More Bad News for Newspapers: Your Main Offering Is Your – Free! – Website
Newspapers say they won’t have a print edition in only a few years’ time; view Google and the Internet – the largest distribution channel they ever had, and for free! – as their enemy; seem to think that the world will come to a standstill the day they will take their content off the web; and, contrary to all evidence, seem optimistic that the public will be happy to pay for their content.
I think they’re wrong on all the above points. And it’s nothing less than shocking to see that the folly runs so deep that the Associated Press thinks it can charge $ 12.50 just to let you quote 5 words of one of their articles on your blog, not to mention that they’re acting as if fair use didn’t exist, and even try to charge you for quoting words and works that are in the public domain.
First, I agree with Malcolm Gladwell: the printed newspaper is a pretty cool product.
Even though the printed version of the paper is on the decline, I think there is still room for a printed newspaper. After all, not every print publisher is losing money, and there are opportunities to be had, both on the high end and on the low end, and perhaps even somewhere in the middle, as long as papers are willing to forget about the margins they used to enjoy. And while I think that newspapers should explore the opportunities offered by the E-paper and the mobile phone versions, I think they should not blind themselves to the fact that these are, at best, untested, and that the centerpiece of their offering must be their free website, and for many good reasons.
The web is where people are and where people look for the news. Choose not to be there, or to shut yourself off from the traffic Google sends your way by making your content available only to those who pay – and no, an iTunes model does not make sense – and in 5 years’ time nobody will remember about you. The same that applies to e-commerce is true here: choose not to sell (not to publish your articles) on the web, and somebody else will gladly do it in your place. As Clay Shirky rightly said, it doesn’t make sense to talk about a publishing industry when the publishing part of the business has actually become very simple. The cost of running a press on the web is very low, so there will always be content – though not necessarily quality content. If you choose not to let us read your articles, we will miss you. But you will miss us even more dearly.
The web is the best market research tool ever invented. Which articles get read the most? Commented on the most? Linked by blogs the most? Is it not perhaps time to fire that expensive foreign correspondent who keeps on turning out average, lifeless articles or whose articles get little attention anyway on your paper – and hire a couple of local investigative reporters instead? Can you do this kind of research with the paper version, or on the Kindle? Not really. On the web, people can ready any paper they want. Which part of the news you carry in print is interesting on the web? Concentrate on those news. Cover local news. Serve your community. The NY Times won’t do that. That’s your opportunity. Even your printed paper will be better as a result.
The web is the social and collaborative tool we use to try to make sense of reality. With the paper version, or the E-Paper version, we can read YOUR version. It’s interesting, but not enough. We want links. We don’t want you to speak down to us. Links to your sources, to raw data, to editorials with different opinions, to blogs, to other newspapers on international matters or on things you are not an expert about etc. Why? Because the web is made of links (it’s how it works); because links have value; because readers don’t want to take your word for everything. Today, filtering news does not mean summarizing everything in your article once and for all, but rather linking out to other points of view and trying to help your readers make sense of the world around them, with your help and on their own. And if you think this, too, is going to go back into the box because you will offer us a safe E-Paper version of what you offer us today, you’re wrong.
The web is the social environment in which news are going to be read, shared and judged. Unlike what was happening only 10 years ago, online readers today have access to news sources and the tools to filter the news. That was a large part of the role the newspaper played. That’s over. What can newspapers do today? How about give their readers the opportunity to interact with one another? Let your readers vote (up or down) every single article, let them leave (threaded) comments on every article, ask your journalists to at least follow these conversations, and sometimes reply to comments, let readers vote (up or down) comments, let them create a user profile with all the articles they liked and all the comments they left, let them connect with their friends and see what their friends read, let them meet new people whose comments they like etc. They might even help you understand what to put on the first page of the paper tomorrow!
The web can be profitable. Do something smart and brave, like opening up to the web, and reap the rewards. Stop thinking you can’t double your readership. You can. And while not cheap, the web is open, while the cost of publishing an E-Paper with the Kindle, or a mobile version for the iPhone, is and will remain high, and the toll you will be asked to pay to Amazon, Apple and the mobile phone operators will make Google look like your best friend in comparison.
Embrace the web without fear – you could be surprised by how well you end up doing!