THE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRYIdeas from an Outsider Who Happens to be a News-Junkie

STATE OF NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY

• According to Pew, some optimism

• Starting new revenue streams, major organization changes

• 33% of papers have digital pay plans

• Auto, real estate, employment ads starting to come back

• But print ad revenue in 6th year of decline

• Digital ad revenue up, but not yet covering print ad losses

• And mobile device ad revenues not yet developing

ONE VIEW OF WHAT WE WANT

• Get rid of what’s needed occasionally and easily obtainable from web (e.g., weather, stock quotes, real estate, etc.). Simplify.

• Make it local and regional - do what you do best - connect us together - give us positive news - inspire

• In-depth stories of what’s happening nearby, beyond daily

• Highlight people - young and old - making a difference

• Some history - what is local heritage for where we live?

• Churches provide weekly summary message

• Provide some humor. Laugh more. Not political.

• School plans (results and strategy) - make them compete

• Video infomercials by local business. Then customer reviews.

• Customizable website portal.

• Provide national news sites headlines to scan, click to visit

• Write about national, global news for what it means to community. Local leaders explain impact of national trends.

OUT OF THE BOX?

• People also provide input that papers review, question, edit.

• Let us be part of process (free labor)

• If a business’s plan is featured, will they advertise more in the future?

• Unbundle print, and re-bundle it with web

• Sell major sections of print that people want to spend time reading. Everyone has a favorite section. Can’t read it all.

• email and/or mail it? Look and feel of the paper. Premium price and more ads per print section.

• Then charge for full web access along with chosen print sections

• Brand newspapers to be relevant

• Create school version to help students learn to read, think about news

• Parents buy weekly news summary for use in school? Students respond to questions via web. Helps teacher?

• Different language versions?

• Join with university to sponsor summits on global to local issues. Invite community. Summit material in print, web.

IMAGINE

Today’s Star is…

XYZ School

Tech Plan calls for…

Business Achieves

Milestone of…

Construction on target to…Developer says… University team discovers… x people moved into county, y moved out

Let’s Laugh

Did You Know 25 years ago

we…

See content from Paper@TEDex

on…