Blog integration

An excellent point is made in this Gawker.com column. Newspapers can really drive traffic and readership on their Web sites by publishing well-crafted, relevant blogs (the Racine Journal Times is proof). But too often newspapers lump all their blogs together in one messy pile. They treat blogs as a separate entity, which they are, in a sense; but they are really more of a supplement. They should complement the information newspapers make available. If they build a following they may become a starting point for people. But that takes time...and participation from a community of readers. A great place to build readership is sports blogs. The audience is already there and it is an audience that thirsts for opinions.

By all means, newspapers should be blogging. But they shouldn't just dump them on the Web site and expect readership to grow. They need to promote them and incorporate them into existing information and news coverage. Use the power of the information newspapers provide to grow audience.

Crime coverage pays

An easy to way bolster your newspaper's "watchdog" reputation as well as build readership is to increase crime coverage. Readers will clamor for more positive news, of course, which indicates to me the problem is in presentation. Many papers that I have picked up over the years will have crime and court news spread throughout the paper, leaving an impression that there are more negative crime stories than there really are. I've advocated packaging all crime and court news on one or two pages. This gives readers a choice. They can ignore it easily and peruse the paper for more positive news or they can review the breaking crime news and updates on pending cases and court actions. (The same should be done with positive, good news pieces.)

Printing more crime news can serve the public, as noted in this column from Terre Haute Tribune-Star Editor Max Jones. Deep reporting of the police blotter answers questions readers might have about events in their neighborhood; plus, it paints a truer picture of crime than merely reporting felonies or other more newsworthy crimes. This hyper-local content is easy to come by if your newspaper has a decent relationship with the police and fire departments. Newspapers should take advantage.

Becoming reader-centric

It has been a long time since I've posted, thanks to the intrusions of my daily job and raising of two kids...anyway, here is an excerpt from my upcoming book to serve as a fresh post until I can blog faithfully again:

Becoming Reader-centric: A 1947 report from the Commission on Freedom of the Press, commonly called the Hutchins Commission, had this to say:

“Too much of the regular output of the press consists of a miscellaneous succession of stories and images which have no relation to the typical lives of real people anywhere. The results is a meaninglessness, flatness, distortion, and the perpetuation of misunderstanding. The press emphasizes the exceptional rather than the representative; the sensational rather than the significant. The press is preoccupied with these incidents to such an extent that the citizen is not supplied the information and discussion he needs to discharge his responsibilities to the community.”

Obviously, not much has changed. But newspapers can no longer afford to ignore the needs of the readers who both directly and indirectly sustain their operations. Newspapers must connect with readers. Here are some initial steps to take:

• Assess just how far off base you are with readers. Ask your staff for their input. Ask friends or family members for honest assessments of how useful the newspaper is to them. Ask a non-competing newspaper to offer an assessment.
  
• Quantify how many stories, features of services fulfill important needs for readers. Take a look at your newspaper’s content and determine how many stories are written for readers and how many are written because they are routine beat coverage. Are features truly lively and enlightening pieces or do they simply fit a preconceived notion of what a newspaper feature is? Establish a benchmark so you can note improvements.
  
• Brainstorm ways to connect with readers. Involve as many staffers as possible. Don’t edit ideas. Promote free and open discussion. Don’t dismiss ideas as illogical or expensive.
  
• Get out of the office. Get everybody out of the office. Interact with readers on a non-business level. Learn about them as people, not customers. Don’t even bring up the paper in discussion. Ask about their lives.

Quick notes on new storytelling

A quick post since I've been absent, wrapped up in the rigors of my daily job...The Sacramento Bee has published another print/online series that is well-told and immensely compelling. Reporter Jocelyn Wiener wrote "Tackling Life," a series that looked at the current lives of members of a youth football team from 1992. The kids were from rough neighborhoods. The series deftly mixed triumph and tragedy.

The site might require registration, but it is free and worth it. The SacBee doesn't seem to get as much notice as other larger-circulation dailies, but it continually produces groundbreaking work. But don't be fooled--these are things that can be done on a smaller level, to a lesser degree, by almost any paper in America.

Another project--this one for more extensive--was produced by the St. Pete Times. "Doubt" examines an 18-year-old murder case, presents the evidence, and asks readers to decide for themselves the guilt or innocence of the man convicted for the crime.