“It’s hard to predict things,particularly things in the future”

-- Yogi Berra, Yankee Great

What a Change …

… from April 2005, ASNE• One panel on the

Future of Newspapers

• Another on young readers

… to October 2005, APME• New Competitors; New

Demands• The New Normal • Our Shrinking

Newsrooms• New Products for New

Readers• News on the Web• Convergence

What Happened in Between?

Was it Rupert?“… as an industry, many of us have been remarkably, unaccountably complacent. Certainly, I didn’t do as much as I should have after all the excitement of the late 1990’s. I suspect many of you in this room did the same, quietly hoping that this thing called the digital revolution would just limp along.”

– ASNE, April 13, 2005

Was it all Those Bloggers?• A blogger is just

“a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas.”

– Jonathan Klein,

President, CNN/US

The Blogosphere• Technorati (www.technorati.com) reports:

– 19.6 million web logs– About 70,000 new blogs tracked each day

• 1 new blog every second

– 55% still posting after three months – 700,000 -1.3 Million posts each day

• 33,000 posts per hour

– Blogosphere doubles in size every 5.5 months

Was it this Man? • Craigslist

– Taking $50-$65 million/year out of Bay Area class market

• (Compare that to your newsroom budget)

– Localizes ad listings in 120 cities in 21 countries

– Overall reach: 34 countries, 175 cities

• Visits up 62% since 2004– Number tripled in past year

to 2.4 billion a month

Or Was it This?

Whatever the Reason …

… an industry that

wouldn’t change…

… 10 Years Ago • “Newspapers have made almost every

kind of radical move except transforming themselves. It's as if they've considered every possible option but the most urgent – change. … That makes newspapers the biggest and saddest losers in the information revolution”

– Jon Katz, Wired magazine, 09/1994– http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.09/news.suck.html

… or Even Last Year• “Despite the new

demands, there is more evidence than ever that the mainstream media are investing only cautiously in building new audiences”

– State of the News Media, 2005, Project for Excellence in

Journalism– http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2005/

… Beginning to Change

CommunictionConvergence

ContentCommerce

The Audience WAS Listening

… Now it is Talking Back

News is a Conversation

… So Let’s Join In

Change: Communication“Readers and Web site users now feel free to challenge decision makers here, a development many of us in the newsroom welcome, although some editors resent the second-guessing. Get used to it. … Interactivity is the future. People want to be heard.”

– Bob Rivard,Editor, San Antonio Express-News

06/19/05

Change: Communication“Our public editor, Ted Vaden, posted … on a conference on journalism and blogging. He quotes media critic Jay Rosen (whose PressThink blog is well-traveled) saying journalists are ‘used to being the filter from God, but people don't accept that anymore.’ Heavens. Perhaps Rosen has spent too much time peering at journalism through the lens of his computer screen.”

– Melanie Sill,Editor, Raleigh News & Observer

10/10/05

Change: Convergence• Merging print & online

– “… One of the biggest long-term challenges facing our craft is to invent a digital journalism and new services for our readers that both live up to our high standards and help carry the cost of a great news-gathering organization.”

– Bill Keller

Executive Editor, New York Times08/02/05

Readers Seen One Product

• "A significant percentage of newspaper readers have transferred their preference from print to online editions"

– Gerry Davidson, Nielsen//NetRatings

Change: Content“We are going to change the character and content of the paper without undermining our journalistic principles.”

– Earl Maucker, Editor

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel06/21/05

Change: Content“We gave up on being all things to all people. What we hope to be is some very meaningful things to the distinct reader groups we’ve identified.”

– Monica Moses,

Deputy M.E.

Star Tribune10/10/05

Change: Commerce• Papers being born …

– “The Examiner papers -- the name has been trademarked in more than 60 cities around the nation -- are attempting to carve out a niche in which their snappy graphics and succinct articles find a place among busy urban readers.”

– Baltimore Sun, 10/18/05

Change: Commerce• Papers being closed

– ``The publications have been losing money consistently for several years. Despite our best efforts to increase revenue, we simply have not been able to gain the level of support to be financially viable.''

– George Riggs,Publisher, Mercury News

10/22/05

OK, Smart Guy …

Now What?

No More Accidental Journalism• Page 1 is “often a happy

accident”– Says editor at a top 20

U.S. newspaper (not this one)

• That means it is:– Haphazard vs. thoughtful– Opportunistic vs. planned– Luck of the daily draw vs.

drawn from a long-term strategy

Intentional Journalism • Ask yourself this:

– You’re given your current newsroom budget and told: Make any kind of news operation you want.

– Would you make the same newspaper?

– Would you create the same beats, departments, production and decision-making processes?

– Would you hire the same people?– Would you design the paper and its

web site in the same formats?

OF COURSE NOT!

So … how do we overcome the inertia, culture and tradition that

keep us from changing?

Newspaper Culture• Aggressive-Defensive

– People forcefully protect status and security– Perfectionistic: Avoid all mistakes– Oppositional: Poor group problem-solving and "watered-down" solutions– Pervasive in fast-paced environments

• Passive-Defensive– Dependent and conventional behaviors– Do what it takes to please others– Jobs narrowly defined– Success not celebrated, but mistakes punished– “Protected" organizations: government agencies, regulated and

monopoly industries

– Readership Institute

Explode the Newsroom

Re-think, Refocus, Re-invent

Seven Ideas to Build On

Explode the Newsroom• Don’t Tinker,

Explode– Big rewards come from big

bets, bold moves into new territory – tabs, niches, citizen journalism, blogs

– Adding a columnist or rearranging type-faces isn’t enough

– Papers that survive will have learned how to adapt and exploit current emerging markets.

– Risk-taking is a learnable skill. Teach it. Reward it.

Explode the Newsroom• The 10% Solution

– Devote 10 percent of the newsroom budget each year to product and staff development

– Goal: Restructuring traditional, content silos

– Goal: People who have the cross-disciplinary skills.

– You can’t change your newspaper over night, but you can do it in a decade – 10 percent at a time

Explode the Newsroom

• Go Horizontal, Not Vertical– Tear down the Sports, News, Features and

Business silos• Reconstitute around virtual communities: Moms,

singles, baseball fans, age, etc. • Want younger readers, for example? Devote a

department’s worth of editors, reporters, photographers, designers and online producers

Explode the Newsroom• Go Weekly -- Every

Day– Mass is dead; class

matters– Old: A little for

everyone– New: More for fewer– Old: Mass media– New: A mass of niches

Explode the Newsroom• Be the Tip of the

Information Iceberg– Reverse the print-

online priority equation – Publish more online

than in print – Print can’t match the:

• Virtual newshole• Endless conversation• Power of relational

advertising

Explode the Newsroom• Lead from the

Middle, Not the Top – You cannot lead from

behind the desk– Reporters and line

editors want direction, want to learn

– Edit more, manage less

• Get the editors out of the offices and onto the newsroom floor

Explode the Newsroom• Don’t Cover the Community,

Be the Community*– Empower readers, enable citizen

journalism– Aggregate and celebrate their voices– Get engaged. Lead civic discourse. Be

on the side of the people– Dig, dig, dig – into the public officials,

civic and corporate institutions and the flow of money. This is a differentiating capability of newspapers.

* (Thanks to Hodding Carter)

Explode the Newsroom• Seven Ideas to Build On

1. Don’t Tinker, Explode

2. The 10% Solution

3. Structure Horizontally, Not Vertically

4. Go Weekly -- Every Day

5. Be the Tip of the Information Iceberg

6. Lead from the Middle, Not the Top

7. Don’t Cover the Community, Be the Community

Questions?

Tim Porter tim@timporter.com

www.timporter.com/firstdraft415-381-9945