Save the Media

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I’ve spent the last 19 summers working at newspapers, so I know how lonely a newsroom can feel during the dog days of August. It often seems like half the staff in on vacation. News tends to slow, unless you count the spike in crime as the mercury and humidity climbs.

This summer likely was even more comatose than most at newspapers across the country, particularly the small and mid-sized ones. With buyouts, layoffs and furloughs added to the typical summer vacation schedule, staff were more scarce than normal. Morale low.

But slow summer days can also be a time for deeper thought, rethinking the old and getting out of your same-old, same-old rut. Summer may be half over (and the back-to-school fashions may already be in the stores), but there’s still time to take advantage of the slower pace to do the reinventing that couldn’t get done during the busy season? You still have time to give readers a summer to remember?

Here are five ways I hope newspapers will invigorate this summer (and on into fall), rather than fall into the typical doldrums.

Don’t panic: Sure, it looks the next month is stretched before the editors with no staff to fill those big newspaper pages. First, stop thinking that way. “Filling the page” doesn’t translate to quality, and it doesn’t lead to an online-first newsroom.  Newspapers are generally great at covering major breaking news. Why? In a crisis, staffers rely on their training and just do the job. Guess what, newspapers are in a crisis now. So that’s what they need now, too.

Ban the “retread“: The retread is that hackneyed story  idea that was tried five years ago and abandoned because it was boring the reporters (and probably the readers) out of their minds. Don’t bring it back today because it’s easy to throw together, borrowing from the archives. If an idea bores the staff, it will probably bore the readers, too. Every inch of newshole is precious right now, so it’s no time to cheat the reader who has access to so many other sources of information. That’s not to say news organizations can’t revive a good idea and tweak it to make it new. But it’s even better to invent something. Include readers in the process early on and ensure the idea has an  interactive online element.

Get social:Many newspapers have been dipping their toes into the social media waters. A small group on Twitter, a Facebook page, some blogging. Now, with the news slowing and your news hole smaller, is the time to jump in. Make social media someone’s job, and let that person get excited about it and experiment. Don’t set up all kinds of rules. Just try it. See what works; fail; try again. News organizations need to be innovators, not just write about innovation.

Hit the street: As much as I love social media, there’s nothing like walking through the community and talking to people face to face. That shouldn’t be lost as news organizations migrate to the Web. Encourage each staffer — editors, too — to spend half a day (or half an hour) chatting it up with local folks, asking what they’d write about if they could. Then enlist their ideas, ask them to help by writing a guest blog or supplying a personal account to go with the story. All this is basic old-fashioned reporting, but now it’s called crowdsourcing.

Kick butt: Decide right now what 10 great stories your news organization wants to do, and do them. Don’t wait for a planning meeting or a big brainstorming session. Don’t wait until a day when no one is on vacation. It won’t happen. Just gather who are present those around and get excited. What’s the one great piece a staffer has been dying to do? What’s the one cool way your news organization could use multimedia in a fashion it hasn’t before? What story will help readers make sense of their community? Try something new.  If your news organization hasn’t done much video, get someone training to do it well. If staffers don’t usually interact with readers online, try it.

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