How can newspapers create better blogs?

Kirk LaPointe's
themediamanager.com:
on journalism change,
standards, ethics, and the public

How can newspapers create better blogs?

4/4/2008

Our reporters are finding great value in producing blogs on their beats. The most loyal elements of the community to particular issues engage their writing online, and more than a few times the blogs have been a source of stories.
Now a Ball State University study is questioning the way in which newspapers have launched and managed their blogs. They studied political blogs, in particular, and concluded bloggers weren't posting often enough or engaging the audience in conversations nearly enough.
In short, the commitment wasn't there so the audience didn't materialize and the impact was minimal.
That may seem dead obvious, but it is at least good, reminding evidence of the need for consistent effort.

Maurice Cardinal link

4/4/2008 03:51:53 am

"How can newspapers create better blogs?"

For starters, you have way too many old world rules rolled over from the newspaper business that paint you into a corner.

I interviewed Debbie Kornmiller from the Arizona Star, who has had a blog/commenting section at her newspaper SINCE 1995, and also Michael Tippett from Now Public, and I asked them basically the same question.

Both answers were incredibly revealing.

Michael Tippett's for what he said ...
http://zero.newassignment.net/filed/nowpublic_michael_tippett

And Debbie Kornmiller more for what she didn't ...
http://zero.newassignment.net/filed/debbie_kornmiller_arizona_star_tucson_az

I went to hear Michael Geist speak last night. The most important, but understated message he shared was that blogs are still in the realm of the wild west, which basically means that their are no rules.

For example; newspapers write a rule.

Indie bloggers create a workaround - offshore if necessary.

Newspapers fight it in legal court.

Bloggers fight it in the court of international public opinion.

Newspapers shield their advertisers.

Bloggers go directly to your, and your advertisers' customers.

When mainstream news knocks a new media practitioner down, another will take his or her place.

Shawn Fanning, founder of Napster is a good example.

Big business can throttle the internet all they want.

There is a workaround for everything.

DRM is another good example.

You implied in another of your posts that you don't consider the blogosphere to be a professional environment. I disagree.

Maybe "you" haven't figured out how to monetize it, but your new breed of competitors have.

Here's a brief example of what it means to write a new rule.

How do you decide the correct spelling of a word?

Go to Google and type in both versions. The one that gets the most returns is the correct spelling, because at the end of the day, it's not the rule that counts, it's whether or not people understand you.

Anarchy?

Maybe, but more like common sense.

Kirk LaPointe link

4/4/2008 08:31:19 am

Exactly who in journalism is making a lot of money through ad-supported sites?
Unquestionably there are disruptive technologies and lots of new distribution patterns, but I don't see them yet creating a business model that will pay for journalism.
There are plenty of commentary blogs earning revenue, but they do not have resources to gather news. As the State of the News Media report noted a couple of weeks ago, a digital journalism model has not emerged.

Maurice Cardinal link

4/8/2008 01:59:16 am

A good rule of thumb for journalists is to not ask a question they really don't want answered.

I responded to your response Kirk, but you pulled it, and you did so without notifying me or explaining why.

I was trying to avoid this, but if anyone wants to read my original post re Kirk's response about profit, go to my blog where I'll soon post it, but I would much rather give Kirk the opportunity to repost it here.

The short version to Kirk's question above regarding "profit" is that newspapers have too many rules that exclude people from posting responses. (This post is a perfect example.)

Trim the rules back to a reasonable crescendo and we might join you in the sandbox. Remain so severely protectionist and you play alone.

We need newspapers to be more representative of the community, and to not be so fixated on profit.

If all you can think of is profit, newspapers are dead in the water.

You simply do not get it.

Maurice Cardinal link

4/9/2008 04:14:52 am

Kirk, if you remain prematurely focused on an ad-supported news model you will never figure out how to improve newspaper blogs.

You asked how newspapers can create better blogs, ... not how newspapers can make a lot of money from blogs.

You’re putting the cart before the horse.

Whip Trigger all you want, but he ain't gonna get up and push your wagon.

First create a good blog atmosphere, and then figure out how to monetize it.

Except for your response regarding profit, you ignored everything else I mentioned in my response, which indicates that profit is all that matters.

(Side bar; After I originally posted this response, Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, made an announcement that Canada will no longer put up with companies that harm our community in the name of greed and profit. He was referring to China, but he should extend the warning to domestic news media as well.)

Both Kornmiller and Tippett (from my post above) agree that in general, people who post comments on newspaper blogs are more hostile than those who post on other styles of blog. Do you blame them? If it weren’t for news media, George W. Bush would have never been able to whip the world into such frenzy, but we all know that war sells newspapers.

This common trend of public distrust is a major concern if you are seriously trying to figure out how to improve your blog, because if you can't even get people to respond to you, and in a civil manner, how can you expect to connect with them in a meaningful way?

TheTyee.ca, NowPublic.com, and PublicEyeOnline.com (all BC local), seem to have a good handle on the civility challenge as indicated by the large volume of relatively civil posts they regularly receive on their sites in relation to the number of posts on the Vancouver Sun blog site.

Ironically, the only blog I have ever been banned from posting on resides on The Vancouver Sun. And not only have I been banned permanently, it took five months to learn why.

If you want to improve newspaper blogs, first you have to attract and allow people to post freely, so as I suggest above, get rid of your archaic rules, except of course for common sense issues like libel or slander.

If you've forgotten your rules of engagement re Vancouver Sun blogs check out the link I included below. It is overwhelming in both length and complexity.

The first question you have to ask respective of how to improve newspaper blogs is;

How do you encourage people to be more civil on newspaper blogs?

My short answer is to start by removing the unfriendly legal roadblock. Action speaks louder than words.

Newspaper execs conveniently forget that in the early to mid 90s too many of them claimed the internet was a passing fad and that it would never impact their business. Those of us in the know knew you guys didn’t really believe it. We knew it was merely a stall until newspapers could figure out how to corral and monetize the wily beast, and even more importantly, a stall to protect the news communication monopoly newspapers had been slowly developing since the advent of the Guttenberg. Well here we are over a decade later and you’re still trying figuring out how to get a rope around its neck.

Throttle, choke, bend, spindle, and mutilate it all you want, but consider that even if large corporations manage to shape bandwidth in an effort to unfairly exclude smaller players from the competition, we still have many online options that allow us to reach an ever-fracturing market and share information.

Once you’ve fully explored how to encourage people to be more civil on newspaper blogs you can move forward to figure out how to make it profitable.

My suggestion; devalue traditional intellectual property respective of news reporting, and look elsewhere to generate revenue. Michael Geist, one of The Sun’s contributors re copyright law online, net neutrality, etc., and CEO Terry McBride of Nettwerk Music Group (BareNL, Sarah M, Avril) have a pretty good handle on this devaluation process, but if you want to go to the source, check out what The Dead did in the 60’s. These guys did it decades before everyone. The article at the link below was published in 1997, and it is still a very easy way for anyone to understand the process of creating community. Remember, this article was published in 1997, only one year after you discovered the power of the internet Kirk. http://www.strategy-business.com/press/16635507/9095

Keep in mind too that newspapers have to create real community, not simply a perception of community. News is timely. Getting onboard only when it is fashionable regarding a community problem like homelessness or drug addiction years after it has undermined a community only makes us wonder what ulterior motives newspapers might have. It creates distrust. Many are wondering what t

Maurice Cardinal link

4/9/2008 04:24:10 am

Continued from above . . .

it seems the length of my response was the reason my original post was bumped, and if so I apologize for implying it was purposely pulled.

Here's the last part of my long post above . . .
__________________

Many are wondering what took mainstream news media so long. For now though let’s stick to the question of civility, but if you’d like to learn more about news organizations and trust you can read an August 2007 PEW research report here … http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=348

Regarding a statement in the link you provide above from Ball State, “Spillman believes that politics may not be the best topic for newspaper blogs.”

Yikes! Even the whisper of politics at TheTyee.ca or NowPublic.com sets off a barrage that boggles the mind. People are dyeing to talk politics online, but apparently not with newspapers. I suspect it’s because they feel newspapers have too many rules and are biased. You might want to explore why so many people feel this way and work you way out from that point. It’s a start.

Vancouver Sun Terms of Use
http://www.canada.com/aboutus/termsofservice.html

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How can newspapers create better blogs?

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