In all of the bad news surrounding the economy, generally, and my industry in particular, there appeared a tiny ray of (dare I say it) sunshine. A new report from Nielsen Co. showed that the nation’s top newspaper websites are seeing pretty good growth in readership, as is the Eagle’s website.
The catch, of course, is making enough money off of them.
3 Comments
You could just go all online. Skip the printing, although I don’t know if that will still be enough to keep all the reporters and staff there.
I know the Detroit Free Press only delivers two days a week, and publishes just a 32 page paper.
The problem with going all online is that you are essentially telling your already disinterested readership that you are, in fact, irrelevant while turning your back on your most loyal customers – subscribers actually paying because they want your product!
There’s no doubt that there was great potential in online products and great potential to capture some advertising revenue from them. The problem is that most newspapers were too slow to respond and were beat out by other entities. For instance, the Internet now allows sports organizations like the NFL and MLB to produce *and publish* their own content rather than relying on newspapers for coverage, which brings up issues of another sort. Further, most online concepts were cheesy at best (at least no one else was doing cheesy at the time) and were produced by an already overworked and uninspired staff.
So what’s next? Well, online newspaper readership will continue to grow as there’s been no proven successful paid subscription model meaning content will continue to be given away for free. From a public service aspect, that’s great. From a business perspective, that’s not so great. Newspapers should get back to doing what they did best before the onslaught of niche publications became the priority: reporting relevant news to the greater community better than anyone else. In-depth reporting that actually serves a purpose. Ever notice how morning TV shows and radio programs usually rely on newspaper headlines for their own content? It’s almost as if newspapers have dumbed themselves down for just that audience. Features on parades and expos at Century II, while filling the pages, will not accomplish this goal and will not attract readers.
Good journalism takes time and money. The newspaper business has ran out of time and is nearly out of money, at least so long as they are corporately controlled.
I need the printed edition also because I miss so many other stories when I just use on line. The best info is the ads. I notice the printed ones easier than the on line ones.