By Andy Rieger
The Transcript
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.
Veteran journalist John Yemma faces a daunting task in his new role as editor of the Christian Science Monitor: Remake the 100-year-old newspaper into a weekly and push more copy to its Web site.
The 52,000 circulation daily is distributed throughout the world and its writers are well respected. They’ll still pen analytical pieces but will now have to redirect their focus to more of a wire-service approach since they’ll be updating stories and filing more often.
Less in print and more online is a sign of the times for all newspapers, one talked about often during a two-day conference at the Poynter Institute, a think tank and respected school for journalists. “Who will pay for the News: A New Look at Consumers, Advertisers and Patrons” brought together journalists, educators, foundations and others.
The meeting’s early premise was that the business model that has sustained newspaper growth no longer works. Indeed, during the course of the two-day meeting two Connecticut newspapers announced plans to close their doors. The Bristol Press and the New Britain Herald will close their doors by January if no buyer can be found.
Readers go digital
Readers still want news but they are moving to digital at warp speed. Newspaper companies should build on their credibility, brand and established audience to drive traffic to their Web sites. They will lose relevance if they don’t act soon, said Lincoln Millstein, senior vice president for digital media at Hearst Newspapers. Newspapers and others who employ traditional journalists need to be more creative in attracting audiences and advertisers. They also need to network more, speakers said.
“We think too small,” says Millstein. He urged newspapers to think more like Yahoo and less like the local daily newspaper.
Delivering news content and advertising to cell phones makes sense. One start-up talked of sending text advertisements to cell phones based on the location of the phone that day.
‘Got news?’
Several speakers suggested the industry needs to promote itself and educate consumers on the role journalism plays in democracy. Journalists should be more vigilant against online thieves who steal news and post it on Web sites that compete with the company who employed that journalist.
A handful of the speakers said newspaper advertising gives companies the safety and security they don’t enjoy on the web. No one wants their advertisement to show up on a soft porn Web site.
“Don’t discount the value of a printed edition. It’s still a good deal,” said Paul Steiger, former managing editor of the Wall Street Journal and now editor, president and chief executive of ProPublica, a new company that employs reporters to produce investigative journalism.
International perspective
While U.S. newspaper growth has stalled with the economy, newspapers in India seem to be all the rage. Rajiv Verma, chief executive officer of HT Media Ltd., in India, said growing literacy and an increasing gross domestic product are bringing him more readers, advertisers and newspapers.
He said there are 53,000 newspapers in India. Fifty percent of the nation’s population is below age 20. Verma’s company produces newspapers and hosts Web sites for job matching and other interests.
He trades unused space in his newspapers for equity positions in companies that look promising but don’t have the cash to pay for advertisements. They then hold or sell the asset they receive when the price is right.
Many new ventures
Mike Orren, president and founder of PegasusNews.com in Dallas, hires full-time news writers, freelancers and takes free content from other sources on his Web site. He tries to target news down to the neighborhood level by using databases and customized news that viewers tell him they want.
He gets about 400,000 visitors a month. Angel investors helped launch the site in 2006. It was sold in 2007 to Fisher Communications.
Former newspaperman Joel Kramer, now chief executive officer and editor of MinnPost.com in Minneapolis, set his company up as a non-profit so that Web site viewers could contribute to the cause.
He has about 1,100 donors who each give an average $200 a year to sustain the site.
The new millennials
Kelly McBride, Ethics Group Leader at Poynter, said the press needs to find a way to marry journalism with the emerging young audience which she described as “new millennials,” folks born after 1977.
She said the audience was friendly and optimistic and didn’t mind sharing information about themselves on social networking Web sites. They carry cell phones, cameras and text twice as much as the earlier generation.
McBride said they value humor, novelty, entertainment and spend lots of time with their parents who also are their friends. They trust the government to make systems work.
Younger audiences like to consume news that’s relevant to them and their friends, she said. They don’t like hypocrisy and don’t mind catching people doing the wrong thing.
“Just look at YouTube,” she said.
Andy Rieger can be reached editor@normantranscript.com
