Innovation in College Media

a group discussion about the future of student media

Still questions about revenue, online presence

Posted by Bryan on 6/22/09 • Categorized as Community, Conferences

As I mentioned earlier this summer, I was in Iowa this week speaking (along with Steve Buttry) to a group of 8 newspaper journalists (editors and publishers) at the Iowa Newspaper Foundation's Leadership Seminar series.

The topic was "Leadership in a Changing Media Environment." My part was to talk about how the Internet changes the news equation, and what kind of free tools are available to enhance the news organization's Web presence.

It was a fascinating three hours (even though my luggage was lost and I ended up in a t-shirt and shorts for the discussion), and one that brought me back to my roots in small-town journalism (I was the editor of a weekly in Texas for four years before heading off to graduate school).

The main takeaway for me was that many small newspapers are still struggling to figure out how to use their web presence, with the constant idea that it's taking away from the print product (cannibalizing).

It took quite a while for me to argue for putting breaking news out (football updates, city council updates, etc.) via Twitter or other online means.

"Why would people then read the print product?" asked one participant. Because there's *more* there than in a 140-word tweet, was part of my answer.

But the main answer, my main ideal that I've been talking about for over three years in this blog, is that "news" is more important than just the bottom line. If you're in the "news" business, then your job is to report the news, to be the "watercooler" for your community - the place where people go to get the information they need to navigate an incredibly complex world. If you're locking all that news up behind a paid wall, you're not fulfilling your community service aspirations. You're no more than the local Wal-Mart.

I honestly don't see the Internet and the printed product as competing in these smaller communities (yet). I see them as complementary. The online presence can add depth to the printed product. It can add to the advertising side as well if used properly. But that will ultimately require seeing both Internet and print as parts of the process.

I hope the editors and publishers who left the conference went away with some ideas to inspire them to change their online strategies and be more proactive in the online space. Only time will tell.

At several points during the conversation, I said emphatically that I wished I had tools like Twitter and YouTube and WordPress and other free online tools when I was editing that small-town newspaper in Texas. My journalism would have been stronger, and the connections to the community would be deeper. That's what every small-town newspaper publisher should aim toward.

I'd say the same for my college newspaper, where I was editor. As a journalist, I want to be in the conversation. I want to be the place people go for information. As more people do that online, I can't help but feel we need to follow that movement and use all the tools at our disposal to make that happen.

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    As someone who worked in Iowa community journalism for many years before going into teaching, I had to chuckle at reading the post here. I have this picture in my head of an Iowa publisher asking you "why Twitter"? Most of these folks are the last people to get it with online. Many of them are still hostile about the local radio station coming into town and taking some their news franchise away. I'm only half kidding here.

    That said, rural Iowans are still pretty old media when it comes to the news. The NYT did a story during the caucus campaign in 2007 about how very few rural Iowans read blogs or had even heard of social media. In a strange way, this has been good for the community press. My friends who are still in the community-publishing industry tell me they're still profitable (but, because they were only 5-10% pretax profitable, the big chains were never interested in them — I'm sure many metro dailies would kill for that margin now).

    The downside, of course, is that the readers are old and getting older. Next to no one under the age of 50 reads a community paper anymore. And, unless the publishers and editors can start to think outside the traditional advertising-subscription model of revenue, I'd hate to be in their shoes in, say, 2020.
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    Print and online do not need to compete. Online can help sell print for that matter. Online promotions are becoming increasingly important, and things like contests, drawings, sweepstakes, and UGC photo and video can easily be combined with print promotion. Advertisers and sponsors want a targeted multi-channeled promotion, and tools like Second Street Media's can help them accomplish that. Yes i work for SSM, but these articles just show that so many local media companies don't understand the potential they have, and they don't understand that they MUST adapt with the industry to strive or even survive.
 

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  • New media complements storytelling «

    June 24, 2009 at 11:43 am

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