must be ready to go
out on a limb. They must hold up a mirror to
people so they can see themselves at their
best, their worst, and when they are
indifferent. Communities need a candid friend.
Prerequisite: guts.
- Eighth, newspapers must avoid becoming
mechanistic in their drive to re-position
themselves, even open themselves up. Simply
listing reporters’ e-mail addresses at the
end of stories, providing online chat rooms, or
holding forums aren’t enough. Mechanisms can
help, but only when they have a soul.
- Ninth, current newsroom staffs weren’t
hired with today’s challenges in mind. To
succeed now, journalists will need a new set of
sensibilities and practices in how they see and
do their jobs, especially in relationship to
their communities. Get ready for some tough
sledding.
- Tenth, when all is said and done, the people who work in newspapers must hold affection for their communities. Traditional skepticism too often comes out as cynicism; seeing the glass half full, often produces a lack of hope. Journalists must know that their world view casts a shadow.
Newspapers, it’s time: Innovate or die. - First, newspapers have lost
their readers and are losing their soul. They
must regain their relevance in people’s lives
and reinvigorate their bottom line. Both steps
are imperative. But this will require
newspapers coming to grips with the need to
re-imagine their position in a fast-changing
marketplace. Tinkering won’t do.
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Feb 27, 2006 | Erick | ebeck@machesneypark.org
When will newsparer editors find that good news also sells!!!!
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Feb 14, 2006 | Richard Puffer | dpuffer@coker.edu
Newspapers, some of us can't live without them while many others are asking, 'what's a newspaper?' Do our communities need newspapers? I know lots of people who get along without them. Don't know many people who get along without news. I believe we need those community spanning organizations within our communities that can help us see ourselves, congratulate ourselves and on occasion, chastise ourselves. In tomorrow's Hartsville or tomorrow's Dayton or tomorrow's Atlanta that organization's product might not be made of paper. We NEED it to still be full of free-flowing ideas. We NEED it to be replete with descriptions of the most mundane and the most resplendent aspects of our community lives. We NEED it to reflect all of us in the community. And, for an organization to do that type of job we might need more than one or two or even three. That organization or the product it produces might be on newsprint or it might be with pixels but as we look at redemming hope and redemming our sense of community one of the tools we need will be something to give us voice. In the past we have thought of this voice-giving organization as a newspaper but maybe as technology continues to bring us new tools we will have to come up with new labels and descriptions. One thing is certain, as was pointed out in the blog, we need that organization that will give us a mirror of ourselves and a forum where we can discuss what we see so we can change what needs change and build on what we find working.
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Feb 13, 2006 | Thomas Camiolo | thomas1950@frontiernet.net
A quarter of the way through "Katherine Graham Personal History" it is easier to understand how difficult it is for the fourth estate to assume the moral unbiased ground. Literacy in America is at stake. Honest investigative reporting and writting is more exciting than other media because the minds eye (through on going lifelong experience)can paint a more vivid picture than any computer game, TV program, Movie or Musical rendition. Blogs and other email writting may actually have saved us from becoming the illiterate generation and losing all historical reference for the next generation.