Edward Roussel, the digital chief of the Daily Telegraph of London, generates a strong essay for Nieman Reports that identifies 10 paths for newspapers. In essence, the message is get with it or get out of the way.
Roussel's points:
1. Invest in editorial content that can't be found elsewhere, and go deep. Stop the wide focus.
2. See yourself as part of the chain of content, not the end of it, and curate good content from elsewhere (particularly in areas in which you are weakest).
3. Align resources to when traffic is highest.
4. Embrace reader engagement.
5. Take the reporters with the greatest connection to the community and let them guide your blogging activities.
6. Embrace multimedia.
7. Create a nimble cost structure.
8. Push leaders out of the way who aren't embracing digital.
9. Invest in the Web and don't expect its growth to mirror the newspaper decline. In other words, keep returning the revenue into investment.
10 Experiment.
Roussel acknowledges this flies in the face of newspaper culture. He just doesn't see any other way around it.
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