Where do we start?
Where do those of us who still care, who still give a damn, go? What does it take to help make journalism as a craft and the newspapers we write for survive?
How do we, the people who hold the institution of journalism (and NOT the industry) dear, fix it?
I don't think anyone has all the answers, but in my 30-plus years in the communications industry, I've seen some pretty moronic decisions made by those who claim to be leaders in the field.
Let me give you an example:
It's no secret that newspaper circulation numbers and single copy sales are tanking. Across America, people turn to the Web or television -- hell, even radio -- for that matter for their news. Readership numbers continue to decline and newspapers suck big time at bringing in new subscribers.
Well, maybe we need to embrace marketing.
I know, I'm preaching heresy here, but limiting the marketing of a newspaper to ads in that same newspaper and, maybe, a few cardboard signs on a vending rack, is pretty piss poor marketing. Statistics show that the average American consumer is exposed to more than 2,000 different media messages each day and only one of 'em is coming from your newspaper.
Think of it, from the time you get out of bed until the time you crawl back into the sack, more than 2,000 different entities are trying to get your attention and get into your wallet (or purse). A newspaper (just the print product) represents only one of those 2,000 messages.
So, by limiting ourselves to just our product, we start the race for the eyes of the American consumer in last place. If newspapers are going to compete. If newspapers are going to rebuild circulation and attract readers, then they are going to have to advertise on the very media they compete with.
To survive, newspapers are going to have to take their message to television, radio, outdoor, buses, bathroom walls, posters, t-shirts and every other place that Nike and Coors have already been or plan on visiting.
And they're going to have to stay there.
Readers are not going to beat down our door. In face, most readers already see the newspaper as a public utility and, because of this, they don't pay attention. We have to go to the reader. The reader isn't going to go to us, because they already have 1,999 other places they can look.
Our message is just as important and if we don't start taking it to the bathroom wall, then we should all find another line of work.
Further, newspapers are going to have to reach back into their past to help save their future.
Years ago, when I worked at another daily newspaper, which served Oklahoma's other university, I made a suggestion to our circulation director. I thought it would be a good idea to send a paper boy loaded with papers out to the various hot spots on campus on game days to sell single copies. Since we covered university sports pretty well, I thought it would be a great way to increase sales.
The guy laughed me out of his office.
Well, honestly, it's 20 years later, and I still think I'm right.
If I owned a suburban daily newspaper today, every Friday night there was a football game, I'd have a bunch of carriers out at the game selling my Friday edition -- which will be chucked full of photos, stories and statistics about the game. I'd host a tailgate party for subscribers only; where they could meet the staff, win prizes, and eat. Then I'd sell the hell out of subscriptions and single copies.
I'd do the same thing -- on a bigger scale -- if I was anywhere near a college town on home game days.
I'd do it during basketball season, the fair, graduation day and any other event where more than 20 people were going to attend.
Make the subscription worth something; cross promote with the car dealer to let subscribers see the new cars BEFORE they go on sale. Host a preview party for a popular movie, BEFORE it opens.
Or, better yet, get up off your ass and think outside the norm.
Years ago, Wal-Mart helped kill many grocery stores (and their ads) by putting the hex on newspaper advertising. I have yet to see a suburban daily even up a fight. They all just threw up their hands and said, "I give."
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
Why not cut a deal with the surviving local grocery stores to stuff your newspaper in their paper bag? Swap 'em an ad and see how many papers you move in a day. I've actually seen this work and it's amazing.
Promotion a good newspaper should be easy. People need it. But we're going to have to deliver that message through the channels that people are currently using. And right now they are NOT using the newspaper.
Still, driving up circulation is one thing, keeping readers and getting new ones is something completely different.
Across the country, newsroom management has become so shortsighted that they have become part of the problem.
Need an example? Consider the Associated Press.
Almost every suburban daily in America subscribes to the AP. And on any given day, almost every newspaper across the country has the EXACT SAME STORY in it. Why should I read the Daily Wombat when the paper down the road as the same piece?
Instead of fighting to hire (AND KEEP) skilled talented reporters, newsroom managers have, instead, relied on the AP and in the process, helped kill the local voices that people want to hear. Now, don't get me wrong, the AP is a great organization and their staffs do great work.
But if we don't change, in 10 years, the AP will be selling to Internet based media outlets and not newspapers.
Each community newspaper offers something unique to that community — the story of that town. And those are stories, which by and large, you can't get any place else. But because talented writers and reporters don't want to make poverty-level wages, and because newsroom managers continue to fill their beats with the inexperienced writer or, easier, the AP, the suburban daily dies a slow, painful death.
It's happening all over.
Managers should take the funds they invest in their wire service subscriptions and invest them, instead, in people. Skilled reporters, writers and editors are just as valuable as a good ad salesman. In fact, they make the the life of the ad salesman easier, by giving them something to sell.
Trust me, people don't just pick up the paper to see the ads. Don't believe me? Try spelling the name of the bride-to-be wrong and see how many telephone calls YOU get.
A quality, well-written newspaper which is stuffed full of stories about its town (or area) will sell ads. But the system won't work if readers don't have anything to read.
People will pick up a newspaper if they can find something in it they won't find on television or on the Internet.
Then there's the issue with getting new subscribers.
That its, getting youngsters to read.
Newspaper management needs to stop giving lip service to attracting younger readers and go out and do it.
The Newspaper in Education idea is an okay idea, but the kids aren't going to pay attention to the paper, if there are no stories in there that appeal to them.
Yeah, I know, I heard from editors who tell me gleefully, how they covered the latest Harry Potter movie, but what about the other 364 days out of the year? My own kids tell me the newspaper is lame. There's nothing in there for them and unless it's a photograph of them, they are not interested.
There are millions of ways we can improve and it's time we start talking about them.
And over the next few weeks, I'm gonna keep talking.
Because if we don't, we will, surely, be just as dead as the late Mark Twain.
Where do those of us who still care, who still give a damn, go? What does it take to help make journalism as a craft and the newspapers we write for survive?
How do we, the people who hold the institution of journalism (and NOT the industry) dear, fix it?
I don't think anyone has all the answers, but in my 30-plus years in the communications industry, I've seen some pretty moronic decisions made by those who claim to be leaders in the field.
Let me give you an example:
It's no secret that newspaper circulation numbers and single copy sales are tanking. Across America, people turn to the Web or television -- hell, even radio -- for that matter for their news. Readership numbers continue to decline and newspapers suck big time at bringing in new subscribers.
Well, maybe we need to embrace marketing.
I know, I'm preaching heresy here, but limiting the marketing of a newspaper to ads in that same newspaper and, maybe, a few cardboard signs on a vending rack, is pretty piss poor marketing. Statistics show that the average American consumer is exposed to more than 2,000 different media messages each day and only one of 'em is coming from your newspaper.
Think of it, from the time you get out of bed until the time you crawl back into the sack, more than 2,000 different entities are trying to get your attention and get into your wallet (or purse). A newspaper (just the print product) represents only one of those 2,000 messages.
So, by limiting ourselves to just our product, we start the race for the eyes of the American consumer in last place. If newspapers are going to compete. If newspapers are going to rebuild circulation and attract readers, then they are going to have to advertise on the very media they compete with.
To survive, newspapers are going to have to take their message to television, radio, outdoor, buses, bathroom walls, posters, t-shirts and every other place that Nike and Coors have already been or plan on visiting.
And they're going to have to stay there.
Readers are not going to beat down our door. In face, most readers already see the newspaper as a public utility and, because of this, they don't pay attention. We have to go to the reader. The reader isn't going to go to us, because they already have 1,999 other places they can look.
Our message is just as important and if we don't start taking it to the bathroom wall, then we should all find another line of work.
Further, newspapers are going to have to reach back into their past to help save their future.
Years ago, when I worked at another daily newspaper, which served Oklahoma's other university, I made a suggestion to our circulation director. I thought it would be a good idea to send a paper boy loaded with papers out to the various hot spots on campus on game days to sell single copies. Since we covered university sports pretty well, I thought it would be a great way to increase sales.
The guy laughed me out of his office.
Well, honestly, it's 20 years later, and I still think I'm right.
If I owned a suburban daily newspaper today, every Friday night there was a football game, I'd have a bunch of carriers out at the game selling my Friday edition -- which will be chucked full of photos, stories and statistics about the game. I'd host a tailgate party for subscribers only; where they could meet the staff, win prizes, and eat. Then I'd sell the hell out of subscriptions and single copies.
I'd do the same thing -- on a bigger scale -- if I was anywhere near a college town on home game days.
I'd do it during basketball season, the fair, graduation day and any other event where more than 20 people were going to attend.
Make the subscription worth something; cross promote with the car dealer to let subscribers see the new cars BEFORE they go on sale. Host a preview party for a popular movie, BEFORE it opens.
Or, better yet, get up off your ass and think outside the norm.
Years ago, Wal-Mart helped kill many grocery stores (and their ads) by putting the hex on newspaper advertising. I have yet to see a suburban daily even up a fight. They all just threw up their hands and said, "I give."
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
Why not cut a deal with the surviving local grocery stores to stuff your newspaper in their paper bag? Swap 'em an ad and see how many papers you move in a day. I've actually seen this work and it's amazing.
Promotion a good newspaper should be easy. People need it. But we're going to have to deliver that message through the channels that people are currently using. And right now they are NOT using the newspaper.
Still, driving up circulation is one thing, keeping readers and getting new ones is something completely different.
Across the country, newsroom management has become so shortsighted that they have become part of the problem.
Need an example? Consider the Associated Press.
Almost every suburban daily in America subscribes to the AP. And on any given day, almost every newspaper across the country has the EXACT SAME STORY in it. Why should I read the Daily Wombat when the paper down the road as the same piece?
Instead of fighting to hire (AND KEEP) skilled talented reporters, newsroom managers have, instead, relied on the AP and in the process, helped kill the local voices that people want to hear. Now, don't get me wrong, the AP is a great organization and their staffs do great work.
But if we don't change, in 10 years, the AP will be selling to Internet based media outlets and not newspapers.
Each community newspaper offers something unique to that community — the story of that town. And those are stories, which by and large, you can't get any place else. But because talented writers and reporters don't want to make poverty-level wages, and because newsroom managers continue to fill their beats with the inexperienced writer or, easier, the AP, the suburban daily dies a slow, painful death.
It's happening all over.
Managers should take the funds they invest in their wire service subscriptions and invest them, instead, in people. Skilled reporters, writers and editors are just as valuable as a good ad salesman. In fact, they make the the life of the ad salesman easier, by giving them something to sell.
Trust me, people don't just pick up the paper to see the ads. Don't believe me? Try spelling the name of the bride-to-be wrong and see how many telephone calls YOU get.
A quality, well-written newspaper which is stuffed full of stories about its town (or area) will sell ads. But the system won't work if readers don't have anything to read.
People will pick up a newspaper if they can find something in it they won't find on television or on the Internet.
Then there's the issue with getting new subscribers.
That its, getting youngsters to read.
Newspaper management needs to stop giving lip service to attracting younger readers and go out and do it.
The Newspaper in Education idea is an okay idea, but the kids aren't going to pay attention to the paper, if there are no stories in there that appeal to them.
Yeah, I know, I heard from editors who tell me gleefully, how they covered the latest Harry Potter movie, but what about the other 364 days out of the year? My own kids tell me the newspaper is lame. There's nothing in there for them and unless it's a photograph of them, they are not interested.
There are millions of ways we can improve and it's time we start talking about them.
And over the next few weeks, I'm gonna keep talking.
Because if we don't, we will, surely, be just as dead as the late Mark Twain.
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