The Ten .comMandments
Jim BradyPoynter InstituteJune 6, 2011
The Ten .comMandments
1. You shall not whine– The old business model is dying.– Resistance is futile. And not smart.– Your future readers/viewers have
grown up in a totally different media environment.
– We need to figure out how to survive in a disaggregated, open media ecosystem.
The Ten .comMandments
2. You shall be OF the web, not just on the web
– Taking your publication and plopping it on the web is not a strategy.
– Be educated on how the web is different
– Add new sources to your media diet, i.e. mashable, PaidContent, Poynter, etc.
The Ten .comMandments
3. You shall take risks– What bigger risk is there right now
than doing nothing?– Try new things & understand going in
some will fail. Many others will not.– Being a fast follower is a losing
strategy in digital.
The Ten .comMandments
4. You shall not be ‘platform-agnostic’
– All platforms are not created equal.– Do you want the same information on
your desktop, iphone & Ipad?– Create original content that speaks to
that platform.– But it’s not all about creating
platform-specific content: it’s more about how info is assembled.
The Ten .comMandments
5. You shall embrace new tools– tools themselves are not good or
bad. It’s what you make of them.– Stop thinking of them as technical
tools. They’re journalistic tools.– Think not just of tool, but why it’s
successful, and emulate those characteristics.
– Examples: Social Media, Location-based services, Crowdsourcing, CoverItLive, Quora, groupon.
The Ten .comMandments
6. You shall understand the business side
– This doesn’t mean doing business work, just merely understanding what your challenges are.
– It means open communication. Sales teams can’t sell what they don’t know about.
– Don’t say ‘It’s not my problem.’ It’s everybody’s problem. Pulitzer Prizes are not accepted in place of rent.
The Ten .comMandments
7. You shall have tangible goals– Decide what metrics are important.– Communicate them widely and
frequently.– Have plans in place for when goals
are met -- or not met.– So much of the new world is
unsettled. Good metrics are a nice stabilizing force.
The Ten .comMandments
8. You shall pick your spots– The Web is niche. Most newspapers
and TV stations are not good at niche.– Decide what you want to win at, and
put the bulk of your resources behind those things.
– Being mediocre at most things is not a good journalism or business model.
The Ten .comMandments
9. You shall embrace your community
• Engagement As viewed by many news orgs:
The Ten .comMandments…
9. You shall embrace your community
• Engagement As it should be viewed by all news organizations.
The Ten .comMandments
9. You shall embrace your community – Journalism companies need more than
readers. They need engaged participants.
– Involve the community in real journalism – not just pet photos and message boards.
– Meet them – in person.– Convince them that your success is
their success
The Ten .comMandments
10. You shall link to other sites– Don’t rely on traffic cops to deliver you
new readers. Become a traffic cop.– Become the news hub for the subjects
you cover.– Don’t fall into the ‘why would we send
readers off our site?’ trap. They’re going to leave your site anyway.
– Make your consumers happy, not your newsroom.
Thanks!
Questions?