To embrace online content a newspaper
or magazine needs to acknowledge the fact that they no longer
provide the fastest and most efficient way of delivering the news. I get most of my news through Google News and
TV networks. By the time a paper or
magazine shows up I’ve already heard about the story. So should a newspaper or magazine simply
abandon the latest stories and focus on something else? Of course not, but they’ve got
to evolve and change the type of coverage they offer in print.
I don’t read the article in the paper for the breaking
story as much as I look for the local reaction. Google doesn’t have that local feel (yet!), so leverage your feet on the
street and focus on the community aspect of the story. The online version of the same article will,
of course, allow community comments, so pick from the best of those,
incorporate them into the print story and be sure to add commentary/opinion to
that point of view; this creates a cycle of community input, the best of which
is hand-picked by professional reporters/editors/columnists for inclusion in
the print product, open to and driving more community input, etc. If I caught the facts about the story online
last night, I expect today’s paper to focus more on the community reaction and
related developments, not the same facts from yesterday.
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