Friday’s Five: Top Misconceptions by Newspapers Online October 5, 2007
After all the work I've done on newspaper websites and talking with a group of newspaper publishers last week, I realize that I get asked the same questions quite often. There are some common misconceptions in the newspaper industry regarding the Web, and I'd like to take this opportunity to highlight and correct these typical mistakes.
1. The Internet is the Enemy.
This is a big one. As newspapers continue to lose print circulation, the Web is becoming the scapegoat. Newspapers should know that the Internet is only an enemy if they fail to use it correctly. Largely, the web is an untapped resource for newspapers.
2. We must display all of our site's content all over the homepage.
If you look at typical newspaper websites, the content is often strewn all over the place without any sense of organization. Newspapers often feel the need to display all of their content on the homepage. This is a mistake–too much content can be overwhelming. Littering a homepage with buttons and links distracts people's eyes and prevent them from focusing on anything. Newspapers are better off leading with a couple of big headlines and pictures, letting a strong navigation do the rest of the work.
3. People will pay for content online.
If the current situations at NYT and WSJ aren't enough to prove this, I direct you to Mark Glaser's posts over at MediaShift here. People don't want to pay for average, generalized content online. They might pay for personalized and unique content that provides a specialized service. But charging for run-of-the-mill stories just isn't going to work. Unless you really have something superior to offer, registration barriers are only going to hurt your traffic. Newspapers are better off offering their online customers the ability to create an optional user profile–in this way, newspapers can get demographic info valuable to advertisers, and users get something in return.
4. We can't compete with Craigslist and other classifieds providers.
This is just wrong. Newspaper can compete in online classifieds. But to do so, they need to revamp their systems for creating ads and make them much more user- and web-friendly. Here's an example of how this can work.
5. Websites are complicated and we don't have the time to deal with them.
While #4 was just wrong, this is just silly. Barriers to entry to the online world–costs and technical requirements–are dropping everyday. The Web is getting easier and cheaper as we speak. Sites like the New York Observer (built in free, open-source Drupal), are examples of how newspapers can build great sites using technology with low technical and cost barriers. No excuses!
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Comments
While I don’t doubt #5 is true, I’m wondering what media outlets are saying this. Any examples? Do they tend to be smaller weeklies? I mean, that mentality is professionally negligent.
I would agree whole heartedly with 1-3, I am currently balancing this theory whilst re-aligning our own homepage - peterboroughtoday.co.uk.
4. The classified market is a real tough one, where combining the print and online products in an efficient and effective way for the mass audience is the golden ticket.
5. As for the technical side of putting together websites, true there are countless tools online, many free, that can aid and enhance a new newspaper website. But for an existing site, with much aged backend coding and elderly databases, the path to web 2.0 is a long, time consuming and potentially expensive one.
Richard, I know how difficult and expensive upgrading a site can be. But, the time and cost of making a better Web product will only reap great rewards as more technology is adopted by the masses.
As a content provider, the last thing you’d want is to not have your content where your former newspaper audience is.
I think Erin is spot on, many publication do not pay adequate attention to the Internet. I often wonder as to what will be the future of the newspaper industry in say five or ten years. Already today most people obtain their news online and in a period of 10 years, reading newspapers will be passe with most preferring to get their news either through blogs or rss feeds (or a highly advanced version of it).
Yeah, Richard is right on re: 4 and 5. It’s a little more complicated than this, guys. I understand this is throwaway list and all that, but it’s not quite as simple as ripping up your existing site and adopting an open source CMS like Drupal. If it were, we wouldn’t be using the piece of junk we’re using now.
As for number one… c’mon! Maybe five years ago this was true, but not now. Virtually every mainstream media company in the world has recognized the future of their business is the web.
Wow - great list - all of these (except, possibly #5) highlight what I find frustrating about my local online daily - while they don’t make you pay for content online, they do make you register for the site to read anything other than the front page and I think that’s a mistake right up there with requiring payment - it is a payment of sorts