Wednesday, January 03, 2007
New media could and should be the saviours of local paper brands
I was interested to see in the advert for an Assistant news Editor job on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle that they’re looking for this person to “lead digital integration in the newsroom as well as playing a key role in managing and developing content in print.
“The successful applicant will have the motivation to seek out and implement ways of getting newspaper readers to look at the website and persuade internet browsers to buy the newspaper.
“The website will also require unique content to attract new people to the Chronicle brand.”
Finally, I thought, a newspaper which sees that the future for such media brands is publishing via electronic media, not print.
But how to go beyond where we are now? Well, here are a few ideas:
“The successful applicant will have the motivation to seek out and implement ways of getting newspaper readers to look at the website and persuade internet browsers to buy the newspaper.
“The website will also require unique content to attract new people to the Chronicle brand.”
Finally, I thought, a newspaper which sees that the future for such media brands is publishing via electronic media, not print.
But how to go beyond where we are now? Well, here are a few ideas:
- Make your content interactive – get readers involved by allowing them to contribute via UGC including Digg and del.ici.ous-style voting/tagging for things like local restaurants, films , gigs and plays alongside the opinions of the trained critics (BBC already allows comments on articles, as do some other sites)
- “The Full Edit” - make full-out, subbed copy available via the Web when the print version has had to be cut for space. Web pages have no defined length (but shouldn’t go on forever), so let readers enjoy all the detail once it’s been subbed! This creates extra value for Web readers, encouraging them to stay longer.
- A “Stop Press” section for news after deadline seems fairly obvious, but should be limited to late stories and those with late developments which won’t hold to the next day’s print edition. But all of this ONLY for local news. If people want world or national news, they’ll probably go elsewhere. Become the place for local news. Don’t try to take on the national media brands for national and international news not related to your area.
- Reward readers for switching channels with “Easter eggs” – like giving the URL of special pages on the Web for print readers only in the paper – maybe with special competitions. Likewise, you could have vouchers on the website for Web readers to print out and redeem for, say, a discounted print edition (increasing readership and circulation via VFD). The latter could be linked to demographic info on the reader they input as part of a registration process to get extras from the site. Marketing and advertisers would like that proof of who’s reading the Web and the paper.
Through this process you should be able to incentivise readers to try the other medium.
