alison gow's List: Future of Newspapers

Cheapskate newspaper? Or the future of newspapers?

NYC/ProPublica collaboration: "The explainer," a genre in journalism that provides the essential background knowledge necessary to follow events in the news.\n"Explainer.Net is the public face of this project, where we will share findings and promote quali

Pew 'social media' social network' internet growth 

"The report’s authors take a dim view of online subscriptions to news, cautioning that news sites “now should have very limited expectations for its success — at least on the Web.”
"They are more bullish on the prospects of subscriptions for mobile access. They write, “If publishers really hope to expunge the ‘original sin’ of giving away content free online, they may be best positioned to do so not on the computers where they first gave away their wares, but on mobile devices that offer a more welcoming environment.”

From Mindy McAdams blog: "The most recent article appeared in Journalism Studies 12(3): Online Journalism and the Promises of New Technology, by Steen Steensen (DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2010.501151). He looked at how “technological assets,” including interactivity, multimedia and hypertext, have been discussed and examined in the scholarly literature about online journalism.
Steensen points out that definitions are murky and imprecise — what one study defines as “hypertext,” another study defines as “interactivity.” (This has annoyed me for many years!) This presents quite a challenge to anyone who tries to aggregate the findings of several studies."

"Perhaps the most disturbing issue with print becoming an input is that content creators are not always aware of how deeply print requirements have become embedded in their thought processes. It’s almost impossible for some publishers and editors to envision content separate from presentation (delivery mode and/or package). This situation leads to a cultural rift when content-centric thinkers naturally evolve at, or are hired by, print-centric organizations.  They can meet with great organizational resistance."

..."Sadly, I think few newspapers will take advantage of the e-book revolution because they and their readers choose to be defined by their past relationship, which is all about free content. Magazines and newspapers have a history of being available for next to nothing and making the bulk of their supporting revenue from advertising. It's hard to change that mindset"...

Optimism and some downbeat notes but a good read - "the industry as a whole is not embracing digital-first, nor is it experimenting"

Missed this post from last week by @currybet (holidays, shmolidays) but it's PROPERLY BRILLIANT. 

"This speed gap is being emphasised with print even more and more. I still instinctively look at the news stand as I walk past it on my commute to work, and after a couple of seconds, I remember that I saw all of the front pages the night before thanks to @suttonnick and other sources. By the time I’m at the point of potentially purchasing a paper, I’ll have watched some morning TV news, and checked the news on my phone. And the papers are still featuring front page stories that I first saw ten or eleven hours previously."Speed isn’t everything... but the fastest emerging way of reporting digitally is the live blog format"...

Enders said: “There has been a substantial decline in advertising revenue in the regional press. They have been the worst effected by the pressures of the digital age. It has lost 40 per cent of its workforce in the last five years.”

Kevin Anderson on why a rethink of local/regional journalism needs is more vital than national..."I guess broadly, it’s not just the dying of journalism in not just poor towns, but also small communities, that worries me but the existential threat to rural areas full stop both in the US and the UK."...

..."Between operational fiascos and flailing attempts to slash costs on the fly, it’s clear that the print newspaper business, which has been fretting over a looming crisis for the last 15 years, is struggling to stay afloat. There are smart people trying to innovate, and tons of great journalism is published daily, but the financial distress is more visible by the week"...

..."in 2011, those four divisions of news providers spent £2bn serving our need for information. Of this, print newspapers accounted for £1.35bn, TV news for £461m, radio for £146m and online for just £111m. In short, print – though it only had £6bn in revenue streams over all, far less than TV's £11.2bn and barely topping online's £5bn – bore an amazing burden. It underpinned 65% of news gathering in Britain. The national press spent £875m, the regional press £470m. Together, they supported 19,000 front-line editorial posts – as opposed to 3,400 on TV, 1,700 on radio and a mere 600 web and app souls.
Mediatique offers three scenarios for the future: in one, the pace of change slows and "cost-cutting allows the print model to survive". In a second, "TV triumphs" while newspapers disappear. In a third, more fashionable option, it's the convergent media who win as print shrinks to vanishing point, advertising moves online, Sky and ITV give up the news ghost and the BBC survives "as the only remaining legacy full-service player in TV news"...

"In a post-Leveson world, of all worlds, the UK mainstream media has to answer the L’Oreal question. Are you worth it? And once they’ve done that they have to come up with much ideas than a broadband levy.
"In a country where we are shutting hospitals, cutting disability benefits and charging students £9,000 a year to attend University, journalism is more needed than ever. But professional journalists have to justify what they do more honestly, efficiently and imaginatively than ever before, too."

"German business daily Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) bade farewell to its readers on Friday in a final edition packed with gallows humour cartoons and melancholy musings on the revolution in the media industry that sealed its fate.
Publisher Gruner + Jahr decided to shut the FTD after accumulating what German media said were 250 million euros ($325 million)in losses since its launch in 2000. Around 330 employees are expected to lose their jobs."

Bullet point advice for making change happen is always useful.

"It’s not about frivolous, pie-in-the sky ideas. It’s about rapidly testing new ideas to start building toward new standards. You are building the future through experiments. Experimentation is just as important as those mission-critical roadmap projects" 

"news brands still matter but a strong name and long heritage is no longer enough. Our data show that there still is a yearning – in an ocean of content – for trusted news across a range of subject areas, but newer brands like Yahoo and the Huffington Post are also proving they can fill that role alongside a raft of specialist providers, blogs, and social media too."

"The big red button to make the internet go away again: Would you press it?"
I wonder how many journalists would. 

12 regional and local editors talking about their own digital consumption, and what form the shift is taking in their newsrooms and strategies. Really interesting read.