New prescription for newspapers

A few days ago, I posted a link in our del.icio.us links (ICM Recommends) to a prescription for the newspaper industry from Alan Jacobson, a high-profile news designer: New rules for newspapers

1 Get real about the Internet

2 Tie journalists’ pay to circulation

3 Ignore your loyal readers

4 Stop running news stories

5 Feed the cash cow

6 Drop the price

7 Solve the online revenue riddle

8 Promote as if success depends upon it

9 Join hands and sing Kumbaya

Obviously, not all of these apply to college newspapers - it’s hard to cut the cost for free, and $0 - $0 is still $0 in terms of pay for many staff reporters on college papers - but enough do apply that advisers and student editors should stand up and pay attention. I’d encourage you to follow the link and read the whole thing, as a couple of the points are cryptic.

Of particular interest should be the ideas of getting serious about the Internet and solving the online revenue riddle.

Fortunately, if you’re an adviser or editor in St. Louis next week for the ACP/CMA Fall Convention (PDF program booklet), there will be a few sessions on getting that online ad revenue riddle solved, and some for adding spice to the online product as well. I’ll try to post some of the descriptions and times of those sessions as time allows.

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