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BREAKING NEWS: The Seattle P-I newspaper is being put up for sale. Steve Swartz, president of Hearst Newspaper Division, told the newsroom that Hearst Corp. is starting a 60-day process to find a buyer. If a buyer is not found, Swartz said, possible options include creating an all digital operation, or shutting down the paper.
I'm not a booster for the P-I, but this newspaper does have a number of pulitzers under its belt, and I'm curious, is there a way to save the paper? I'm wondering if Hearst's Steve Swartz shouldn't sit down with Google's CEO Eric Schmidt Google's CEO Wants To Help Newspapers With Online Revenues [webmasterworld.com], to discuss strategies?
It seems Google or Microsoft would have the ability to serve up locally targeted advertising to a worldwide audience now-- so, say, a visitor reading the Seattle article in New York can see ads filtered for the New York marketing region, to improve relevance, clickthrough and conversion. Seems the PI audience and demographics are decent enough to support a going concern, according to Quantcast anyway.
What would you advise for a newspaper to have a shot at making it as an all-digital operation?
Since I don't live in Seattle I have no idea how important this paper is. But if it's a big enough brand then they're in a good position to experiment with various ways of making money online, and to figure out what works best before they go bust. One thing's for certain, and it's that a lot of regional papers have been going out of business lately.
however traditional media and reporting IMO is pretty much a cesspool and more about sensatinalism than actual news and information. So the death knell? OK by me. there's a lot more vitality online.
Heck, I get more, fresher news by reading forums than I do from my local paper. AND I get better opinions and thoughts on the news - in a format that is clearly opinion based; unlike traditional news which treats opinion and bias as the news.
...possible options include creating an all digital operation, or shutting down the paper.
D'Oh! More link bait!
Who has ever heard of this particular newspaper? No one? That's what I thought. It's one more print-based dinosaur on the cusp of...
Regardless, if you worked in the media you would know that the entire industry is based on success and failure or Life & Death.
Newspapers and magazines fail everyday. That's been the way of Publishing for as long as commercial printing presses have existed (note the word 'commercial'). It's not as simple as 'digital or print'. If you ask that question you don't know your audience - nor understand how audiences interact with you!
The questions should be about how you can work, develop and succeed in both spheres.
Syzygy
D'Oh! More link bait!
No, not link bait, just a discussion about yet another newspaper in trouble [webmasterworld.com], and I'm wondering, if it were to go all-online, how it might make it. Is it even possible?
I worry about what will fill the vacuum as news organizations disappear. It's the news gathering side I'm concerned about-- cheap distribution is no problem these days.
Discussion boards aren't a substitute since they tend to discuss it rather than create news (except perhaps on niche topics like search engines) because creating it is a lot of work. IMO.
I find reading the PI online is easy with a modern layout. The Times has kept their layout pretty easy but conservative.
But as for paper, I bought and have sitting on my desk a sunday PI paper Dec 7, 08 and STILL have not opened it.
All the local news outlets here have discussion boards but rarely do they have anything to add to the story, the exception is when someone gets desperate for news and runs AP news blurbs for local incidents on the local news site. Its laughable the amount of incorrect or misleading information those stories have.
SeattlePI surviving even just online? Would love to see it but its not going to happen without a huge gift of free money.
Seattle PI surviving even just online? Would love to see it but its not going to happen without a huge gift of free money.
Maybe you're on to something-- a non-profit, National Public Newspaper run on donations, like public broadcasting wouldn't be a bad idea.
All the local news outlets here have discussion boards but rarely do they have anything to add to the story, the exception is when someone gets desperate for news and runs AP news blurbs for local incidents on the local news site. Its laughable the amount of incorrect or misleading information those stories have.
Incorrect and misleading information in is a symptom of the bigger problem that is only getting worse-- that of the old business model supporting journalism organizations is failing. No doubt journalism has value, the question is, how can the journalism aspect of newspapers generate money to support the activity?
Discussion boards on newspapers are just awful-- most often they're not discussions at all but just places for hacks to post toxic political opinions and ambush suckers in pointless arguments. Perhaps the people posting merely need to state their name and it would get better, I don't know. But your point about fora being a news gathering vehicle can work and I've seen it work, for example on a community blog that get input from many neighbors on a problem, like the recent snowstorms and its citizen reports. This no doubt provides practical info that has value, but isn't the kind of penetrating journalism I think is falling to the wayside.
Still, I have a hard time believing that serious journalism can't find a business model to support it. There must be a way.
What makes the SPI different to every other business? I fear I must be missing something!
Do you work for them? ;)
I see a huge opportunity there just on an seo level.
That's the intriguing thing. The P-I and the Times (its regional competitor) share the same domain name, so if the P-I should fold, the Times will indeed have a huge opportunity in acquiring the P-I's subdomains, and risks a great loss to its online prominence if barred from using it or just drops it. The P-I, on the other hand, is stuck with Seattle and NWsource in its online brand, unless throws away the equity its developed in its site.
What makes the SPI different to every other business?
I don't know... I suppose my interest comes from the more general health and vitality of the media than whether a single company lives or closes, and no I don't have a personal connection with or stake in this newspaper other than living in the same city. To be honest I'm actually peeved with them at the moment. But I've been interested in the media issue for years, and I think thriving, inquisitive journalism is the oxygen supply for democracy to survive, and that's the stake I have in this issue. From what I can tell, the health of the media is poor and I don't like what I see with consolidation and uniformity in the media, or with media serving only self-serving, commercial interests, or serving political interests, in any case suffocating a diversity of thinking. That's just no good for me.
But it is true that I don't like the idea of people getting thrown out of work right now... I wouldn't wish it on anyone, mainly because my own family was affected by big changes that bit pretty deep, growing up, and am not so glib about it happening to others.
I also think a city like Seattle has a culture that might be game to try a new angle, maybe come up with a winning strategy for an old business using techniques that didn't exist not long ago. It's interesting to think about.
No doubt journalism has value, the question is, how can the journalism aspect of newspapers generate money to support the activity?
Indeed, journalism still has value, even and especially in these blog-mired times. But, what's the point of it nowadays? From a publisher's or editor's perspective the use of 'journalism' can offer the advantages of:
1. Positioning
2. Relevancy
3. Branding
4. Readership
Oh, and not forgetting the money part of the publishing equation, which is a good sales manager & team with a quality sales pitch based on the points identified and a solid understanding of the needs of the client...
Ta-Da - Instant Publishing Success!
Syzygy
serious journalism
Craigslist is another example. Most folks don't care how much money they've stripped from newspapers. Those that think about it probably think 'good for them'.
A few years ago I went to advertise an antique car I owned. And by antique, I mean 'junk'. I wanted to advertise the car for roughly $2k US. The local paper wanted something like $300 to run an ad for a couple of days. I was shocked, I could advertise online in targetted places for like $20 - and get national exposure. their response was that $300 to 'make' $2000 was more than reasonable. Geeesh!
I could go on at length at the depths of ignorance of the traditional printed news outlets, and I don't see how their journalism adds anything to what is readily available in better formats elsewhere. They're dinosaurs in the middle of an ice age, complaining about the pesky mammals. They didn't keep up, but they've got no one to blame but themselves. I think they actually had the opportunity to dominate the web if they'd thought about it.
I think they actually had the opportunity to dominate the web if they'd thought about it.
I think news organizations still do have the opportunity to dominate the Web with so many professional writers at their disposal workin everyday to generate quality content, if they just knew what to do. Focusing some more effort on building up evergreen content would probably help, as would integrating neighborhood news blogs with paid staff seeding them with quality content, with a good IA plan to base the build-out and some networking with quality niche sites.
I could go on at length at the depths of ignorance of the traditional printed news outlets, and I don't see how their journalism adds anything to what is readily available in better formats elsewhere. They're dinosaurs in the middle of an ice age, complaining about the pesky mammals. They didn't keep up, but they've got no one to blame but themselves. I think they actually had the opportunity to dominate the web if they'd thought about it.
I'm with Wheel; if they've done so little - and as an industry, that's true, with a few exceptions - how can they hope to catch up after 10 years of kicking their heels?
Without huge cash investment, they have little hope - and as they've left it to the point of already losing most of their classifieds, who'd back them now? Misty-eyed philanthropists? perhaps. Businessmen? unlikely. Entrepreneurs ... no way.
Classified ads have been the life blood of newspapers for a hundred years, and they've allowed it to bleed away.
And it's not only newspapers; many magazines had a monopoly of job ads (especially professional mags); they've happily paid huge dividends to their shareholders while their Golden Goose Monopoly has been starving to death.
[side note: I worked on a magazine that had over 90% of the job ads in their niche. When we developed the web site, no-one opposed us more than the journos, and the company allowed them to veto anything that 'might threaten the print magazine' - which was almost anything we wanted to do. They spent a fortune on the web site, then hog tied it at every opportunity. That title no longer dominates either in print, or on the web. 100% self inflicted damage]
The Print combined content and ads; the web has developed a different model. Classified and job sites exist perfectly well as stand-alone sites, with no particular need or desire to provide quality editorial content, let alone financing journalists.
In recent years, the dependence has been more and more on display ads - but that is not an appropriate model for journalism for at least two reasons:
1. Display advertisers, unlike jobs/classifieds, expect to have leverage over content. We've all heard of cases where the print has kept its mouth shut for fear of offending advertisers (one reason why the US auto industry has been allowed to get in such a mess).
2. Traditional display advertisers are also moving their money to the web, either through their own web sites, or web advertising. That trend is accelerating.
Journalism will survive, of course it will, but not in its traditional form.
Hearst asks P-I staff for Web site ideas [seattlepi.nwsource.com]
"Invent what journalism can and should be at a lean online-only operation."
edit: cleaned up a link reference
[edited by: Bentler at 5:00 pm (utc) on Jan. 18, 2009]
