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.

For offline publishers, one of the biggest online problem areas is headlines. As Marshall Simmonds of The New York Times and Define Search Strategies points out, some journalists have been specifically educated to write captivating headlines. While those headlines appeal to audiences passing by newsstands and street corners, they do not achieve the same success on the Web.

The search engines are looking for titles that are very literal, brief, and specific. Simmonds said his consulting firm is trying to essentially “undo” an approximated 154-year-old system. To reverse that system, offline publishers must change the way they think about writing in order to reach their audience. In addition, traditional media must understand who their audience is and what they are looking for.

Although traditional media still has a lot of catching up to do, the aforementioned statistics do shed a ray of hope on the industry. Also, since offline publishers seem to be embracing social media rather quickly, maybe there is a future for traditional publishers online after all.

During his speech in London, Barber said that he is unsure of how newspaper organizations will be charging for content. He stated that charging on an article-by-article basis is an option, as well as charging a monthly subscription fee. Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation made a statement back in May proclaiming that his newspaper websites would likely be charging for content within a year as well, and a survey sent out recently by the New York Times asked subscribers if they would be willing to pay a monthly subscription fee of $5 for access to their news content online.

Another aspect to take into consideration is what charging for content will do to bloggers. Countless bloggers rely on the free news provided by online news organizations for their content. Can bloggers afford to pay the monthly subscription fees? But, more importantly can they really afford not to pay the fees?

A move like this will either make or break the newspaper industry. If a subscription fee is put in place news sites could charge more for online ads because the ads would be reaching a more targeted demographic of subscribers, but would the number of readers drop so significantly that it would not pay off for the newspaper organizations in the long run?

No matter which way you spin it, the newspapers have to do something to compete in the digital age, and maybe charging for content is just the ticket. We will just have to wait and see.

]]> http://videos.webpronews.com/2009/07/how-much-are-you-willing-to-pay-for-news/feed/ 21 http://videos.webpronews.com/2009/05/whats-killing-the-newspapers/ http://videos.webpronews.com/2009/05/whats-killing-the-newspapers/#comments Fri, 15 May 2009 16:01:08 +0000 Abby Johnson http://videos.webpronews.com/?p=4684 As ironic as it may be, newspapers are currently topping their own headlines. Well-known newspapers such as The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times are not only downsizing employees, but are also cutting sections and features from their publications. While the newspaper industry appears to be dying, the news itself is actually flourishing in other forms.

What’s the reason for all this? Some blame the economy and expect the government to bail out the newspapers. U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin introduced the Newspaper Revitalization Act to Congress, which would allow newspapers to operate as non-profit organizations if they wanted to. This week, Governor Chris Gregoire of Washington State approved a tax break for newspaper printers and publishers.

Some newspapers blame Google for their struggles claiming the search engine is stealing their content. Search industry leader Danny Sullivan disagrees. He believes newspapers actually get “special treatment” from Google. There are news publications that do not appear in Google news, but so many of the complaining newspapers do. These newspapers also receive a tremendous amount of traffic from Google that many other publications would readily appreciate.

Lastly, some even say the newspapers have created their own crisis. Has the newspaper industry embraced the Internet to its full potential? Could they have approached advertising in a different way that could have produced better benefits for them? Are they monetizing their traffic in the most effective manner?