Newspapers: Dead or Alive?

ASNE-Reynolds High School Journalism InstituteJuly 7, 2008

Tough times

Fragmentation Audience

• Platforms• Advertising

Information glut Political polarization “No time to read” Falling circulation Smaller newsrooms New owners

And in case you weren’t convinced . . .

The Big Gap

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20

40

60

80

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120

1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2005

Mill

ion

s

Daily Circulation US Households

Source: Journalism.org

How will we get across the bridge?

Rapidly grow Web audience Reinvent print papers Become reader-focused Become efficient:

• Stop doing some things Create new products Adopt a culture of continuous change Transform newsrooms for Web first

•Video: EPIC 2015

Journalism TodayTHE BAD:• Newspaper staffs are

shrinking, foreign coverage is minimal, sections like science and religion are being compressed and absorbed into other sections

• Fewer full-time writers, more freelancers

• Newspaper stocks are going down

• Circulation and revenue are falling every year

• More and more, investors are needed to swoop in and save newspapers from going under, and sometimes that’s not enough

THE GOOD:• More access to journalism

worldwide• More voices contributing and

participating• More ways to tell stories

with advances in multimedia• There will always be a need

for news reporting and storytelling

• The number of people going online for news is increasing

• Newspapers are improving their websites

• New philosophies about the nature and importance of journalism are emerging

Can we succeed?

YES! We have competitive advantages

We are credible We are local We deliver on multiple platforms We are growing audience

Newspaper Audience by Age

Source: Scarborough Research survey data, www.stateofthemedia.org

67 million visitors!!

Newspaper Online Audience

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35

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75

Jan '04 Jan '05 Jan '06 Jan '07 Jan '08

Mil

lio

ns

Unique VisitorsSource: NAA.org Neilsen/Net Rating

Evolution of Journalism

• Old media includes print reporters writing for newspapers and magazines. Old media newsrooms are cutting budgets, taking buyouts, and shrinking their newsrooms.

• New media still needs the same type of great, thorough reporting, but it is much farther reaching and diverse—and it allows for constant updates to news stories. New media includes websites for print newspapers, blogging, social media (Twitter), audio and video reporting, and news portals such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

• Some print newspapers have gone entirely online with no print edition. Others are updating content daily outline and putting out weekly print editions.

• No matter the medium, great journalists are and always will be vital to the world.

Online News Audience

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, http://pewinternet.org/, www.stateofthemedia.org

What is our strategy?

1. Integrate Web and newspaper workflowBUT

Differentiate content

2. Keep the core paper strongBUT

Grow the “Pups”

Local is King: The Newspaper

What is our competitive advantage?

Watchdog Narrative Exclusive content Smart visuals Enterprising reporting Personally useful content Provocative commentary

Local is King: The Web

How do we grow audience?

First in breaking news Video Photo galleries Databases Interactivity User-generated contentSearch engine optimization

Then and now: Orlando Sentinel

Insert a “then” front page

Then and now:

The biggest risk is to take no risk.