Taking the paper out of the newspaper

In the hit show The Soprano's we frequently saw Tony dressed in a robe walking out of his suburban mansion to pick up his newspaper from the driveway. Many people, thugs and undersigned included, are used to this daily ritual of reading the paper at the breakfast table. But I have decided to cancel my paper newspaper. After years of struggling with keeping it together while reading and unable to ever fold it back the way it was, I have thrown in the towel. From now on I will only read the news online. No need to cut down trees, fuel the printing presses and transport hundreds of pages to our home. I will have my news served sustainably. I now read the New York Times on my PC and iPhone, but I have ordered the Kindle so I can swallow the opinion page together with my bowl of cereal. No more rain swept tracks to the driveway to look for a soaked blue plastic bag that contains a wet bundle with news already slightly staled during its journey down to Connecticut.

Some people like the smell of the ink and the rustle of paper. I don't. This is a relic of the past. Who is reading the 25 pages of financial data? Who is interested what the weather in the Mid West was yesterday? Who looks at classifieds when you have Craigslist? What I have done instead is create a MyYahoo page which combines the news of about ten dailies and weeklies with RSS feeds for columns of my favorite commentators, organized by major topics. This is physically impossible with paper. It used to be that you read one or maybe two newspapers a day. Now you can access a wide array of sources and zoom in on what you're interested in. I regularly watch related videos, link through for background information and participate in discussions. I mark articles for later reading on my iPhone and check the most emailed or discussed articles to find something that may surprise me.

Like any other industry that is uprooted by new technologies and innovations, newspapers are struggling to deal with this change. Some close shop, others pursue online models more aggressively. The bottomline is that this industry is in dire need to radically reinvent itself. Maureen Dowd wrote a column in the NY Times with the heading “Slouching to oblivion”. She mentions that Sam “The Sham” Zell called his purchase of The L.A. Times and The Chicago Tribune “a mistake,”. He said, “It’s very obvious that the newspaper model in its current form does not work and the sooner we all acknowledge that, the better.” In an article named “The rebirth of news” The Economist reports that in Britain around 70 local papers have shut down since the beginning of 2008.

The music industry has gone through a period of angst when people started downloading music. Like the paper, the CD as medium was becoming rapidly cumbersome and the pricing model completely out of wack. You rarely like all the songs on an album. The ipod and iTunes changed this. Most grown ups now buy only the songs they are interested in for 99 cents each. But in the meantime the music industry also has to deal with artists directly communicating with their audiences, without the need for big business. Another example of disintermediation. Layers of management only work when they truly add value. So it goes with the papers. Reprinting a Reuters or AP article may make sense in the physical world, yet it doesn't in the online world when you get breaking news directly streamed from these news agencies into your browser. But many people are willing to pay for news analysis, sound journalism and commentary. The Wall Street Journal has over a million paying online users. Three newspapers — The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe — will offer a reduced price on the Kindle in exchange for a long-term subscription. But they still need to pay for their physical delivery and haven't fully figured out a sound model for online only.

The online newspaper model will follow the same principles as any other online business. First the value offered should be obvious to the users with a high level of convenience and ease of access (tailored to different types of devices). In addition, there has to be true engagement. This means that publishing is becoming more interactive. Leading columnists now analyze the feedback they get on their posts, engage in discussions and exchange notes and ideas with their readers. Those readers themselves are becoming micro publishers. They write comments and challenge factual content of news items. During the presidential race much of the fact checking was a collaborative effort between experienced journalists and smart amateurs. Today's major issues are global and complex. The written word does not always suffice to explain all aspects succinctly. An online “paper” should provide a true multimedia experience, leveraging the web's rich tools for visualization of complex concepts. Lastly, through establishing direct feedback loops with their subscribers (or rather community members?) the news services can fine tune their content and packaging and get true insight in the readers interests. This should be translated in new advertising models. Rather than offering bland ads based on some aggregate view of its readers it can advertise in Google or Facebook manner: highly personalized messages reflecting the way you click and the content you read.

All this points to a new experience. It means more focus on multimedia presentation, investigative journalism, analysis and commentary. One of the key objectives of a news paper is to obtain, organize, analyze and package the news. A new objective is to engage its readers to become community members. Newsworthy items can be solicited from its members and stories collaboratively developed. Most people are willing to financially support the communities they belong to. It seems that Web 2.0 Times has arrived.