I would like to make a few points, and to do so in a somewhat rambling fashion.
Tomorrow, I am speaking on a panel at the annual meeting of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. The topic is one of my favorite subjects: THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM. The reason that it’s one of my favorite subjects is because it’s so completely unknown, like exploring Mars. Who knows what we’ll find? Maybe Bigfoot.
That having been said, we’re not exactly fumbling around without a map. (Well, some of us, anyway.) Even though the Internet has completely upended the way we gather, distribute, and experience news, there have been some successes (and a lot of failures) that can serve a signposts for an industry seeking equilibrium. I’m going to use this post to organize a few of my observations.
My advice in a nut shell
- Social
- Personalize
- Aggregate
- Users
You want to succeed? Make it social. Make it personalized. Aggregate. Make what users what, not what you want.
You’ll need to spend big on the technology, so I hope you’re rich.
How to detect snake oil
If someone says one of these three things, treat anything they say with extreme skepticism. They are either crazy, a scoundrel, or a genius.
- I’m quite certain that this new idea will change everything. (Nothing is certain, especially new ideas.)
- I don’t work in the industry, but I’ve studied it extensively. (For an industry predicated on explaining complex phenomena, journalism is surprisingly ineffable.)
- We’re going force users to change their behavior. (Users don’t like changing their behavior. They’ll just go someplace else, like your cat did when you tried to make him wear reindeer antlers.)
Can readers be made to move from online to print?
Yes and no. I know, that’s not a very satisfying answer. But there’s really two questions there:
- In the future, will people use the print products in any form? (Yes.)
- In the future, will people use the same print products they do today? (No.)
There will always be demand for print, just like there will always be demand for live theater, handwritten letters, and other old-timey methods of communication. But plays and letters of today are very different from those of a hundred years ago. (For one thing, the sentences are shorter.)
There are some things that the Internet simply does better than print, and reporting on breaking news is one of them. When the 2032 presidential election rolls around, I would not expect many people to wait for the following morning to read who won on the front page of the New York Times.
But there are still a few things — very, very few — that print does better than online. For now.
When I was a kid, I would unfold the Sunday comics section on the floor of the living room and read every single panel of every single comic, including Rex Morgan M.D. The pleasure that one derives from such an experience simply cannot be duplicated by a screen. (For now.) That’s why I loved Marvel’s Wednesday Comics experiment: for twelve weeks, they printed a serial anthology of various comics, written and illustrated by various artists. It was such a pleasure to unfold a huge broadsheet and hold it up in my hands or lay it down on the floor. The massive pages gave them an opportunity to play around with some very inventive layouts, and to create some massive panels. I hope more publishers do this.
My God, just look at these photos of people reading print. Actually reading print! Like it’s the 1920s or something!
Another area in which print excels: creating fetishy objects, like Butt Magazine. Sure, you can read it online. But owning a physical copy is tempting in a way that owning a physical copy of Instinct or Out is not. Why is that? What is that about? Is it simply because Butt is attractive and unique? I guess that’s what fetishism is.
Also, the content on Butt’s site is very different from the content on Butt’s paper. That’s key: your print and online properties shouldn’t be mirror-universe versions of each other. Online will (almost) always win if that’s your strategy. Instead, tailor your content to match the strengths of that format. For example, the current issue of Butt is collectible and otherworldly, the kind of thing you want to hold and share. Sometimes they have tear-out posters. The website has recent news, community profiles, and archives.
Also of note: some of Butt’s content is only available in print. And have you noticed that they sell physical items?
Those Darn Kids
I really enjoyed the Younger Thinking research conducted by Christopher Sopher. Now, I’m breaking one of my snake-oil rules a bit here by featuring the work of a person who’s done more studying than working. But I’ve gone through his work and it’s backed up by research by the Pew Center and the Columbia Journalism Review, which is about as trustworthy as research can get, so I’m willing to entertain his conclusions, particularly because they confirm my own.
Some of Sopher’s noteworthy observations:
- Young people want immediacy, to graze on news, to be social, and to get just the highlights (pg 6)
- Social features improve engagement (pg 10)
- Knowledge of news is a form of social capital; users want news to be organized, not expanded; and personalization is key (pg 14)
- News sites — especially local news sites — are not so good (pg 29)
- Search drives a lot of traffic (pg 35)
- Users may respond favorably to “wisdom journalism,” whereby a reporter takes advantage of their in-depth knowledge to provide insight and analysis (pg 82)
- Avoid information overload (pg 86)
What a State
Did you read that massive report from Pew about the state of the news media? I didn’t. It’s 700 pages for crying out loud! But I did read the overview and the section on online news. Some observations of note:
- About 60% of news consumers get their news online.
- About 60% of internet users use social media.
- Social networks are used to filter and organize news (pg 3)
- News consumers spend 3-4 minutes on most sites. (pg 12)
- Aggregators are popular, but so new that the word isn’t in my spell-checker. (pg 12)
- Niche readers are not very loyal, with two exceptions: Kos and Drudge. (pg 14)
- Within niches sites, political sites get the most engagement. Having an ideology helps. (pg 20)
- Classifieds are losing big. (pg 23)
- Display ads are bringing in less. (pg 23)
- Search revenue is big, and most of it goes to aggregators. (pg 23)
- Some experiments in revenue generation, all of which I expect to fail because they don’t offer enough value to users: Journalism Online does micropayments, CircLabs makes a desktop news app, ViewPass LINK collects demographic data. (page 27)
- Social social social social social. “News is a social currency.” page (31)
Top Apps
Hey, check out the top news apps in the iTunes store.
- Major news orgs: CNN, PBS, Chicago Tribune, NY Times, Fox News, USA Today, MSNBC.
- Also, aggregators: like Pulse News Mini, Mobile RSS Pro, Reeder, Instapaper iReddit.
- Two niche apps: Drudge (of all things) and ModMiy, which is about Apple news.
In conclusion, I have no conclusion
So there you have it. That was a bit rambling, wasn’t it? Hopefully the panel talk will organize these thoughts a bit and gel them into something a little more cohesive. In the mean time, perhaps you will like these two presentations I recently put together: 14 Things Bloggers and Broadcasters can Learn from Each Other, and The Lifecycle of a Blog Post.
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I'm a writer and photographer in San Francisco, curious about how people can get away with writing all day while also being able to afford to buy groceries. 