Mark Potts - Michael Becker on Diigo

26 Oct 09

Newspaper Readers Buy Papers for the Content

Ryan Chittum takes a stance against those who argue that news content has no value, that people are really buying ads and not news.

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Ryan Chittum Mark Potts Columbia Journalism Review newspaper business models paywalls journalism business newspapers

19 Oct 09

Twitter and Breaking News

Some thoughts on how news organizations are under-utilizing Twitter as a way to build their audiences.

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Mark Potts Recovering Journalist Twitter breaking news dissemination publishing social_media social_networking

Twitter can be maddening in many ways, a cacophony of voices with a lousy signal-to-noise ratio—does anybody really care what somebody else had for breakfast?
But one thing that Twitter excels in is breaking news. Its broadcast, real-time, 140-character headline nature makes it a perfect vehicle for the latest news, whether it's being generated by on-the-spot observers (or participants) and retweeted far and wide, or whether it's being used by news organizations to blast out their latest headlines.

25 Jul 09

You Can't Charge For Something That Doesn't Provide Value

Mark Potts tells explains that newspapers may want to charge for online content, but they may have a hard time convincing readers their content is valuable enough to pay for.

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Mark Potts paywalls Financial_Times business economics innovation

Most, if not all, newspaper Web sites aren't really very good—they're still (mediocre) newspapers pasted on a screen. They're clunky, text-heavy, unimaginative and hard to navigate. They're not designed for audience service; they're usually constructed for the convenience of the people who produce them.
This is a dangerous conundrum for the newspaper industry, at a dangerous time. To amp up the quality, newspaper managements have got to get a lot smarter and spend a lot more money. But money's tight, and in fact, resources are being cut, deeply, throughout the industry. Innovation is essentially at a standstill. Smart, visionary staffers have left in frustration. Upstart competitors are moving in on things that newspapers used to take as birthrights. Papers still aren't being daring enough about trying things that will really serve readers, that will really move the needle on quality, that will really attract new audiences and new lines of revenue. They're stuck in the past, unwilling and unable to truly move into the future.
- Sounds hopeless - on 2009-07-25
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- Now, misguided, desperate leaders like the FT's Barber somehow think the answer is to somehow convince readers to pay for something that, sadly, doesn't have enough value to justify charging. Readers are smarter than that, and that's why Barber's notion that "almost all" news sites will soon be charging for access is a hopeless dream. Sure, they may charge—but readers won't pay, at least not in anything resembling sufficient numbers. Not unless they see significant quality and value. And based on the current track record, there's no reason whatsoever to believe that will be the case.

29 Jun 09

"Aged" News Indeed

Mark Potts says it again: Printed newspapers are too slow to keep up with the 24-hour (or shorter) news cycle that has developed in a Web world.

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Mark Potts news cycle aged news David Kurtz

03 Apr 09

Editors as Curators: What's Taking So Long?

Mark Potts describes the decline of uses for editors and why they are still important to the next big things for online news: curating and aggregating.

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aggregation curation editors journalism Mark Potts newspapers

That's because, in a world in which the walls around journalistic walled gardens are being (slowly) torn down, editors can play a vital new role in deciding how to choose content from all over the Web and package it for their readers' edification.
On the Web, you're not limited only to the content you own. You can create a rich, deep package for your readers on any subject by linking to outside sources—background, context, documents, data, video, discussions, blogs, user-generated content, etc. Even, shudder, good stuff from competitors. But with very few exceptions, this is done only tentatively, if at all, at the vast majority of news sites.
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- It leverages the strength of the editor's skills: the ability to divine the best content, deep knowledge of a subject, and the ability to shape it into a compelling package for readers. That's what good editors have always done: curate.
- Under siege from all sides, news organziations need more than ever to establish their Web sites as authoritative sources for local news and information. Their core content, clearly, isn't enough. They should be creating aggregated sites that take advantage of their strong local brands and news-judgment reputations to provide readers with everything they could possibly want to know about the topics they care most about. Not just what the newsroom and wires can produce.

03 Mar 09

"They Hate Us Out There"

Some people think the death of newspapers is a good thing, and they're rooting for that outcome.

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Mark Potts newspaper crisis newspapers politics

While some of us think the existing newspaper business model is fatally flawed, we love journalism and we're working hard along with a lot of other good people to transition the media business to something more sustainable. But there are probably just as many–or more–people rooting heartily for papers and journalism to fail, for political reasons.
Twenty-five years ago, a smart professor and editor of mine named Charles "Puff" Puffenbarger told me something about news audiences that I'll always remember: "They hate us out there." It appears that's true more now than ever.

12 Feb 09

They're Just Not That Into You

The latest harebrained idea for saving newspapers–is it February cabin fever that's bringing all of this out?–is a couple of different proposals that newspapers and maybe the AP go on strike for a few days to show everybody just how vital and important and essential they are.

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Mark Potts journalism new media

Look, the idea that newspapers and wire services are the center of the universe and the primary if not only form of news media is much beloved by, well, newspapers and wire services. The rest of the world doesn't care as much.
As any town where the local newspaper has gone on strike knows, life goes on, quite well, thank you.

28 Jan 09

Life After Journalism

Every couple of months, Mark Potts gets a call from a friend or former colleague facing a newsroom buyout—or concerned that one is in the offing. Their request is always the same: "Tell me there's life after [insert newspaper name]."

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journalism Mark Potts newspapers

It turns out that a lot of the skills that make you a good journalist are highly valued in other fields.
The ability to quickly write clear copy has applications in everything from writing business plans to creating PowerPoint presentations (nothing more than a good story outline) to even coming up with the architecure of Web sites (a form of visual storytelling)
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- Your ability to dive deep for information and ask tough questions is a real asset.
- The same talents that make you a precise and exacting editor and manager probably will hold you in good stead as a corporate product or project manager, pulling together diverse tasks and people to bring a complicated project in on deadline.

24 Jan 09

Recovering Journalist: They Never Learn

Mark Potts comments on the U.S. News & World Report's decision to publish a weekly PDF version.

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PDF U.S. News & World Report Mark Potts new media publishing journalism dissemination e-edition electronic_edition

They seemed to be totally committed to Web publishing, and even spoke about how liberating it was going to be to not have to worry about print deadlines anymore
PDF publications DON'T WORK, either as a reader experience, for advertisers or as a business
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- PDF products are beloved solely by printie publishers and editors who think readers want to read the news in a print-like layout, and don't understand that a) electronic delivery is a completely different format than print and b) readers really don't want to have to print out their own magazine or newspaper.
- There's no market there, and the time and resources are much better spent on figuring out the optimal version of a Web-based product, mobile versions, etc.
  - So few people subscribe to e-editions that they aren't worth the money. They're a waste of resources, Potts says.
    
    That's definitely true at my hometown newspaper, where they offer e-edition subscriptions through a shoddy third-party service that doesn't work a third of the time. A friend in their circulation department tells me it doesn't make them much (read: "not any") money. - on 2009-01-24
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