Loading ...If all media reports are accurate, then journalism is dying. But are all reports actually accurate and is the issue really about journalism? According to Drew Curtis of Fark.com, the answer to both is no. Abby Johnson of WebProNews recently had the opportunity to talk with Curtis about these very issues that are plaguing the media industry.
First of all, Curtis says the problem is with the newspapers and not journalism itself. In order to save the newspaper industry, he believes very creative things need to happen.
One creative innovation that is not the white knight for print is the iPad. Despite the numerous reports that have indicated that the device would save newspapers, Curtis says the reality is that people are not going to pay for something that they can get somewhere else for free.
People seem to believe that if subscription revenues were higher, the print industry would be fine. But as Curtis points out, “They’re not going to pay for ubiquitous value.”
Although new media bring many new opportunities to journalism, journalists have to understand how it works. Most journalists mistakenly think that social media simply drives a lot of traffic and therefore devote all their time to increasing their numbers. But in order for social media to really help journalists, they need to realize that content does not spread just because it goes out to a lot of users. Instead, the way to get it to spread is to make it compelling.
The problem with newspapers is … they are not websites. Take, for example, the Los Angeles Times. Once, long ago, it wanted to be a newspaper serving the Los Angeles region. No more! Now, it aims to be a website that serves no region and all regions.
Newspapers have value as LOCAL news sources in a NEWSPAPER format.
Trying to provide national and international news as a primary focus is a terrible idea, given that real websites and newsfeeds can get that info to the masses much faster and much less expensively than any regional newspaper could possibly do.
And when the newspaper gets all junked up with section after section after subheading after subheading, it loses the very pleasant feeling one used to get when reading it. It used to feel like … a newspaper. Now, it feels like a badly done website. It’s so frenetic, it’s difficult to sit down with a cup of coffee and the paper in the morning. Jamming ads in the middle of copy works when click-through is important, but it is intrusive and annoying when it interrupts the reading experience in print.
So, as a former newspaper production artist/art director for a couple of decades, my advice to newspapers is: Return to your roots as a local news source and do that better than every other source, and return to your design roots as a column-based, easy-to-read content delivery system.
You are losing sight of your customers by mistakenly thinking that everyone wants the web experience for everything. We don’t. We want our newspapers back.