The keys to newspaper survival
Online news consultant Vin Crosbie says newspapers and their Web sites must change their approach to publishing news if they want to stem declining readership and compete with other new information sources vying for readers' attention. He says newspapers need to do three things to survive:
• Use new technologies to match the newspaper's existing cornucopia of content to satisfy each individual reader's unique mix of interests
• Understand that the true convergence of newsprint, the Web, digital editions and wireless into a single unitary product not only is necessary but likely within 10 years
• Focus less on the industry's ability to produce content and more on its unique service of delivering to people a complete package of content -- a change that requires newsrooms and corporations to go beyond traditional definitions of "news" or "syndicated sources."
The big step, he says, is to abandon the idea of a generic publication and start matching the wealth of content to each reader -- a form of advanced personalization, the "Daily Me" that's been talked about ever since the Net started, combined with some editor input.
"No newspaper publisher needs to hand total customization to the readers. Instead, he or she can let their editor and readers share that control. The editor can ensure that each reader receives the prime stories and bulletins that the editor thinks all readers need to see. Meanwhile, each reader can customize their edition with whatever other subjects they want to receive from the newspaper's cornucopia of content."
Mar 04, 2004 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(0)
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