This is the second of two parts of my observations from the Midwest Newspaper Summit held Sept. 17 in Dubuque, Iowa.
To some, what I'm discussing may seem rudimentary and for that I apologize for not moving the issue forward. However, a number of community newspapers haven't had this dialogue yet and this is aimed at them. This final installment is focused on options to "Save The Craft."
One solution to help ailing newspapers offered by Alan Mutter at the Midwest Newspapers Summit was for newspapers to provide "premium content," content that people will pay for.
Another speaker, Mary Peskin of API, commented on the research with Belden entitled the "Newspaper Economic Action Plan" saying "Professional journalism can be extended, the medium is secondary"
Whether the "paywall" is subscriptions for print or subscriptions for online, the information must be relevant and unique.
This could be a very sobering consideration for a number of our community newspapers
Take a look at what is commonly used for local news -- not syndicate or wire -- in small- to medium-sized newspapers:
Government reports, government meetings, non-profit events, crime or fire news, marriages, obituaries and features stories usually about someone in government or non-profit ... and sometimes business.
Now, how much of this material is truly exclusive to our reporting, not attainable anywhere else?
Funeral homes already post their own obituaries online and aggregation is pretty simple.
As for government news, here in Mankato, city hall has a Facebook page to share its news directly with the community. Anything from announcing a street closing to public safety news gets out a lot faster than waiting for the next day's newspaper.
Regardless of speed, we need to look specifically at content. Small- to medium-sized newsrooms are set up to ensure there is enough copy to fill the newspaper.
We have established beats to ensure it. We attend regular meetings and events because we are performing our watchdog function, they are predictable and it's the easiest way to get adequate copy.
But is it really covering the community? Our commitment to school news is to cover the school board. Is this really what the readership wants when it ask for more coverage of their schools? Or do they want to know what's going on in the classrooms? Are our reporters well versed enough to explain not only a change in curriculum but the impact it would have?
This point came home when I read Karen Feldman of IBM Institute for Business Value talk at the Midwest Newspaper Summit on its research in marketing behavior.
The conclusion: Newspapers cannot be "massive passives." We need to engage. Personalize, be relevant to reach that different audience (I'm not saying age anymore. I think it's a huge mistake that we are losing "younger" audiences. I think we are using audiences who have the characteristics of the young.)
Jon Rust, publisher of the Southeast Missourian and co-president of Rust Communications, while speaking at the Suburban Newspapers of America conference in Kansas City said a "community paper must serve the community, be at center of the community." To my mind that means our reporters need to be fully engaged in the community. It means getting out of the office, observing, analyzing and putting community in context. Find out what information our community needs and provide it.
Peskin laid out the road map by pointing out that we have opportunity with community niche and social networking. This is far different than writing advances for the city council meetings. It means finding out how those city council decisions affect real people. If they don't affect them, we should rethink what we are writing about.
One way to adjust our coverage would be to deploy legions of "professional correspondents" to attend not only city council work sessions but such meetings as neighborhood watch groups and PTAs. Bring back the old rewrite desk manned by seasoned editors to bring context to these reports and, should something interesting come from these meetings, assign reporters for any follow ups. Better yet, these correspondents should be part of a reporter's network.
Set up regular "sound off" sessions with reporters and editors in coffee shops of small towns to hear their concerns, ferret out some interesting stories and just allow readers to engage with real people behind those bylines. From that engagement we can find out what people are truly interested in and shift our coverage to satisfy that need.
And more specifically reporters should be actively using social media when appropriate to share what they are working on and learn from readers what is of interest and importance. A well connected spider web of social media can prove invaluable to a community news reporter.
Mutter warned that "news companies will have to change to suit consumer behavior or you will be roadkill." True enough. But for small to medium-sized newspapers, we first need to find out what that consumer behavior is and engagement is the easiest path.
Whether the "paywall" is subscriptions for print or subscriptions for online, the information must be relevant and unique.
This could be a very sobering consideration for a number of our community newspapers
Take a look at what is commonly used for local news -- not syndicate or wire -- in small- to medium-sized newspapers:
Government reports, government meetings, non-profit events, crime or fire news, marriages, obituaries and features stories usually about someone in government or non-profit ... and sometimes business.
Now, how much of this material is truly exclusive to our reporting, not attainable anywhere else?
Funeral homes already post their own obituaries online and aggregation is pretty simple.
As for government news, here in Mankato, city hall has a Facebook page to share its news directly with the community. Anything from announcing a street closing to public safety news gets out a lot faster than waiting for the next day's newspaper.
Regardless of speed, we need to look specifically at content. Small- to medium-sized newsrooms are set up to ensure there is enough copy to fill the newspaper.
We have established beats to ensure it. We attend regular meetings and events because we are performing our watchdog function, they are predictable and it's the easiest way to get adequate copy.
But is it really covering the community? Our commitment to school news is to cover the school board. Is this really what the readership wants when it ask for more coverage of their schools? Or do they want to know what's going on in the classrooms? Are our reporters well versed enough to explain not only a change in curriculum but the impact it would have?
This point came home when I read Karen Feldman of IBM Institute for Business Value talk at the Midwest Newspaper Summit on its research in marketing behavior.
The conclusion: Newspapers cannot be "massive passives." We need to engage. Personalize, be relevant to reach that different audience (I'm not saying age anymore. I think it's a huge mistake that we are losing "younger" audiences. I think we are using audiences who have the characteristics of the young.)
Jon Rust, publisher of the Southeast Missourian and co-president of Rust Communications, while speaking at the Suburban Newspapers of America conference in Kansas City said a "community paper must serve the community, be at center of the community." To my mind that means our reporters need to be fully engaged in the community. It means getting out of the office, observing, analyzing and putting community in context. Find out what information our community needs and provide it.
Peskin laid out the road map by pointing out that we have opportunity with community niche and social networking. This is far different than writing advances for the city council meetings. It means finding out how those city council decisions affect real people. If they don't affect them, we should rethink what we are writing about.
One way to adjust our coverage would be to deploy legions of "professional correspondents" to attend not only city council work sessions but such meetings as neighborhood watch groups and PTAs. Bring back the old rewrite desk manned by seasoned editors to bring context to these reports and, should something interesting come from these meetings, assign reporters for any follow ups. Better yet, these correspondents should be part of a reporter's network.
Set up regular "sound off" sessions with reporters and editors in coffee shops of small towns to hear their concerns, ferret out some interesting stories and just allow readers to engage with real people behind those bylines. From that engagement we can find out what people are truly interested in and shift our coverage to satisfy that need.
And more specifically reporters should be actively using social media when appropriate to share what they are working on and learn from readers what is of interest and importance. A well connected spider web of social media can prove invaluable to a community news reporter.
Mutter warned that "news companies will have to change to suit consumer behavior or you will be roadkill." True enough. But for small to medium-sized newspapers, we first need to find out what that consumer behavior is and engagement is the easiest path.
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