How can newspapers ride out the 'perfect storm'

Apologies for paste such a large chunk of Roy Greenslade's prelude to the Society of Editors conference this week, but it defines the current outlook for newspapers, and a strategy to save the very essence of what newspapers are and what journalism is, rather than just looking at bottom lines and treating companies as a business:

What editors should be thinking about instead is the development of new media journalism as a process. They should be thinking as journalists rather than as managers.

Unless journalists start thinking, debating and innovating in order to explore new methods, they will contribute not only to the collapse of their newspapers - and their own careers - but also to the failure of journalism itself.

What we need to do is find out how we can use the new media tools to take journalism on to a new stage. We need to convince publishers that they should give their journalists time, space and resources to explore new avenues, to build relationships with non-journalists, to stimulate a new form of journalism.

There will be mistakes and we will go down dead-ends (as we have done already), and it will be messy at the beginning. But the eventual benefits for journalists, for communities, for society will make that effort worthwhile.

James Robinson writing in The Observer highlights how the industry may never be the same once this tag-team storm of a worldwide recession and mass shift in media consumption have settled:

Newspapers have weathered recessions before, spending in the good times and cutting costs when revenue falls. 'It will sort out the men from the boys,' says one senior industry executive. But a structural shift, with advertising migrating online, represents a sterner challenge.

Few now doubt that the combination could kill off titles that have been publishing for generations.

What will newspapers look like in 5 years?

Tabloids, supplements, give-aways, all have been tried to keep people buying newspapers over the last few years but news consumption is still in flux.

The tide is slowly turning against the printed newspaper, although it's death I suggest is not upon us.

The evolution and expansion of television and online news has given the public a constant output of rolling news coverage.

The printed word has its obvious limitations in the digital world, which leaves newspapers facing up to the possibility that their time as the news source of choice will fade.

That leaves newspapers with the job of producing websites that not only give users what they want, when they want it; as well as being a platform for expanding in the future; but also enable the editorial team to effectively and efficiently update the site.

The newspaper website

Newspapers in print, may have to trim down their output, while the quantity of constantly updated short sharp news is available online, a quality in-depth print product, filled with comment, opinion, features and measured commentary is published less frequently, maybe not even daily at regional level.

Part of the project for newspaper websites is a web standard design, layout, usability, accessibility and solid information architecture, but these depend on a clean and efficient backend of the site.

If old legacy code and creaky databases remain, producing interactive, multimedia friendly, well-designed pages will be hard, long and expensive work in the long-term.

The 24/7 editorial strategy

As revenue becomes tight at newspaper titles, staff and resources are cut and centralised, but the editorial team must remain strong and feel that they have some hope in a digital news future.

As The Guardian staff are now debating it sounds like a huge leap into multimedia 24/7 news coverage from working to print deadlines.

It is possible, with the right systems support and multimedia resources in place to streamline the editorial process, for the news team, with some realistic, quality training, can develop content skills to include relevant multimedia narrative tools to keep the modern news viewer's needs fulfilled.

There's no worn path for newspapers to tread in the digital world, so research, advice and a realistic approach is needed, along with a deep breath before making the leap!

The BBC are setting the standard for digital news as you would expect with the burden of making a profit lifted form their agenda, while newspapers, both national and local need to find their niches and their own distinctive voices. If they can do this efficiently and work out how to make some money along the way, then a digital strategy may keep them afloat.

Newspapers battle with the future

Why would you buy a printed newspaper when you can get all your news free online? Or why not just pick up a free paper?

The key to any strategy for current print news providers is deciding what and how to put content on their websites as currently very few papers have found success charging for content.

It isn't as simple as putting the print content straight onto the web, that is a one-way ticket to oblivion.

People turn to the web for breaking news now, first reports, following up watching longer analysis on TV and in the following days newspapers.

Advertising revenue from online newspapers is way behind print revenue, although this is improving, but I cannot currently see many printed titles being able to drop their cover price in order to encourage more readers that way.

What are newspaper good for?

People don't tend to read long news articles on a screen, personally I would rather print them off to read and take in later.

Lengthy feature or analytical articles are what print is and has always been good for.

This is part of the key to any level of success in the current murky media climate. Clever integration and cross-promotion of the print and online products.

If both products can be successful editorially and feed off each other, drawing audiences through their quality, then this can only help grow potential both advertising revenue streams.

The main problem for national and local titles is there is no tried and tested path for a successful future strategy. Their are titles that have large audiences and a strong presence online, particularly The Guardian in the UK and The New York Times in America.

Multimedia minefield

Broadband has enabled the web to embrace multimedia content, and this has trickled down to news organisations, including newspaper titles.

Podcasts have begat video reports, but the danger with treading into visual waters is that there are plenty of broadcasting operations who have far more understanding of the medium and can produce superior content.

Summing up

The future looks very uncertain, but the opportunity is there to reinvent newspapers for a digital age. The question will be: "But how do we do it?".

There is no simple answer, but one thing news providers must never forget is that content is king.

Taking your eye off the ball regarding producing relevant, intelligent and focussed news reports would be a big mistake, that is the one advantage news operations have over the majority of bloggers or citizen journalists.

The editorial team will always be the most vital resource, but newspaper owners must support them wisely and cleverly in order to keep the paper afloat in the coming decades.

Read more:
Papers battle online news sites from BBC Click technology programme.

More links on online newspapers and the future of newspapers.

Building an online local newspaper in 2006

In a word, diversify. Online newspapers need to push on with their unique selling points; namely, local knowledge and a trusted brand bringing loyalty within the a local marketplace. These need to be visible online whilst providing a more user-driven site, accessible to all on any platform.

Aims & objectives

Encouraging interactivity and providing high standards of usability for users; using web standards and offering flexibility for the web producers.

Design & construction

• Usable and accessible to all potential users in any browser, on any platform (mobile, PDAs, etc).


• Clean design and layout, with clear branding links with any print editions.


• Consistent branding and navigation.


• Produced in semantic, web standard code (XHTML and CSS) to improve control of layout.


• Makes temporary changes within layout templates more flexible, make content viewable on any platform with minimum of extra development work and make future developments easier.

Content & features

The digital age is well and truly upon us, modern news providers are multimedia outlets where news is transmitted and received in new formats by ever hungry users devouring news and information as quickly as it is produced. As Media Guardian puts it: "With news websites starting to fill up with audio and video clips, we are seeing just the beginning of "convergence"."

• Regularly updated content, i.e. up to the minute news from the local news team.


• Follow-ups and updates of news from print edition. Established print working patterns would need to be augmented by an understanding of the web audience and skills in writing for the web.


• The written content would be more geared towards a web audience. Shorter sentences/paragraphs and use of bullet lists.


• Flexibility to change homepage features regularly with eye-catching content whilst keeping basic structure and layout.


• Use of audio and visual content to augment written articles (but not just for the sake of doing it).


• Alternative distribution methods: Email newsletters, RSS feeds, blogs, email alerts.


• Awareness of online news aggregators: Google News, Newsvine - "..to build a perfectly different, perfectly efficient way to read, write, and interact with the news." Read an analysis of Newsvine.


• Text containing terms related to article keywords more helpful for search engine ranking. Google's advice for your website: Content.

Relationship with the audience

• Giving them the content that they want, in the format they want it: RSS feeds, email updates for specific sections.


• Offer blogs, user feedback/input, blog comments.


• Still pushing commercial options.

Marketing & promotion

• Clear consistent branding across all off and online editions.


• Cross promotion of features and offers.


• Print edition pushing online only content and vice versa.

Revenue/Return on investment

• Targeted advertising within sections.


• Sponsorship of features/sections – cross-branded between off/online editions.


• Interactive competitions – use of SMS.


• Not overwhelming the homepage with advertising, but specific content can carry relevant advertising options.