That’s what Jeff Jarvis is asking on BuzzMachine.
I’ve written before (yes, I know the page formatting is broken) about why I think Big Media as a collective is going to stick around a while longer, and while the piece is pretty outdated by now, I still stand by my conclusion: I would love to own a newspaper right now.
It’s not what the property is inherently, it’s what you can do with it. I think that big media stands to gain so much from the internet and newer, digital media technologies. By now, many papers are embracing blogs as new tools for news and commentary…and finding them successful.
The problem that old media faces is not that the fundamental demand for news has gone down, but that the fundamental desire for personal touch has gone up.
First thing I’d do with a newspaper is experiment. Tell all my reporters to start writing in first person. I understand the sanctity of impartial news, but I think there’s a difference between bad reporting and personal reporting. Lord knows I see right through the phrase “When one reporter tried to…”
Let’s shake it up, newspapers. Let’s make it more personal.
What would you do?
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John Whiteside 02.09.08 at 8:52 pm
The Houston Chronicle has been particularly aggressive in adding social features to their site; they introduced reporter blogs and reader blogs years ago, and have expanded the reader blog concept from a group of recruited bloggers to a platform where any reader can create a blog, share photos, etc. And all of this content is featured quite prominently on their site. In some situations, such as local elections, some of the reader bloggers have offered far more complete coverage than the paper itself; one of them does extensive interviews with candidates for local offices and posts the MP3s so people can hear the interviews.
(Full disclosure: I’m one of the original reader bloggers there.)
I think it’s an interesting way for a paper like the Chron, which has no particular national reputation for reporting, to differentiate itself; they certainly can’t afford to add enough high-power journalistic talent to rival the Washington Post or NY Times, but they can do some other things like this differently.
Jason Preston 02.12.08 at 12:25 pm
That’s pretty awesome, John.
Oddly enough, the Big Blog (linked in my post) features Mónica Guzman, who I think worked briefly as a Hearst Fellow at the Houston Chronicle.
I have no doubt that newspapers will adapt to the new, digital atmosphere in time. I’m also sure that I don’t have all the answers myself - I’m playing armchair quarterback here.