12 Things Newspapers Should Do to Survive.
- Put web first and report from multiple platforms
- Nichify (go niche)
- Offer unique print content–”adding context to news that has been posted, shared and retweeted online.This also changes the roles of journalists quite a bit.
- Journalists be curators and contextualizers -currently newspapers own less than 1 percent of U.S. online audience page views and time spent. Linking to other articles and curating information will not only be helpful to readers but make newpapers more visible on the web.
- Integrate news in real-time
- Internal culture needs to be more startup and less corporate
- Foster innovation
- Don’t charge for quotes–media is a dialogue and linking and appropriate excerpting is part of that dialogue.
- Invest in mobile (e-readers, smartphones)
- Value & include readers
- Build community
Many newspapers today are built around a very corporate and bureaucratic structure. There is a reporter and an editor and an editor’s editor and the editor of all editors, and well, you get the point. Scott Porad, CTO of Pet Holdings, points out that the problem with corporate environments is that 80 percent of the time is spent planning and only 20 percent is spent doing. While at his startup only 5 percent is spent planning and 95 percent is spent doing. Mark Briggs recently wrote a great post on how one might create a startup culture in the newsroom.
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