#2 newspaper mission: No more one size fits all

Thought #2 from NAA interviews

TIM McGUIRE: Frank Russell Chair, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University in Phoenix, and former editor and senior vice president, Star Tribune in Minneapolis:

 Print publishers need to totally rethink what they are doing and [ask]:

• Do I want to deliver eyeballs to customers, or do I want to entice customers to pay for the product or a combination of the two? How do I support the news gathering I want to do?
• Is this a mass endeavor, or it is targeted? What are the information opportunities for that market?
• What is my role in the democratic process? If you want one, go for it. If you want to be all Britney [Spears], all the time, chuck the democracy façade.
• What are the market’s information needs and potentials?
• What is it that we can do for our market that nobody else can, and how valuable will that be to the market? If it is a commodity product, I can’t charge much. If it is truly special and distinguishable, the value of my product is greater.
• Invent a new product that is not tied to yesterday but is tied to serving your market or community. Create and add value that meets the market’s needs.

MY TAKE: It may be time to explore separate print products for separate customers. Those who want and act with a vested interest in developing community and partaking in democracy would get one type of product; those who need information to conduct their day to day lives with information of a different sort, get another product. Define the market, link up the advertisers who want to reach those markets and put out your products.