It’s not news that there are a lot of people/groups out there talking about the exact same things we are: Doing news differently. But the more I read about it, the more I realize just how deep this goes.
Case in point: There this little treatise from Steve Buttry of the American Press Institute. It’s 38 pages in PDF form, but it is a must-read for anybody involved in journalism right now.
It predicts a lot of the things we’ve been talking about: More responsive journalism, interaction with readers, advertising as more than just a static operation.
I should note here that Buttry was hired on at Gazette Communications in Iowa to test out some of his newfangled ideas.
There are some things I disagree with in his blueprint. For example, he talks about the Gazette setting up web pages for newborns as a means to engage community-members on a personal level. I think this is creepy, especially if they’re doing it automatically.
He also advocates being the one-stop source for all information in their realm (being the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area), which I agree with, but there is a point where other sites, businesses, etc simply do something better and you risk putting up a wall around your customers. When that happens, you drive off your readers. This is something I wrestle with because a community info source would be a great place to do social networking, however, I personally would be loath to have yet another online persona I would have to pay attention to and frankly Facebook already does a pretty good job of the networking thing.
These are small disagreements and things he may or may not modify as his experiments play out in Iowa. The bulk of the document is full of great ideas for reimagining the role of the community newspaper. You really should read it!
Thanks for the plug.
I should elaborate on the idea for babies: I think we should make web pages automatically with public-record information when babies are born in the community, but we don’t have to launch them publicly. We send the family the URL and a password and let them put pictures, videos and other information online. They could change the password and have a password-protected online baby book available only for family and friends. Or they could decide to make it public.
There’s still just this part of me that is creeped out by the idea. On the other hand I’m filtering it through my perception of our own hometown paper, which is a little creepy to begin with.
On the flip side, I remember when my two kids were born and I scanned the paper daily for the birth announcement (which I missed because I didn’t know where to look (or maybe it wasn’t there, who knows)). I also saved the A-sections from each of the kids’ birthdays. It may just be a matter of expectation: You expect the newspaper to run their daily lists of weddings, births, etc. Maybe the newspaper of the future WILL do all that and more.
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