Too many newspapers are competing for a now-global audience – MarketWatch — I linked this column I did in Marketwatch since this “future of newspapers” topic is huge.
Many of the pundits say the biggest hurdle the newspapers have is the transition from print to online. In fact, most already have made the transition, and most cannot make the online model work well enough to make up for the downslide in print.
They never will.
The reason is simple: In an online world, there are too many bloated newspapers. What needs to be addressed is the simple concept of redundancy. A search in Google News demonstrates the extent of problem. A hot story of any sort might have 1,000 to 2,000 links from 1,000 to 2,000 news outlets. More often than not, many of the 1,000 to 2,000 stories are the same Associated Press or Reuters reports. In a few rare instances, there will be some additional material contributed by local reporters.
You are correct, the issue of laziness is a big problem. This past weekend I went to espn.com to see what they had to say about a football game. After reading that article, I decided to hit up Fox Sports to see what they had to say and it was the exact same article, word for word.
I think newspapers are essentially ‘local’. That is, in New york there is the ‘Times’ or the ‘Post’ or whatever… in Chicago it’s the ‘Tribune’ or the ‘Sun Times’ … I read the local paper for local isues that wouldn’t be very interesting on the world wide web. So for a paper to survive thry shouldn’t try to do too much.. the local beat. the local business, the local issues. They will always have a local audience. For international or country wide issues the internet might be the best medium. And I think that the newspapers might have a international online version if they want to keep their staff working. but leave the local news off of it.. Make people buy the paper if they want local news. right?
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I have grown tired of newspapers since most of the stuff I read 2 days prior on the web and not via an online newspaper site.
I’m looking at this issue from a different point of view: I strongly believe that the most popular news source today is the “In the news” box on Yahoo’s main page.
Why? Because Yahoo aggregates the most pertinent topics for a general audience into a short list, and a large portion of the population (still) has Yahoo as their homepage.
Technology to do this per individual has come and gone because the vast majority aren’t interested in setting the rules to sift through stories. Conversely, every other news site on the planet takes the laundry list approach to listing headlines.
A good business could be made by reviving the portal model, but taking a less is more approach with content… and not bothering to expect users to contribute to the editing.
Exactly the reason I stopped reading the newspaper is because they stopped focusing on local news (their perfect, built-in niche) and spent too many pages on world news.
Instead of getting quality local stories by local journalists, I was getting day-old AP world news that I’d already seen online.
I don’t watch local TV news, listen to local radio or read the local paper. I get almost all of my news through the Internet. If I am job hunting I might pickup a local Sunday paper for the classifieds or I might read the weekend USAToday during breakfast on Saturday. Local radio has the same crap on every station and local TV news is one scare story after another (what about the children!). It’s no wonder that some of these businesses are going out of business.
My local newspaper is a proper local newspaper and I reckon something like that will always live. Some of this week’s headlines (it only comes out weekly):
Virus forces closure of lundy island
20 Sep: Lundy Island has been closed to the public until the start of October.Lundy bosses announced the “drastic action” to as they battle to stop a virus sweeping the island.
Unhappy ending for gingerbread house
20 Sep: Once upon a time there was a giant knitted gingerbread house that raised thousands of pounds for charity.But unlike other fairy stories, this tale has no happy ending.
Tip-off claims stolen church bells might be in ‘a large northern city’
20 Sep: Church bells worth £30,000 which were stolen from Merton may have been found.
Sewage surprise at the bottom of the garden
20 Sep: A barnstaple resident discovered something unsavoury in the stream at the bottom of his garden.
Those are proper headlines! If I want to know whats going on outside of my community, I can always read Dvorak…. 😀
Ben – Lundy! I love that place. My grandparents live in Northam and I’ve always enjoyed the large ammount of time I’ve spent around there, Westward Ho and Bideford.
Ah.. memories.
It is all about the content.
I publish a local newspaper and we use no wire service reports. We actually have compelling, local, original content and our circulation continues to grow.
If your front page is filled with yesterday’s AP, Drudge or Dvorak headlines then you will have a problem since people don’t want to read the same story twice.
I doesn’t have to be local. It just has to be interesting and not available elsewhere. Then you are 100% immune to the problems plaguing the big papers.
These rules are different if the paper is free. Then people will pick it up anyway, especially in a mass-transit commuter situation.
Dan, you called it. Local paper, local news. The local papers here have very little local news, and are ready to fold.
A brief mention of something national or international, sure, so people know to go looking. But, not most of the content.
The big news papers are too darn lazy and cheap to cover local news, and they are going to fold. Out of town news is too easy and cheap for readers to find for out of town news to carry the local papers.
Ha!
Hundreds newspapers but only a handful of owners.
I’ve given up on the local fishwrapper too.
Even the home & lifestyle articles are totally out of touch with the customers. How to stock my tornado shelter? Gimme a break, this is coastal California.
The jacked up the subscription price by charging every 4 weeks instead of monthly.
The delivery is by some faceless person that drives by in the morning and drops it in the street by the driveway. pffft. I WAS a real paper boy, I’d get an earful from the manager if did that.
The last reason to read was the funnies – until I found PHP Comics Grabber..
Talk about whistling in the wind
ebay doesn’t matter, Craig list bah
Any kid can set up a website
For $ 100 a year you can get tons with advanced features
and support
Yet it costs $ 100 to run a small ad once
Sort of reminds you of the old men in the yes men american auto industry
8. Gregory: I was wondering if anyone would recognize Lundy. Apparently not worth visiting at the moment. All 28 residents have the flu so the island has been closed to the public. Northam is great. Anywhere that has a golf course that is also used for public grazing of sheep and horses is alright in my books…. especially if its includes a beach at the end of it which is perfect for dog walking, kyte boarding, surfing or collecting shells….
12. barovelli: I think the problem with most ‘local’ newspapers is that they aren’t very local at all, they are just national newspapers with a bit of local branding added to it…..