Friday, November 20, 2009

Why Newspapers Are Losing the Internet Battle

It has become a challenge for newspapers to survive in the digital world, and while most of them have embraced the Internet as a new medium to deliver their content, many are lagging when it comes to being ahead of the curve.

The evidence is in the facts: Classifieds used to be a newspapers owned industry, however the top online classifieds companies today are not associated to any newspaper (Craiglist, Kijiji, among many others). Most newspaper maintain their classified section and continue to push it as an extension of their print product, but are so constrained in their thinking because of their dire need to turn a quick coin that can't seem to understand that online business models differ from the conventional one they are so used to.



Unfortunately for newspapers, they are now in risk of losing on a business they have led for years: delivering information. With the emergence and massive adoption of blogging and micro-blogging tools, the slow machinery that are newspaper companies has allowed new competitors in the fields of breaking news reporting and investigative journalism.

Blogs provide in-depth coverage of almost every imaginable aspect of life (and the after life for that matter), and their excellent search rankings on Google and other search engines is helping them prevail over the classic newspaper columns, to the extent that many columnists have created their own blogs. The problem is the rigidity of newspaper companies. In a similar fashion as the music industry did several years ago when they didn't understand digital distribution, newspapers are focusing on protecting their rights over content, in turn creating complicated systems that are hard to use, slow to load, poorly indexed, and pretty much send consumers away to other sources.

While it took me a while to understand the role of Twitter in modern society, it finally stroke me: consumers have figured out ways to configure the micro-blogging phenomena to turn it into a breaking news gadget. The key is that they are able to determine "what" constitutes a breaking news event, versus being shown an editorially selected ticker promoting what the editor of a newspaper considers to be a breaking news event.

Not being able to understand the new balance of power around information and content is signaling the slow demise of some online newspapers. While some do generate revenues, these pale in comparison with the revenues once their predecessors (printed newspapers) used to bring home.

In a last effort to restore such balance, keep consumers, and remain alive, newspapers have begun increasingly adopting social tools and citizen journalism. The words are dropped in every boardroom and the challenge remains: what do they mean? Some taunt their commenting capabilities as means of sparking a conversation around content, but most do it so poorly that rather than a conversation all they spark is fury.

Again, the rigid machine fails to understand one of the basic principles of digital conversations (speed) and chooses safety instead. See, newspapers are so concerned about the potential backlash from consumers that they choose to review all comments before they are published. This means that if could take about 24 hours (sometimes more) before your reaction to a story is posted online. The problem is that in those 24 hours, many other stories have been published, and if you were interested in reading the reactions to your comment (as many of us are) then you'll find your self in a web of articles where it is virtually impossible to find the one where you posted a comment. What is even worse, by the time you find the article it's possible that your comment is still not posted.

How can you ensue conversations around a hot topic when you are focusing on filtering rather that the conversation itself? What happened to the good old "Report Abuse" button?

The good news is that solutions are simple and it might not be too late. Newspaper brands are still powerful and drive lots of audiences, so there is a chance that by correcting your mistakes of the past ten years you can still survive. Here are ten quick tips:

1) Get rid of your bulky content management system. It is just slowing you down, annoying your consumers, and quite frankly, driving you down extinction road.

2) Social means allowing societies to evolve around your product. Let it happen.

3) Classifieds are free: get it? Take a gander at Kijiji if you need a business model

4) Overlay ads? Really? Tell me something, during your days of print glory, did you ever printed an ad over your content?

5) Search... think of us when you re-think your search

6) Open authentication... no more registration forms please!

7) Consumers love pictures! They also like video, but they LOVE pictures. Bigger, better pictures that ensue conversations (think how much you comment on those Facebook albums)

8) Charging for content is a good business principle, but you will need to find a balance between quality and cost. Start with your archives... sell those first and see how it goes.

9) Invest! If a new business listing tool comes into market and you can snatch it and redeploy their technology as part of your own site: go for it! If a blogger is kicking your butt, buy him out or hire him.

10) Hire people who understand digital and blend them with two types of people: those who understand traditional print (because they do have a wealth of experience to share), and those who understand the business of making money.

The rest is up to you newspapers. Save yourself and change!

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