America's
Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Steve Outing: Goodbye, for Now? But Looking Forward Back in 1995, Editor & Publisher invited me to start writing a freelance column for its brand-new Web site, initially called MediaInfo.com. Nearly 15 years later, this may be my last column for E&P -- and I'd like to project on what digital possibilities could have been for newspapers, and how it's not too late for them to put things right.- January 14, 2010
Some (Unasked-for) Advice for Smaller, Non-Metro Newspapers According to some critics, too often I've focused on the adaptation of and suggested solutions for larger metro newspapers to survive the digital transition. This time, let's ponder what two very different small newspapers might do to move into the digital era and profit from the media revolution in which we find ourselves.- November 30, 2009
Real-time, Relevant Ads Matched With Real-time News? What a Concept! Want to monetize those breaking-news traffic surges? Real-time ads contextually paired with real-time news just might turn news Web sites' remnant ad space into high-value ad space, which will be particularly lucrative when big news happens in your town.- October 21, 2009
Your News Content Is Worth Zero to Digital Consumers News publishers expecting to make money from their digital readers will need to figure out how to offer something tangible -- and mobile represents big-time opportunity, especially for phone applications. - September 16, 2009
The Future of News, Viewed From Aspen's Rarefied Atmosphere Recently I was included in "Of the Press: Models for Preserving American Journalism," a three-day conference at the Aspen Institute. Among the topics discussed: the winding road to making content profitable again, the "layoffs with strings" concept, and the reasons why 10% may prove to be a very important number as newspaper Web sites look to charge.- August 24, 2009
What a Persuasive-Technology Psychologist Can Tell Us About Paying for News Online It's clear that most newspaper publishers want to change online users' behavior and get them to start paying for news. But how? I reached out to Dr. B.J. Fogg, an expert in "persuasive technology" who heads up Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab. If you want to figure out how to persuade your audience to donate money, or pay for online content, Fogg is your go-to guy.- July 28, 2009
Readers Want to Pay for News Online -- So Let Them If you've read my previous columns and blog posts on the topic of charging for non-niche news content on the Web, the above headline may seem odd. But there's a sizable number of readers of newspaper Web sites who WANT to pay for that news. - June 19, 2009
Getting Money from Readers Who Won't Pay for Online News Newspapers can probably make a few bucks charging directly for news on other platforms. The Web? Forget about it. Charging on the Web won't work for general-news publishers, and there are better alternatives. Here's one of them.- May 20, 2009
How to Use the Web to Prevent Remaining Print Readers From Fleeing As much as media companies tend to focus on how to serve younger people (generally with digital strategies), let's not forget the older crowd. They have a transition to make, and newspaper publishers, especially, need to help them out -- or kiss them goodbye. Here's why.- April 27, 2009
Can Former Newspaper Employees Invent a Brave New News Model? Recently I spoke with the founders of two new digital-only entities in Denver and San Diego that will compete with the remaining newspapers in their cities. These are being run by former newspaper journalists, at last unfettered by the limits put on them by having to produce and/or protect a print edition, and free of executives who have squelched their more radical ideas for digital reinvention. - April 03, 2009
Forget Micropayments -- Here's a Far Better Idea for Monetizing Content While Time magazine and others claim the answer lies in asking readers to pay in small increments, that model will only hasten newspapers' death spiral. Instead, consider what may prove to be the solution: a California start-up called Kachingle.- February 10, 2009
The All-Digital Newsroom of the Not-So-Distant Future It now seems likely that some newspapers will abandon print, or be forced to. But what might a digital local news operation look like, and what tools and skills will be required?- January 28, 2009
Need to Make Profits Online? It CAN Be Done After my December column, some asked: How exactly do we make enough money to sustain, let alone grow, our newsgathering organizations? How do we continue to serve our communities' information needs adequately while making a profit?- January 07, 2009
Don't Redesign the Print Edition to Ensure Failure There is a future for newspapers, but it isn't in flashy redesigns with little substance and no Web refers. It involves helping older readers adopt to digital media. Here's how.- November 05, 2008
Newspapers First Need to Redefine 'News' to Move Forward Online It's no surprise that current news offerings of most newspaper Web sites are outdated. To survive, they not only need to do the obvious stuff that's been discussed by me and other industry experts ad nauseam, but also expand the range and depth of the news that they offer. They need to add the micro-personal to their news menu.- September 29, 2008
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