Changing Times

Because no one in charge in our industry has any foresight to figure out how we need to change with the times, and we're all just content to sit and watch ourselves die — anyone read the recent article in The New Yorker? — some of my staff and I have been talking about ways to change.

Basically, we've been thinking of ways to interact our print product with our Web page, such as when we get wind of a breaking story, we'll blog about it, then refer to tomorrow's edition and vice versa.

Apply that to, say, a prep football Friday night. After the game, blog the nuts and bolts — final score, key stats, how the game affected league standings, maybe even a quote — then, instead of writing a gamer for the print editon, write a column about the game.

When I read metro coverage of my favorite pro and college teams, I ALWAYS go to the columns and features first, and I read the gamer last, if at all. You could still run photos with the columns, and put coach, player quotes in as well.

I live in a small town, and I am constantly approached on the street, and people ALWAYS want to know my THOUGHTS on sports. They already know the facts. They don't need newspapers for that anymore. They want our opinions.

Again, the world is changing, but we aren't.

Thoughts please.

 

Break news on the Web, provide context in print. Seems simple to me.

Or maybe that's overly simplistic. Who knows? I've already applied with Target's warehouse anyway.

Edited, finally, to reflect MMSw's correction below. Mea culpa.

 

I've pitched the whole "break news on web, follow up in print, and cross promote" to death.

It's fallen on deaf ears at three papers now — dating back four years.

I haven't applied at Target, but I'm heading back to school.

 

Hoo, can you link the New Yorker article?

WTF, it's late, and I'm beaten down at this hour.

 

Yeah, it took our paper awhile, but we've finally got a clue about the whole Internet thing, and we're on our way to doing pretty decent. That said, by the time the industry gets things settled with transitioning to the Internet, I'll be long gone.

 

i think this is the article he's referring to.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/04/03/060403ta_talk_surowiecki

 

Actually, that's not the story I was referring to. The one I was talking about was titled, "Out of Print: The death and life of newspapers."

I only have a hard copy, and did a search for it on The New Yorker Web site, but came up empty.

 

That seems a tad bit ironic, doncha think?

 

Where does the print product fill in if it's neither for breaking news or providing context.

 

Could be mistaken, but I think he meant provide context in print.

 

ok, well the article i found was pretty good. anyway, here's the one you read:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_alterman?currentPage=all

 

It was an interesting read, but the section on Lippman and Dewey ... would ... not ... end.