Web Site Christmas Wish List

By: Steve Outing Just two days shy of Christmas, what are online-newspaper executives looking for in their stockings this year?

I posed a couple of questions to a sampling of industry luminaries:

What's on your wish list for your newspaper's Web site this year?

How do you expect that your site will be different or improved next year at this time?

In addition to their answers, I'm including my own follow-up commentary.

Len Apcar, editor-in-chief, The New York Times on the Web:

Wish: "At the top of my wish list is healthy, sustained growth in readership as more and more people look to the Internet first for information."

Expectation: "I expect that the accelerated rollout of high-speed connections in the American home will make the Internet the information source of choice for everything from book reviews to weather, headlines to movie listings. As the Internet becomes quicker and easier to use, our site will have a greater amount of multimedia including video to assist our journalism and our readers."

My commentary: Thank goodness that news-industry leaders like The New York Times are leading the charge for multimedia editorial content. It's the one thing that can really make Internet news more compelling to consumers. Most news site content is still basic text and still images, the majority of it still shoveled from the parent newspaper. Not that there's anything bad about "shovelware" content; it's an important and integral component of any newspaper site. But for online media to stand out, we need more multimedia. It's out there -- some of it excellent -- but there's not enough yet.

Richard Core, editor, LATimes.com

Wishes: "I wish latimes.com (and all news sites) could find an advertising model that both advertisers and online users would find acceptable and effective. There are days when the trend seems to be toward barraging people with increasingly obnoxious, intrusive, in-your-face ads. I'm afraid we're just training people to be ever quicker at finding and clicking the 'close' button.

"I wish more of our print colleagues would think of 'the newspaper' as a 'news organization' which now needs to do good journalism (and generate revenues) across several media, including print.

"I wish online video didn't have the quirks, variations and plug-ins that discourage people from accessing it.

"I wish everyone had a broadband connection, wherever they wanted it.

"I wish there was more-competitive pricing for single-malt scotch."

Expectation: "I expect a year from now that latimes.com will have a different design and will incorporate new technology in its continuing experiments with online storytelling. I expect, indeed hope, that we'll create something compelling and cool that I couldn't have expected."

My commentary: That's a frank comment on online advertising, to which I say, Bravo! To avoid the online-advertising trap that Core alludes to, I think the necessary pieces are starting to come together: user registration and ad-targeting technology that combines user behavior and registration-generated user demographic data. Ads must be less annoying and intrusive, and at the same time more useful. (Think Google's contextual paid text ads accompanying search results.) Shift the consumer mindset from ads-are-annoying to ads-are-useful. That will be difficult -- but worth it. With Microsoft adding pop-up blockers into its next Web browser, we have to get rid of pop-up ads.

Bill Grueskin, managing editor, The Wall Street Journal Online:

Wishes: "Full profitability, continued growth in subscriptions, page-views and unique visitors, some cool new editorial improvements that make seamless the experience between reading a story on the site and, say, using a pop-up graphic. Also, better interactivity with readers, so we get faster response from them about both specific stories along with their own day-to-day habits."

Expectations: "We'll see lots of new things, but this above all: I expect -- and hope -- and plan -- to further blur the distinctions readers make between the print and online Journal. As we're increasingly coming to find, our subscribers want their news when they want it, and how they want it, and news organizations that don't respond quickly enough to those demands are being left by the wayside. It's not that we're redefining news; the basic standards of accuracy, credibility and speed are still paramount. But we are dramatically redefining the way we think of ourselves as journalists, dealing with competitors who break stories around the clock, who constantly monitor our site for what we can break off traditional news cycles, etc. This fundamentally changes the way the newspaper and the Web site interact, and while some of the change has been under way for some time, I expect it to accelerate significantly in 2004, to the benefit of both sides."

My commentary: I've been involved in the online-news industry for 10 years now, and I must say, it's heartening to be around to experience this transition from newspaper companies into "news companies." Online-news operations at some leading newspapers, such as the Journal, are gaining in stature such that they are nearly equals. The Web sites don't yet bring in as much money as the print operation (not even close), but to the brand's audience, the sites are as important as print. In due time, the monetary position should equal out, too.

Ken Sands, managing editor of online and new media, The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.):

Wishes: "That we can deliver on the promise of interactivity: Making news a true, two-way conversation; and developing actual deliberation on the Web that aids our ailing democracy.

"That we, collectively, make a difference in the 2004 election campaign.

"That we, locally, develop a business plan that works.

"That we, collectively, stop using that cursed 'blog' word when referring to online column writing."

Expections: "Our first foray into photo-phone 'columnizing' in January.

"Half a dozen more staff 'columns' and a whole slew of community 'columnists.'

"A complete site redesign.

"Extensive citizen-based, issues-based election coverage.

"A much bigger sports presence.

"At least one big thing that I haven't even thought of yet!"

My commentary: I included Ken Sands in this exercise because he truly represents innovation in new media by medium-sized daily newspapers. The Spokesman-Review's new-media program, under Sands' guidance, has experimented tirelessly with audience interactivity better than almost everyone. The newspaper has been on the forefront of developing original online content that engages readers and makes the newspaper better. Sands is particularly interested in using online interactivity as a means to facilitate democracy -- to better educate and enlighten citizens so that they can make intelligent choices at the polls. Spokesman-Review.com is a site to watch in 2004 for its election coverage -- especially local. The site also has been an innovator in blogging. (The paper's medical writer even blogged about the flu recently -- while at home recovering from the virus.) Whatever Sands may call it, keep an eye on the site's blog activity in the coming year.

Rob Curley, general manager of World Online, the Journal-World, Lawrence, Kan.:

Wish: "I hope and wish that Vin Crosbie has figured out all of our revenue woes so that we can still keep building cool s*** and not get fired for it. It's a simple wish. But a practical one."

Expectation: "I think alt-delivery of content from news organizations could explode. My gut feeling is that local news sites that have multiple delivery options, like through SMS on cell phones, via Instant Messenger and more Google-like custom e-mail editions are going to see significant gains in the use of those products. We are still more than a little blown away by the number of folks who get (our) Jayhawk football and basketball updates delivered to their phones."

My commentary: You can count on Curley, who probably has more online-media awards on his shelf than anyone else in the industry, to keep us focused on what is likely to be the next important thing. His comment points to a long-time problem in online-newspaper circles: The industry is overly focused on the Web, often to the exclusion of other Internet-related and wireless opportunities. Delivering news alerts and headlines to phones may not be as compelling to journalists as crafting multimedia enterprise projects for the Web, but the phone-alert business -- and similar opportunities -- perhaps will go far to fund those more ambitious works of new-media journalism.

Michael Romaner, president, Morris Digital Works, Augusta, Ga.:

Wishes: "Significantly more user-generated content at all online sites.

"I would like to try at one Morris paper a tiered approach, where we charge access to subscribers for a site that has all the news content from the paper, along with significant premium content (print subscribers get in free), and we build out a separate site that is not dependent on the newspaper's content but builds audience with fresh new services (some newspaper content is to be included). This latter site will require enormous new work and an intelligent approach to gaining marketshare from traditionally non-newspaper readers.

"I would like to see registration deployed at about half of Morris' newspaper Web sites and I would like to see audience targeting initiated at those sites, as well.

"I would like to see a big push for customer self service. Classified AOE [ad order entry] should be deployed at most Morris Web sites. But we should go beyond allowing the purchase of ads online for push-to-print. Site visitors should have the opportunity to buy enhanced ads for online as well as online-only ads.

"I would like to see retailers have AOE opportunities as well. In particular, I would like them to be able to buy classified and display ads online but also be able to use an inventory management tool to push some inventory to print ads but additional inventory to the online component. This is not built yet, but might be later in the year.

"Site visitors should be able to manage their print subscriptions completely from online.

"Print circulation people should have access to registered site user data and should be able to sell subscriptions where appropriate.

"The ultimate Personal Digital Shopper should be available on our Web sites by mid-year.

"Of course, we should deploy far more broadband content.

"And revenue should increase 30-40%."

My commentary: Customer self-service initiatives at newspapers should be a major push in 2004. At the risk of earning the wrath of classifieds managers, I don't see the logic in continuing to require customers to phone in orders, just so a human sales rep can pitch upsells and premiums. Smartly designed online ordering systems can do an adequate job of encouraging customers to buy extras, purchase placement in partner publications and Web sites, etc. -- at lower cost.

Romaner's allusion to the "Personal Digital Shopper" also is worth highlighting. Online shopping is reaching critical mass, and Web retailers' often-lower prices are hurting local retailers in some categories (e.g., digital cameras). Local news companies need to help their local retailers by bringing them into the Internet age. While the local-retail sector will do this itself in time, there's opportunity for newspapers to help themselves by helping local merchants sell online to local customers. This is an important topic that I plan to dig into during a column next year.

Christopher Schroeder, CEO and publisher, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive:

Wishes: "Overall, in what will be clearly an interesting news year, we're wishing for exciting audience growth locally and nationally, but also deeper mind-share -- folks who will stay longer, do more, make us more a part of their lives. We wish to be better serving our advertisers both in branding and ever-more refined targeting to continue the unique marriage in this medium of brand advertising and direct calls to action.

"We will look toward a more fluid content publishing capability that will allow us to deliver news and information seemless to our users on the site, through e-mail, through alternative devices and distributions. We will push out our award-winning video and photographic capabilities on the medium's terms (not TV online), and within the context of relevant stories in text. We will look to continue to lead in product development as the premier offering in the country for jobs, which we with cautious optimism feel is coming back overall but especially online. We will be hoping, locally, to do much more with self-publishing with listings and information to build deeper community online for the area."

Expections: "Nationally and internationally in an election year, and harnessing our past experiences, we will be the definitive go-to place for election coverage and world news events. This will be offered with the best interactive and multimedia richness of experience. Locally, we will dig deeper and deeper to be relevant to our communities in and around Washington, focusing on news, databases, related information and more and more unique listings with transactional capabilities for folks planning their lives -- whether finding a job, or purchasing an item -- from businesses or from each other.

"We have, over the past year, built into our DNA true release mode -- all key areas of the site from the home page, to the article pages, to important initiatives including Jobs, Merchandise, Entertainment, Live OnLine Discussions, to the infrastructure that supports all this now. This makes us much more attuned to improving our user experience, and offers the flexibility to respond to a myriad of new challenges and opportunities that certainly will come in 2004."

My commentary: Washingtonpost.com in 2004 has a wonderful opportunity to push the online-news industry forward by demonstrating a new way to cover a major election. I hope Schroeder's comment about offering "the best interactive and multimedia richness of experience" gets played out in its election coverage. News sites should combine multimedia and interactive storytelling, and facilitating audience-journalist and audience-politician direct communication online.

I hope we'll see from more news sites better ways for citizens to make voting decisions. We've seen a number of choose-your-candidate quizzes recently, where voters answer questions about their views and then are presented with easy-to-digest data on how the candidates match their views, for example. Interactive media can fulfill a better public-service role by serving voter needs -- by going beyond horse-race coverage and offering true service to an often-confused electorate.

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Letters

Terry Steichen of News In Context sent along this critique of my last column, "A Decade of Progress in Online News":

Your latest "Stop the Presses" column repeatedly slams newspaper sites for not creating more original content. That seemed to make obvious sense to me, sort of like "Mom's apple pie" -- until I thought about it just a bit.

Then I started asking "why?"

I wonder if the central problem with newspaper organizations who go online is that they are forgetting who they are and what they do. News is pretty much news. Sure, you can add multimedia to enrich the product. But the format of the news story has evolved over time, not because it was inked onto the page. It happened that way because it made (and continues to make) sense. People like to scan headlines and occasionally read summary paragraphs and even more occasionally read further.

Yet I think that form is what you disparagingly call "shovelware."

There are, of course, things you can do on the Web that can't be done very well with newsprint. Like linking, like special reports. But these have more to do with how you structure your news offering than requiring you to create brand new content.

Someone else was recently arguing that, to revitalize themselves (and more importantly, to stem the readership decline), newspapers should start adopting more exciting article formats, along the lines of feature articles. IMHO, if you did that, you'd accelerate the decline, because people like to scan stuff more than they like to necessarily read it.

Another thing that you apparently favor is using the Web to publish all kinds of reports (like wire stories) that never made it into the print publication. My question again is "why?" A growing problem with online newspaper sites is clutter. Wouldn't shoving a lot more copy onto the site just add to that?

Now I know I'm railing against sacred cows already, so let me ask about community -- why should a newspaper (online or otherwise for that matter) strive to become a medium for getting people of like interests together? What does that have with gathering and publishing reports of the day's important events?

Similarly, how do weblogs fit in? Most blogs that I'm aware of are publications of opinion. OK, that's great and many of them are quite interesting and informative. But what role would a news-gathering organization have in collecting the opinions of others? Is someone going to analyze and edit them? Are they a kind of super-letters-to-the-editor? If not, what are they? More importantly, how to they relate to news?

Steve, what I'm trying to say is that, rather than encouraging newspaper sites to strike out and do lots of cool online things that the online technology permits to be done, why not encourage them to strengthen the areas of their core competency (which is, I think and as I mentioned above, news gathering and publishing). I think a lot of online newspapers are losing sight of their core raison d'etre (or maybe they're running away because they haven't figured out how to generate consistent, large profits).

Terry Steichen

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Schedule Change for This Column

Please note that starting in January, I'll be writing "Stop the Presses!" only once a month, reduced from a twice-monthly schedule in 2003. The best way to keep track of when I publish a new column is to sign up for e-mail delivery, here. My next column will appear on Jan. 12, 2004.

Happy holidays.

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Other recent columns

A Decade of Progress in Online News, Dec. 10
Choosing the Right Registration Model, Nov. 26
Prepare Now for Better Online Election Coverage, Nov. 12
Building a Better Print Newspaper, Oct. 29
Advancing Citizen Blogs on News Sites, Oct. 15
Startups Offer Online Publishing Alternatives, Sept. 24
Previous columns