Save the Media

My delicious bookmarks are starting to pile up, so it’s time for some short takes. Here are some interesting things I’ve found around the blogosphere. Enjoy.

Think narrow: To me, one of the biggest problems with the news business today is it still thinks of itself as a mass medium. Sorry, those days are gone. Abandon the old-time notion of trying to make every story relevant to every reader; you can’t. And readers will flee to the Web site or blog that gets that. What you need to be doing is connecting and understanding what’s relevant to small groups of readers that collectively make a large audience. Get the difference? Yan Susanto, of Thou Shall Blog, has a great example of what this means and why it’s an important distinction: “Weight loss IS a broad yet hugely popular market. Narrow it down to weight loss surgery, you’ve got a niche. Zoom it further and you’ll find a narrower niche such as laparoscopic weight loss surgery waiting to be tapped. And there’s where the real money lies.” I believe news organizations need to start thinking like that. Don’t stand on your head trying to make the story about how to get a baby to sleep through the night relevant to childless single people. You can’t. Write the story or blog for parents who are going through that situation and make it so relevant they have to check out everything you write. Let another story entice the video game enthusiast or the health nut. If different news blogs are super relevant to niches, together they’ll grow a large audience.

Get interactive: Jackie Hai at Convergence Commons writes about Voice It, a video blog launched by The Amherst Wire, a community-driven news site that focuses on issues-based reporting. Basically it’s the old-time man (or woman) on the street gone digital. A reporter asks folks pretty simple questions — “What movie do you think should win ‘Best Picture’ at the Oscars,” for example — and shoots a picture of those who responded, which gets posted along with their answers. I like this idea because it’s easy, fun and gets readers involved. It would be simple to mimic, and it could easily be tailored to more serious stories.

Some good news: The Los Angeles Times, which hasn’t been having the best of times, had a really good month in February. Page views were up 25 percent; unique visitors had doubled over the same period last year, and the paper’s Web site’s local audience grew 30 percent in the past year, according to a the paper’s Readers’ Representative Journal blog. First, I love the idea of a public blog that spells out all this success because it includes readers as stakeholders of the news organization. Plus, it’s good news, which none of us in this business have much of for a while. And it shows that progress can be made. That newspaper’s Web site set a daily traffic record of 8.7 million page views the day after the Oscars. The LA Times live-blogged the event, posted a slew of photos and video and gave readers a quiz on Facebook. Sure, that’s a huge news event that doesn’t happen every day, but I find it encouraging to see that the innovations of the Web paid off for the LA Times. Couldn’t that mean it might pay off for other news organizations?

Get innovative: One thing I really believe would save journalism is if news organizations innovated more or if they invented the next big thing. I’ve said this before, but I guess my point is: There’s a lot of talent, brain power and, even in these troubling times, money in news organizations. Why couldn’t a news organizations — or several banded together – create a Web interaction application or tool that people love. ( I know The New York Times is trying to do just that with its Times Open, which is a good start.) Just for fun, here’s a list of crazy ideas that made millions, including the pet rock and the Chia pet, courtesy of Linkers Blog. I’m not suggesting we bring back these things; I am suggesting we realize these ideas worked in part because they resonated with people a large scale. We need to stop thinking like we’re in the news business; we’re in the business of helping people make sense of their world. What would help them do that?

– Gina

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