Newspapers Struggle to Respond to Web Challenge
The newspaper business is bad and getting worse. The Web is stealing the industry's readers, advertisers, revenues and even its enthusiasm for the business. But as newspapers struggle to respond, lessons for other industries confronting disruptive technologies are emerging.
Quickly, the News Journal jumped from two people editing video to at least 17. With the Sony cameras, the Journal was posting 50 videos a month. The following month, after moving to the simpler hardware and iMovie, it posted 195 videos. Meanwhile, readers have responded, as traffic on Delawareonline.com continues to climb. In December 2005, the site reported 3.9 million news page views. In October 2006, that number jumped to nearly 6.5 million. And Paul says the News Journal will continue to push for the good enough approach.
“I’m sure some purists will disagree,” he says. “If you’re the New York Times or the Washington Post, and you have the people and time, go ahead and do it. I don’t have that luxury.”
What Do Readers Want?
As Time magazine aptly noted by making “You” its Person of the Year, everyone on the Internet has a voice and no longer needs to vault the entry barrier posed by a newspaper’s heavily edited and sometimes censored Letters to the Editor page. Gannett’s Carroll says this is forcing a huge shift in how papers view their readers. “We have the opportunity to be much more democratic than we’ve ever been before,” she says. Innosight’s Anthony says this change epitomizes another disruptive technology concept: A business’s relationship with potential customers can change abruptly. In these conditions, he says, identifying new customers can be baffling and requires a lot of trial and error.
Newspapers, for instance, have been using customization tools to gain a better understanding of what their readers want and need. The New York Times is beta testing My Times, which allows users to create a personal homepage with stories on their favorite topics and by their favorite writers—even if they are from competing news sources. At the Seattle Times, users can move content blocks—from business, sports, arts, local news—up and down the page in the order they find most desirable. “No one really uses it,” says Seattletimes-.com’s Farrar. “But we’re constantly evolving” and trying new things.
In Indiana, the Gannett-owned Indianapolis Star launched a website called IndyMoms.com, an outlet for mothers to discuss, post and read relevant content. It has not only helped editorial hit a niche customer, but the advertising department has reaped the benefits. “We’re able to say to advertisers, ‘If you’re interested in young women, especially mothers, we are now growing our audience and we have numbers to show the extensive traffic,’” says Carroll.
