Introduction
Today newspapers are struggling. They are struggling to adapt. The are struggling to make money through advertising. They are struggling on taking advantage of the internet. And possibly most important, They are struggling to engage and interact with their readers.
This is an article on how to fix these problems. How newspapers can change, be revived and re-created.
Custom Newspapers
Through an online system subscribers choose what kind of content they would like in their newspapers. Papers are printed specifically for one person and RIFD tags allow them to be sorted to be delivered. In the cities, people can choose which newspaper box they will pick their custom newspaper up at.
Newspapers will also include major headlines so that people can read more about them online. In addition articles and stories that friends have recently enjoyed could be published in your custom newspaper.
Advertisements can also be customized and geared towards a persons interests. Thus allowing for many more options for advertisers.
Obviously, this would be a major re-creation of the infrastructure for newspaper companies but it is possible and in the long run will pay for itself. This saves cost on paper and ink by only printing stories that people want to read.
Participation
People can submit news stories, photos, and videos online. People will then be able to vote on them and the highest ranking stories will be published in the paper or promoted on the website. This will allow for people to become more involved in the process and newspaper industry.
Digital Media
Newspapers should start and continue to publish digital content online. Videos, podcasts, photos and interactive stories are very important and are an added bonus for the newspaper subscribers. Social networking can be built into the newspaper sites as well, allowing friends to share content.
We have already seen newspapers take classifieds, stocks and other information out of newspapers and put it online. This will continue due to the money being saved.
Conclusion
There is a certain essence and feeling of picking up a newspaper and reading it, and this is something that I would not like to see go away. But keep in mind that this news delivered on paper must be accompanied by digital media, user participation and new advertising techniques.
For more articles on the future of newspapers check out the link below.
Del.icio.us Newspaper Bookmarks
To all the newspapers out there, I wish you the best of luck on your journey to revive and re-create the newspaper.
(This ideas are the intellectual property of Ethan Bodnar. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2007 Ethan Bodnar.)
Nicely said, Ethan. Keep it up.
Good post and interesting points. A few thoughts:
I really like the idea of custom newspapers, though I don’t know if it’s a very cost-effective thing quite yet. However, I could see daily newspapers slimming down their print products and targeting them to different niche audiences.
I think it’s foolish to assume that people participate in the online product and newspaper at the same time.
From what I’ve seen, fewer than 20% of the people who read the news online also subscribe to the print product. They’re essentially two separate audiences, which is good because it helps dispel the myth that online cannibalizes the print product.
Ultimately, I don’t think newspapers are struggling as much as they’re made out to struggle, though. The layoffs and problems you
here about are mostly coming from publicly owned papers where if investors don’t see higher returns each year, they see a loss in value.
There aren’t many industries out there making upwards of 20% returns that are considered dying.
@Eric: Thanks.
@Zac: I appreciate your remarks. However I think it is posible for the same person to get their news online and in print.
Greetings from Germany, Ethan. Got the link to your blog from http://www.buzzmachine.com.
Interesting thoughts, but I am not sure, if the “personal newspaper” really is the future. If you decide one time, that you dont’ want to read about politics or sports or culture - you will never see anything of that again. But from my point of view, many readers want to read about things, they didn’t now before they even existed.
But if it’s going in that direction you pointed out, I guess we will get not printed newspapers with RFID-chips, but more likely a kind of “electronical paper” will be the future. You will get it once and it will be loaded with your new issue connected to the internet.
Kid-
I see you have your intellectual property notice in place.
You are getting way ahead of yourself, I am afraid. You need to learn how to write sentences that are grammatically correct.
After the second or third egregious error, I lost all interest in anything you had to say.
Your youth is no excuse. An eighth-graded should know better than to commit some of the errors you did.
Sadly, in today’s savage marketeer/mouseketeer-dominated culture, you will probably do just fine even so.
Even the towering intellect Jeff Jarvis is plugging you.
@ Knox: Sorry about that. I assure you I am a much better writer than was shown in this post. I never have really taken the time to write well written blog posts as I do with school assignments. I have always thought of them as a way to simply get my ideas out there and neglected to proof read them as much as I should. Perhaps I should start. When I get around to it I will edit this one and fix my errors.
However, I don’t agree with your suggestion that poor writers will do just fine in today’s society. As high school students make their way towards college and the job market, writing is what allows someone to know who you are before they have met you. If someone can not write well then they will run into problems. (which you mentioned in your comment regarding yourself not continuing to read the post due to the grammatical errors)
Thanks for allowing me realize that perhaps my thoughts and ideas on my blog would be respected more if I took some more time with them.
Ignore the grammar police. They never have anything to contribute to the conversation.
I was going to comment on the copyright notice. Take a look at CreativeCommons.org. That more web friendly, if you want to get the digital age.
Also, by the time personalized newspapers can really be delivered efficiently, technology will evolved to such a state that the idea of printing processes and delivery trucks will be quaint.
So far, there’s a paucity of evidence that people really want personalized news. They want to customize their experience, but not necessarily make their own editorial decisions (though, like Digg, they don’t mind making decisions for others).
I’m thrilled to find a high school student with this much interest in our industry.
Ethan, ignore that guy. He made plenty of his own mistakes in his comment — “eighth-graded”? It happens. Your ideas are fresh, and are among what the highest editors at newspapers are talking about. Keep up the optimism and the creativity.
Hey, Knox — A little respect for the boy. Sounds like he has more on the ball than you.
Ethan — Let your teachers and college instructors help you hone your writing [don’t split infinitives; don’t start sentences with “However,”, it’s “toward,” not “towards,” etc.]. Don’t let dopes on the sidelines damp your obvious passion and creativity.
I build my own newspaper every morning, and I spend more than an hour reading it. That bugs the hell out of every newspaper publisher; my independence doesn’t keep him / her in a new SUV or in designer clothing. The custom newspaper is in our hands; the task for information distillation companies is to embrace the means for any voice to be heard. The future is in opening doors, not blackening the flattened, bleached carcasses of trees.
Great ideas Ethan, I’m looking at how new technology can be applied to government in much the same way. Let me know your thoughts.
Well at least you are thinking about newspapers. That’s so rare that you even got the A list newspaper bloggers chattering.
But you know there was nothing new in what you wrote.
That’s OK. At least you thought about it.
I just hope I can look as cool in coffee shops with my personalized newspaper as I do now with my WSJ: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/01/10/keillor/index_np.html
Have you seen 8020 Publishing / JPG magazine? http://www.8020publishing.com / http://jpgmag.com They’re the closest I’ve seen to complying with your directive on “Participation.” Anyone seen any other print publications doing a great job of incorporating content from its audience?
(I can’t wait for the grammar critique on my post.)
Ethan - you are right that newspapers (and magazines) need to get their readers involved in the process. That is what we are doing with magazines at 8020 Publishing (we publish JPG Magazine, and we’re working on more titles). Another ingredient is making sure the “content” that goes into print is better there than online. Although that is a challenge for newspapers that traditionally print the same news stories that run online. One of my business partners, Paul Cloutier, wrote a good blog post on the future of magazines if you are interested.
Glad to see that my post on the future of newspapers got a conversation started. Thanks to those who linked to it.
Good job Ethan, grammar problems aside, you have your finger on the pulse. I have my own grammar troubles, because I tend to write like I would speak it.
Take a look at this for an online, customised “newspaper”:
http://www.protopage.com/
I never read a newspaper anymore, unless I am stuck with nothing else to read.
Good luck!