Success in 140 characters or less

I might not have advocated this a year or two ago, but I say give up on young readers. They’re not going to use newspapers as they are traditionally produced.

The more I observe, the less likely young readers will pay any attention to newspapers. Media consumption habits are changing—people go online first for information, they communicate via Facebook, they text, they Twitter. These are all things we’ve heard. They also multi-task, which provides even less “mindspace” for news and vital information (pushed out, as they are, by quick, fluffy info-opiates). The computer is the habit, not the paper.

Newspapers have already given up, for the most part. They haven’t supported successful (if not profitable) ventures to engage young readers. They haven’t tailored any content to them. And they’ve pulled NIE papers from classrooms by the thousands. Why bother at this point.

Some cogent arguments for throwing in the towel were made at the World Association of Newspapers conference.

Notice, though, that I said young people are not going to use newspapers “as they are traditionally produced.” I think the following strategies will work for any age group of readers:
Fulfilling needs (“jobs to be done” – Newspaper Next – please, please read)
Producing information important and valuable to the lives of people (enterprise journalism, watchdog journalism, whatever you want to call it) plus necessary locallocallocal information.
Merging media to produce content when readers want it and in the format they most prefer (at the moment).

Shift priorities. Reallocate resources. Experiment. Revolutionize. Succeed. That’s the Twitter version of the key to newspapers’ success.