White Paper Wednesdays: Newspapers For The 21st Century

An awesome deck on the technologies and ideas that will redefine newspapers in the future.

Newspaper Of The Future

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: news journalist)

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Digital Marketing Factoid Of The Day: Newspaper Ad Spend

The figures for this year are pretty grim...



From the Newspaper Associaiton of America

Hot MiniSite For Newspapers: Betcha Never Thought You'd See Hot and Newspapers Juxtaposed, Hunh?

When you need to make a major change in perceptions, a great minisite can be very useful.

So I strongly encourage you to see what a strong mini site is -- check out the new site pitching newspapers as a multiplatform media solution encompassing both pulp and electrons. Note the use of the word media. Media being a plural!

Gorgeous! Compelling. Powerful.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

More Print Pubs Lean Harder On Electrons As Paper Editions Evaporate

With the Christian Science Monitor going totally digital, and US News cutting its print publication frequency in half, it's apparent that the Print sector is taking the media transformation on the chin.

I find both of these "losses" sad as both pubs were more focused on deep investigations and multiple angles/viewpoints on topics and issues. Hopefully the shift to webbiness won't make them simply headline services for scanning. That would truly be a loss, especially in the case of the monitor.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Newspapers Grabbing More and More Digital Eyeballs

Broadsheets and tabloids alike can take comfort in the new study from the Newspaper Association of America that indicates that 41.3% of online people in the US visit at least one newspaper site. That is a more than healthy slice, and up almost 16% versus a year ago.

Page views are up even more, 25.2% to be exact.

But why aren't the dollars following? Why are newspapers continuing to struggle revenue wise? Well, there are a couple of factors. First, there really aren't online ad units yet that local and regional advertisiers seem to value like a P4CB. Or even a PBWB. Second, I suspect that newspaper sales organizations continue to struggle with selling online, given that it probably remains easier to get that healthy commission from print sales.

But I am encouraged by the growth, because newspapers really do add tremendous value to news and politics. Value that TV will NEVER add and blogs will always color with a heavy cup of POV. So three cheers for the papers.com.

SpinSpotter: Referree The Next Cable News Food Fight

Gosh, I usually induce these posts. Make a case and then show the start-up solution. But today I am going to let three vids do the induction:







News flash. None of that is reporting. It's opinion, often supported by lies and half truths. Now, here is reporting:



We can't bring back Murrow and Huntley and Stahl and Cronkite, but perhaps we can all work together to make reporters accountable for the content of their stories -- make them more careful about the half truths they accept as fact, the focus on the CW, and and and.

And that, my friends, is what SpinSpotter is about. Here's how they introduce themselves to web site visitors:

Welcome to SpinSpotter

All the news that's fit to de-spin.

Spin doesn't belong in the news. It's like putting motor oil in the mojito. We have tremendous respect for journalists, but who would argue that the media circus isn't out of control? A full 66% of Americans think the press is one-sided. Now there's a website and software tool that exposes news spin and bias, misuse of sources, and suspect factual support. At SpinSpotter, you'll experience the news in a profound new way. Yes, the truth is back in town.

They also have a nice introductory video that effectively makes their case.



As an info junkie, I am pleased as punch that this is occurring. I was at a dinner party recently, and we were lamenting the silicon-boob-for-grey-matter trade that the mainstream media have made. One of my best friends, he a Republican, is just as aware of lefty spin as I am of right wing claptrap.

We wondered what it would take to create a media company that REPORTED. That sent someone to Darfur instead of having two morons from Washington propaganda tanks throw metaphorical mashed potatoes across the desk from each other. We calculated the price at about a billion to create the sort of media company we dream about.

And then I saw Spin Spotter, and realized that with this idea the need for a new media company is no longer there. Small d democratic accountability can make the companies we have actually do their jobs.

And for that I thank the team that has made it. Get your butt over there to check it out. And, how about contributing to the community. Choose your flava of spin to debunk, blue or red.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

White Paper Thursdays: The Pros of Marketing Through Newspapers

The Newspaper Association of America has published a Power Point to help its members combat ad dollar erosion. The deck outlines a variety of data points the outline the quality of the newspaper audience.

The newspapers industry is really suffering of late as it struggles to refine its relevance in the digital era. Newspapers are taking it on the chin in part because young people have not adopted daily newspaper readership (at least news PAPER readership) like past generations did. While the newspaper web sites are seeing growth, the papers have had difficulty translating that success into revenue. What I mean is, it takes A LOT of banner views to replace the cost of a full page ad in section A.

I for one hope that newspapers weather the storm in some form. Perhaps the paper part will wither away, but newspapers have always provided depth and analysis that cannot be matched by big haired lads and siliconed boobed lasses that constitute what we call news people these days. The Philadelphia Inquirer, for example, did not feature Jon Benet on 80% of its pages for -- what was it, 2 years? -- like cable news.

Anyway, hit the link and give the deck a read -- it's an interesting marketing story.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.