Grading Newspapers' Website Progress: B- Just about everyone -- finally -- is on board and working to address the big problem: How to transition a significant part of the newspaper business to online and new media while keeping enough money flowing in during the transition period to fund quality journalism, and prevent newspapers from entering a downward spiral. So how's this going?
By
Steve Outing
BOULDER, Colo.
(November 27, 2006) -- I must subscribe to or have set up dozens of different news alerts and topic tracking feeds over the years, to keep track of developments in media, new media and newspapers. And it's amazing how many articles have come through those in the last few months about the mess that the newspaper industry is in, suggestions of what to do about it, and actions that companies are taking to save themselves.
At least now, belatedly, most newspaper executives understand the gravity of their situation, as the outlook for continued growth in the core business is dim, and decline is in the cards no matter what they do to improve or revamp the print product. Just about everyone -- finally -- is on board and working to address the big problem: How to transition a significant part of the newspaper business to online and new media -- how to make the newspaper online experience compelling enough to attract the modern media consumer -- while keeping enough money flowing in during the transition period to fund quality journalism, and prevent newspapers from entering a downward spiral (in terms of audience as well as financially).
So how's this going? I decided to take a fresh look at a sampling of newspaper websites to see if all the talk is just talk, or if it's being translated into action. Here are a few of the more important things I observed in my end-of-2006 review:
Where's the video?
Something we've been talking about for years is the idea that newspaper companies need to branch out to do more video (and audio) coverage. Some newspapers have made excellent progress here, of course. WashingtonPost.com routinely wins awards for its video journalism, even beating out television news operations. Online operations like SignOnSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune) take video seriously and fairly routinely offer up video news coverage.
But take a look at the homepages of most newspaper websites circa late 2006. While you'll find some with video, the entry points to most such sites remain text-and-photo dominated. It seems to me that to compete more effectively, newspaper sites should be making their homepages a healthy mix of text, still images, video and audio. They should be walking the walk and not just talking it, by offering online users a true multi-media experience.
Even with WashingtonPost.com, its homepage is predominantly words and pictures. Usually there's a single video clip (with navigation to other featured videos). It's the same for NYTimes.com, which devotes a (larger) block of its homepage to video. While that's a good start, I think newspapers would be wise to offer a better mix of content formats -- and cease being so word-dominated.
Is that heresy to a newspaper company that employs a staff of expert writers? Well, it's going against convention, for sure. But think about it: If via this strategy, a newspaper website becomes a place with a fairly even mix of words, audio and video -- a site in the spirit of MSNBC.com which comes from broadcast roots -- then perhaps that's a more attractive form of media for the modern (read, younger) information consumer.
A surfing trip that visits many newspaper websites will see video here and there, but most often not in quantities that will keep television news directors up at night. Perhaps it's time for newspapers to start making radio and TV news operators nervous.
And how about on-the-hour radio headline updates? If BBC Radio can do that, why can't newspaper companies (especially those in major markets)? Again, this is something you see occasionally from newspaper companies, but not often. While I can point out some audio innovators in the newspaper industry, it's not yet the norm.
With all the teeth-gnashing in the newspaper industry, I do wonder why more websites haven't followed the leaders -- and why the leaders haven't pushed ahead even further -- when it comes to embracing audio and video as a normal, everyday and integral part of the reporting process. Video and audio have made gains at newspaper websites, but they remain at stepchild status at best.
Better blogging still needed
Many newspapers have embracedbloggingby now, with staff members now including blogging in their workdays. Hey, I couldn't be happier about that; after all, I've been harping that "reporters should blog" for a long time -- because I've long thought and still do that online-exclusive content is critical for newspaper websites, and newspapers for too long relied on republishing content that originated for the print product.
But a technique that too often is missing is the breaking-news blog. That is, when a major breaking local story hits, use the blog format to tell the story in bits and pieces as reporters learn the details. You see that at some newspaper sites when a story is big enough (hurricanes, major terrorist attacks), but I don't think the technique is employed nearly enough.
In my previous column, I chided my local newspaper in Boulder, Colorado, for not doing a breaking-news blog for a page-1 story about a significant threat the next day at a high school. The paper's editors treated it like a normal newspaper story, gathering the facts and publishing the next morning -- choosing not to share right away what they knew with anxious parents who needed information.
This is another example of a cultural shift that needs to take place in newsrooms. The Internet affords an outlet for instant news dissemination, and online users nowadays expect that. The inclination to gather ALL the facts and then produce a story -- while obviously the right choice on most stories -- is not the correct choice when it comes to stories that people need information about right away. That's old newspaper thinking that deserves to die. Some stories are important enough -- are urgent enough -- that they should be treated to a "here's what we know now" and "here's what else we just learned" an hour later treatment.
Classifieds still (too often) stink
At the websites of too many small and medium sized newspapers, online classifieds are still stuck in the 1990s. At too many sites, a classified ad looks like this one -- just a few short words, a copy of the print-edition version of the ad, with no additional options.
Even larger newspapers that I normally think of as progressive still have weak classifieds presentation in some categories. Consider these WashingtonPost.com merchandise ads, which at least give the advertisers more words to work with and include photos of the products, but don't offer up any contextual information. At least the Post ads include an "e-mail this listing link to a friend" option, but that's all. (How about picking up the product name and automatically providing links to other products listed by other advertisers, product reviews, etc.?)
Of course, things look better with newspapers that have outside partnerships with classifieds vendors and services for certain categories. Here's a DenverPost.com ad for a vintage car in the auto classifieds, which offers excellent breadth of features because it's "powered by" AdPay's Click-N-Buy service. Ditto this car ad on WashingtonPost.com that's part of the paper's involvement with Cars.com.
So, in late 2006 we see some signs of hope in terms of online newspaper categories that feature state-of-the-art sophistication, but not across the board. Weakest of the classifieds categories at most newspapers is merchandise -- an area, of course, that in many communities has been decimated by Craigslist. (Perhaps the prime example of that would be the merchandise category of SFGate.com, the website of the San Francisco Chronicle, which is a ghost town compared to the San Francisco site of Craigslist.)
Interactive ... Not!
OK, I left this one for last, because it's something I've pounded on in my writing often. In looking over newspaper websites in late 2006, I still see only incremental progress on two-way communication between journalists and readers. Too many sites remain stuck in one-way, we-tell-you mode.
Take this story. The topic cries out for reader participation, discussion and feedback. But there's no way to leave a comment for others to read -- only an e-mail address to send the reporter a note. I find it depressing that this is still the norm in late 2006.
(Again, I can point to industry leaders that are not afraid to open the gates to public discussion. The sad part is how this has not spread throughout the newspaper industry yet.)
Yeah, sure, public discussion is scary and it can get messy. So institute some tight controls, or even moderate (pre-screen) public posts to keep out the crap. But preventing public discussion outright is a sure-fire way to demonstrate that your organization doesn't understand the current media landscape.
As always when I mention this particular topic, I have to point out that Editor & Publisher Online does not allow reader comments on my column. That's something I disagree with, and it's not under my control. (I'm a lowly freelance columnist.)
Progress, but not enough
With all the hand-wringing in the industry about how to cope -- and the acceptance at the corporate level that big changes are required right now to address the challenges faced by newspapers -- I'm surprised in looking at today's state of the newspaper website that the changes aren't more dramatic.
To sum up, we've got some industry leaders doing outstanding work -- but often instituting change more slowly than is required for an industry that is being challenged to remain relevant to today's information consumers. And we've got too many newspapers with websites that are far behind the leaders, missing even some obvious fundamentals.
Today's state of the newspaper website doesn't leave me terribly optimistic about the industry.
Steve Outing
(steve@outing.us)
has covered the interactive media business for E&P Online since 1995. He is publisher and founder of Enthusiast Group LLC.
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Grading Newspapers' Website Progress: B-
