OJR: The Online Journalism Review
February 5, 2010
By Robert Niles
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What's the value of journalism?
The short answer is, of course, "whatever someone will pay for it." But a more thoughtful response gets at why people are willing to exchange something of value for news information.
Economics 101 teaches that if more people want something, and the scarcer it is, the higher the price. With millions of new websites competing for people's attention, advertising rates across all media have plunged, threatening news businesses that depend upon advertising income.
But the Internet hasn't just created more advertising space, driving down its price. It's also developing millions of new writers, diminishing the economic value of writing itself as a craft.
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More about: journalism education, social media
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February 3, 2010
By Robert Niles
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To encourage OJR readers to apply for our
2010 News Entrepreneur Boot Camp, I'm writing again on some of the things you need to know, and skills you might need to develop, to become the successful publisher of a thriving news website.
Much of what you'll learn at the camp, should you be one of those selected to attend, focuses on mind-set. The skills necessary to run a news website are remarkably similar to the skills needed to work as a reporter. But the mindsets of a successful entrepreneur and a newsroom reporter, unfortunately, are very often quite different.
To that end... have you talked with a customer lately? (Or a potential one?) By "customer," I mean a person who writes - or might someday write - you a check to fund your site. (Your current boss does not count!) It could be an advertiser, a subscriber or a non-profit foundation. You can't publish a website - or run any business - without customers, and if you're even just thinking about doing that one day, you need to learn what your potential customers are doing... and what they want.
So for my post this week, I offer not some provocative opinion but an assignment - some entrepreneurial homework. Find some people, at least one, who you think might someday, possibly, provide some financial support for that website you might start (assuming you don't have one already). Then start a conversation.
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More about: entrepreneurial journalism
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January 29, 2010
By Robert Niles
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Will Apple's new iPad help the news industry?
Sure. Any new device that encourages people to read and watch more information will help publishers. With a larger screen than Apple's iPod Touch and iPhone, and far better display than we've seen from the Kindle or other e-book readers to date, people moving to the iPad from those devices should be expected to increase their "screen time," since they'll be using a more aesthetically pleasing device.
But can the iPad save the newspaper industry? What features in the new device might help financially struggling newsrooms encourage more people to pay for news delivered online?
Slow down, folks. First, if you haven't watch this years-old clip from Fox's old Mad TV sketch comedy show, please do now. It's best not to place any industry's hopes for survival upon a device whose name elicited so much ridicule from one half the population that Twitter users immediately moved "iTampon" to the top of the Trending Topics list in response.
I know that many news managers desperately want some technological innovation to come along that will turn back time and make people fall in love with printed content again. But paid circulation and readership were falling at most U.S. newspapers long before the World Wide Web made it easier for people dissatisfied with their local newspapers to find many more alternatives. The problem isn't the Web - it's that people have been rejecting and, in increasing numbers, continue to reject paying for the content offered by newspapers' newsrooms, in any medium.
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More about: revenue, tools
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January 26, 2010
By Robert Niles
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We're now taking applications for the
2010 News Entrepreneur Boot Camp at the University of Southern California. I hope that OJR readers will apply for the camp, which will bring 20 journalists to Los Angeles for a week in May for intensive instruction and discussion about starting and growing an online news business. To encourage
you to apply, I'll be sharing on OJR for the next few weeks some of the topics I'll be discussing in greater depth at the camp.
Many of these concepts will reduce to changes in the mindset that journalists bring to the practice of our craft. As journalists, we (should) understand the power of language. Simply changing some of our vocabulary can result in a profound shift in our practice of journalism, a shift that ultimately helps us create a more financially secure career for ourselves, while better serving our readers' needs as well.
As journalists, we typically frame our job as producing stories, usually for a daily edition. But as the combination of a poor economy and an increasingly competitive publishing market drives more of us into entrepreneurship, that focus must change. As an employee, your job is to perform a task that, in conjunction with the work of other employees, creates value for the company. But you don't need to concern yourself with what those other employees are doing (except, of course, for how their work affects your ability to do your job) or the big picture of how all your work creates value. Just make your deadlines, and file your stories.
But with "work for someone else's newsroom" jobs become scare in the news business, smart journalists need to start thinking more like entrepreneurs. Even if your goal remains a newsroom job, an entrepreneurial mindset can help you develop the assets that will make you a more valuable job prospect, as well as develop your ability to see which newsrooms are most likely to endure in this increasingly competitive environment.
Notice the word I just used: "assets." To me, that's the word that should replace "stories" in your vocabulary as a journalist. Too many of the journalists I've seen try to make the transition to running their own blogs and websites remain mired in the "story" mindset, endlessly creating newspaper-style "stories" or even brief-length snippets for their blogs. But they fail to create assets of enduring value that ultimately provide the income that they need to remain viable businesses online.
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More about: entrepreneurial journalism
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January 22, 2010
By Robert Niles
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I've long complained about online news publications that automatically redirect all requests from mobile devices to their mobile home page. The practice kills deep-linking online, which is especially frustrating when the deep link comes from the news organization's own Twitter feed.
But today, I'd like to highlight another frustrating practice by some news organizations - publishing incomplete articles to the mobile version of their websites or smartphone apps.
I'm illustrating two examples here today, but I've encountered so many on my iPhone over the past several weeks that I often wonder if many news organizations employ anyone to actually read their mobile publications, or if they merely entrusted their mobile versions and apps to automated processes.
With mobile news attracting a growing audience, news publishers simply can't afford to take the Ron Popeil approach to their mobile publications - "set it and forget it." They must devote some eyeballs toward a backread of all that they produce.
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More about: mobile, usability, website design
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