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.
By
Steve Outing
(April 03, 2009) -- The future that many of us have known was coming for newspapers is finally upon us, quickened by a nasty recession. But even without the economic crisis, it would have merely been delayed. We are losing printed newspapers, especially the big metros. Surviving metros are weakened and not providing the coverage or as strong of a watchdog role as in years past.
Denver's Rocky Mountain News (E.W. Scripps Co.) shut down completely. Some of its former employees are trying to make a go of an original digital-only version -- but without benefit of the 150-year-old brand name, which the group has been unable to acquire. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Hearst Corp.) shut down its print edition, but kept on a staff of 20 journalists to produce a digital edition of the P-I, and is hiring a staff of 20 to sell advertising.
The Christian Science Monitor last week stopped publishing its daily print editions and now has switched to digital-only on weekdays, with a single weekend print summary edition.
Papers like the San Diego Union-Tribune (just purchased by an investment group) and the San Francisco Chronicle (losing tens of millions of dollars a year for parent Hearst Corp.) are deeply troubled and are but a shell of their former selves. I spent last week in the Bay Area and had a chance to read the print editions of the Chronicle, where I once worked. I was shocked and saddened by the decline of the paper, and some Bay Area residents I spoke with confirmed that they too are upset by the publication's steep fall; I didn't sense much loyalty to the paper as it gets thinner and filled with more wire copy and fewer staff stories.
In those cities, new digital-only news enterprises are emerging to fill in the holes left by emasculated newspapers. They may need to grow quickly, since, as in San Francisco, it's entirely possible that the city will lose its sole major daily.
A few ways forward
Recently I spoke with the founders of two new digital-only entities 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.
In Denver, a group of 35 former Rocky Mountain News journalists have hooked up with three investors (who have no publishing background among them) and they are developing a news Web operation called InDenverTimes.com, which will compete with The Denver Post (MediaNews Group) print edition and its Web site, DenverPost.com. While this modest operation won't make up for the gigantic loss of the Rocky, it will be able to cover some important stories that the Post may not get to -- and it will provide an online alternative to former Rocky subscribers who dislike the Post and refuse to take it.
In San Diego, the former managing editor of the Union-Tribune's Web site, SignOnSanDiego.com, just launched the San Diego News Network, a more radical (it seems) reinvention of news than what's being created in Denver -- utilizing some models that newspaper companies either couldn't stomach or manage to take a big enough leap in order to reinvent themselves. Alas, since interviewing him a week and a half ago, he was ousted by his investor partners, but the initiative moves forward. It's a model that just might work.
Remaining newspaper company executives should watch such initiatives, because they likely will take chances that newspaper companies for the most part have been too timid to take. Perhaps their former employees will point the way, now that the albatross of print has been taken from their necks and overly cautious newspaper executives are out of the picture.
Taking a big chance
I'll start with the "successor" to the Rocky Mountain News, which while taking a bold gamble has, in my view, less of a chance at success based on its initial model than the operation in San Diego, which I'll describe further on. InDenverTimes.com exists in early beta form, but it will officially launch if the group of laid-off Rocky journalists and their backers can convince 50,000 Denverites and Coloradans to subscribe to a $4.99-a-month online subscription plan by April 23 (not coincidentally the 150th anniversary of the Rocky Mountain News, had it survived).
Before you think these folks are completely crazy, understand that the site's principal news coverage will be free on the Web, and therefore compete for readers with DenverPost.com and its local news coverage, and local TV-news Web sites. A paid subscription fee will get you "premium" content. Though exactly what that will be has yet to be defined entirely, icons on stories that will be behind the subscription wall post-launch already show where the line is likely to be drawn. To-become-paid content includes much work of the columnists and "personalities" that makes up InDenverTimes.com. (In my view, there's not enough free content to make this strategy viable, unless my instincts are wrong and they pull in 50,000 or more paying Web site subscribers.)
A paid subscription also will allow you to interact with the site and its staff, and participate in discussions, daily chats and comment threads; free readers won't have their voices heard. (I have to say, this is not a bad idea. Many popular newspaper Web sites have comment threads that are out of control and populated largely, it sometimes seems, by idiots who drown out the sane and smart voices. Charging to be part of the conversation is one way to create more rational, intelligent and useful discussions -- albeit smaller -- between journalists and readers, and readers and other readers.)
Of course, first the InDenverTimes.com founders have to get those 50,000 paying subscribers, which won't be easy. No one in the newspaper industry -- other than the oft-cited Wall Street Journal, which charges for complete access to its online edition and does quite well, thanks to the nature of its valuable niche content to an audience of businesspeople who can afford it -- has succeeded significantly surviving largely on online subscriptions that supplement ad revenues. So for this to happen for InDenverTimes.com, the start-up gambit is more like a National Public Radio station pledge drive, only harder since people are being asked to pay for a news service that's not yet fully operational. It's a start-up charity donation, in effect, though the founders won't call it that. But reaching the goal is possible, if the founders' belief is accurate that the Rocky Mountain News brand has many loyalists willing to open their wallets, and InDenverTimes.com is painting itself as the successor of the Rocky with a collection of Rocky personalities on staff. (A longer-term question: Will subscribers re-up after the first year if they made the initial subscription payment with charity intent?)
Kevin Preblud, a successful Denver businessman and bank board member, and one of the three Denver money men behind the InDenverTimes.com start-up, told me that the 50,000 number isn't absolute -- and that if the subscription drive is at least close, the venture may go forward anyway. But he and his co-founders, Brad Gray and Benjamin Ray, are counting on subscription revenues from the outset, with no ad sales people on staff initially; they will be hired later when the news website generates enough buzz, page views and readers to attract advertisers.
In other words, they're placing their faith in the ability of the former Rocky journalists to produce a quality product that people will want to pay for, even though it's online where news consumers generally don't pay, especially for local news. The onus is on the journalists to create something different from the publication and Web site they just left.
Steve Foster, who will be the news site's managing editor and previously was assistant sports editor for interactive at the Rocky Mountain News, says many of the right things. The site will be less narrow than most newspaper sites, he says, with video, more blogging, and more live chatting with journalists and newsmakers. Reporters will blog, use Twitter, have a presence on Facebook, etc. Importantly, editors and writers will be more accessible to readers; the oft-found-in-newsrooms attitude of "Don't bother me, readers, I've got work to do!" will have no place here. (But, again, that approach is rational if you're limiting the conversation with readers primarily to those who are paying a monthly subscription fee, so the journalists don't get overburdened.)
InDenverTimes.com won't cover everything that happens in metro Denver, and unless it grows won't become full-service like DenverPost.com. Foster says that the operation will have fewer general-assignment reporters and more topic specialists: politics, transportation, education, business, etc. It will deal with fewer general-assignment news headlines and focus more on big topics affecting the Denver area. For example, transportation writer Kevin Flynn brags that he has been scooping the Post on stories recently (posting to the pre-launch version of InDenverTimes.com; the official launch is set for May 4).
So it sounds like the new site's news output will be heavy on the enterprise and investigative side, covering major breaking stories via an internal news desk, with no intent of covering everything that's news in metro Denver. It also will focus more intently on Denver, rather that statewide news that the old Rocky Mountain News with its much larger editorial staff could afford to cover. Statewide news is likely to be covered less expensively, such as via partnerships with bloggers or other news outlets around the state. And journalists will be unapologetic "personalities," rather than faceless bylines; and you can (if you pay) communicate with them.
For InDenverTimes.com to work, of course, it will need some innovators on staff, and Foster says that's high on the to-do list. For example, the old Rocky didn't have an iPhone news application, but the new site will make developing that a high priority.
Can a bunch of newspaper journalists really come together and innovate enough to invent an online news model that's sustainable? That's a legitimate question, but Foster insists that the staff of the new InDenverTimes.com "cherry-picked themselves" because they want to keep the spirit of the Rocky Mountain News alive and are willing to step outside their old comfort zones to do journalism in completely new ways, tossing out old print-centric dogma.
I'll openly admit my doubts about their chances. Foster and Preblud seem convinced of the value of the work of their journalists, and believe that enough people in Denver will pay a monthly fee to support a digital-only local news organization of known and familiar reporters, columnists and cartoonists. Call me cynical if you like, but I don't think that the news and commentary on a news Web site like InDenverTimes.com will be enough to attract that many payers, since there's so much alternative free news available online.
A better idea? How about offering something more tangible for that $4.99 a month, like exclusive discount offers to local merchants, or 2 free dinners a year at advertising restaurants, only available to paying Web site subscribers? Give readers something beyond just "premium" news. Sure, the reporting and commentary offered by InDenverTimes.com is valuable. But the competitive reality is that consumers don't feel the need any longer to pay for news. This model could work, but it will take a better offer than what I've seen so far.
Savvier thinking in San Diego
Out West in San Diego is another start-up digital news operation, founded by the guy who for eight years was managing editor of SignOnSanDiego.com, the Web site of the San Diego Union-Tribune, which dumped him last May (alongside the well-respected online newspaper executive Chris Jennewein). Ron James was (until last Friday, after I interviewed him) the founder, publisher and executive editor of the San Diego News Network, an ambitious-sounding effort at filling in the holes left by the recent decline of the Union-Tribune. (The U-T was recently purchased from longtime owner Copley by an investment group.)
The SDNN story gets a bit complicated here, because James was ousted from the operation by his investors last week. Taking over as interim executive editor is Barbara Bry (pronounced “Bree”), an investor in SDNN along with her husband, and the first editor of the non-profit news Web site Voice of San Diego. A national search for a permanent top editor is under way. But before his exit, James, who retains a financial interest in SDNN but no active role, did explain to me the model behind it.
James is proud of the success of SignOnSanDiego.com, which he says was dominant in the San Diego market in terms of user traffic. TV station Web sites couldn't come close, and James long felt that the only way to compete with it was to form a confederation of local news organizations. So that's what he's done, and the site launched in beta recently.
SDNN is described as "the source for hyper-local breaking news, sports, events, lifestyle and entertainment information." It aspires to cover lots of topic ground, just as does the typical metro newspaper. But the site is doing it with a low-cost strategy of combining a 10-person full-time editorial staff with a few dozen contract journalists, columnists and bloggers, plus partnerships with 25 regional media companies. Those will all be combined to create a Web site that after six weeks should have 30 different sections. The first couple of sections, Sports and Lifestyle, are due to launch next week, according to Bry, then additional sections will be added weekly. (At this writing, the site lacks the sections and is not representative of what's planned, she says.)
For example, SDNN will have a Food section meant to rival the food sections of large newspapers that can afford them. A Food Editor is a full-time staff position, while seven other food journalists, critics and specialists (some from the Union-Tribune) will earn freelance income and a revenue share based on user traffic to their content.
The partnerships are what make it possible to, in effect, create a paper-less digital replacement for the big metro daily newspaper, though the overall site is meant to be much more than just a “newspaper.” As James explained the model, SDNN gets to use any content that the 25 media partners have -- not just links to it, but actually hosted on SDNN.com. In exchange, the media partners get a revenue share of ad money that accompanies their content as presented on SDNN.com. For geographic areas where there is no media partner, SDNN places modestly paid community editors.
A smart piece of this strategy is that each partner is obligated to promote SDNN in their traditional media outlets. So the Web site is getting free promotional advertising on local TV and radio stations, local magazines and community papers around the San Diego area. There's no agreement for content, ad or revenue sharing with the Union-Tribune.
In addition to the 10 full-time editorial staffers, the venture has a staff of four salespeople and an administrative staff of five.
By keeping overhead low, getting free and widely distributed promotion in traditional local media (plus its own "substantial" marketing budget), James said he thinks that SDNN.com can in a relatively short time catch up with SignOnSanDiego.com. The goal is to overtake it and become not just a "newspaper Web site" but rather the dominant "online information community" for San Diego.
Bry describes SDNN as a “media and technology company,” and boasts of the technical chops of chief technology officer Kevin Hall. SDNN has strong internal technology talent, she says, unlike many other media start-ups being developed by laid-off journalists, and indeed unlike many traditional newspapers.
James said the Union-Tribune, in his view, is in a death spiral, cutting such "unnecessary" things as critics and other non-core feature stuff. SDNN's strategy is to bring back those things, produced by a team of contract veteran journalists and younger staff ones, in an economical way. As the Union-Tribune is seen as going down, the opportunity is for buzz to build for SDNN. James saw evidence of that in the five ad packages sold for the site's debut day, and "people are calling us" about advertising.
SDNN is funded by a group of angel investors, who are in it not just for the money they hope to make, but also because they care about the community and fear the loss of a strong press covering San Diego, James said. Bry and her husband are among the investors, and at this time they are working for “practically nothing,” she says. The company is working with “more than $1 million” raised from the investors.
The operation is based out of rented office space in the building of one of SDNN's TV partners, San Diego 6 The CW, and routinely interacts with the TV journalists there. SDNN has access to the 40 hours a week of local programming produced by the station, and the two entities cross-promote each other.
Why am I more optimistic about SDNN's model than InDenverTimes.com's? Primarily because of SDNN's strategy of partnering with other local media in ways that benefit both sides, while containing costs to produce a complete news and community online experience. As James said before his mysterious exit from the company, "I have a virtual newsroom that can produce richer and deeper content than a newspaper can right now." InDenverTimes.com takes a more limited approach, trying to do better journalism using new techniques but producing less.
InDenverTimes.com's founders also talk about partnering, especially to cover Colorado outside of the Denver metro area, so we'll see if they pick up more on the power of partnerships.
Can ex-newspaper journalists save news?
Of course, both of these ventures are so new that there's no way of telling if they'll succeed. They're in experimental territory.
I profiled these two ventures (of course, there are many more popping up around the U.S. and elsewhere) because they both are being developed by former newspaper journalists, rather than seasoned Internet entrepreneurs. Both are for-profit (at least for now), unlike the growing number of non-profit and/or foundation-funded local news entities that have emerged, like MinnPost.com and VoiceofSanDiego.org. (Bry, by the way, continues to “admire” and financially support VoiceofSanDiego.org; and she doesn't view it as directly competitive with SDNN.)
Yet each take very different approaches to reinventing local news as digital-only media and as successors of (and competitors to) traditional metro newspapers and their Web sites. Publishers and editors of traditional newspapers should watch these enterprises closely, because they may point the way for newspapers to reverse their decline.
I have grown increasingly pessimistic about metro newspapers' chances for survival, largely because many (most?) of them have been unwilling to take bold steps and institute radical reinvention strategies. San Diego News Network underscores this problem by taking a radical approach that traditional news executives eschew. Its founder, ex-Web site editor at a major newspaper, has done what papers like the San Diego Union-Tribune and Rocky Mountain News were unwilling to do: He and his start-up team partnered with every local media outlet they could find, instead of treating them as competitors.
For metro newspapers to survive, they have to take aggressive, bold, even radical steps. It looks like some of their former employees, free from the corporate shackles and print-centric thinking of the decision-makers above them, are about to demonstrate the way toward local news in the digital age. Once again, the traditional newspaper publishers take the slow road to change -- and for some, to oblivion.
While I can't predict if either of these new digital local news ventures will succeed or fail, I do see that within newspaper newsrooms are innovative people with bold ideas. Many of them have left the industry already, via buyouts or layoffs. It's hard not to come to the conclusion that at many metro newspapers, the lack of boldness and creativity is at the executive level.
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Can Former Newspaper Employees Invent a Brave New News Model?
