{"id":143,"date":"2008-08-27T00:01:26","date_gmt":"2008-08-27T07:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=143"},"modified":"2008-08-26T21:25:04","modified_gmt":"2008-08-27T04:25:04","slug":"how-newspapers-can-adapt-to-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=143","title":{"rendered":"How Newspapers Can Adapt to the Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Print media is not dead. Printed material will always be with us, primarily for the reasons of permanence and portability. Newspaper publishers specifically need to understand what business they’re in now that the timeliness factor is owned by the Internet. Better still, they can exploit the power of the computer to deliver content and advertising in a powerful, profitable manner.
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\nNewspapers are dying right and left. Circulation is down. Staff is being cut. But that’s not true everywhere. The problem newspapers face is one of adaptation<\/em>. The service they provide is still needed and a newspaper can flourish by providing it.<\/p>\n

Here are my thoughts:<\/p>\n

1. There is strength in paper. It exists without electricity or an Internet connection. As such, it’s more convenient than reading a web page. Do not abandon the printed page. Instead, enhance it.<\/p>\n

2. Better writing equals better reading. The Internet is full of mediocre writing. People crave well-written material. Do not give it away on the web.<\/p>\n

3. Provide a web page. People expect it to be free, so give them something free. But don’t give away the farm. Instead, tease. If people want the details, they can subscribe. But do not cheat the subscribers: give them more information than is found (or cut from) the printed version. Do the web page right, make it brilliant, but make it something only the subscribers can see.<\/p>\n

4. Leverage your strength in advertising. Require web subscribers to provide detailed marketing information. Use that information. Don’t junk up a subscriber’s web experience with random, cluttered advertising. Instead, sell targeted<\/em> ads. Subscribers will prefer that, and your sales force will love it. Plus you cut out the expensive on-line advertising middlemen like Google, and you can justify higher ad rates for targeted ads.<\/p>\n

5. Use the power of your subscriber demographics further to customize content. Give people the news they want to read. Play down what they don’t.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, one of my editors did a completely on-line version of a magazine. It was phenomenally successful. It sold extremely targeted advertising, which not only moved products, it was appreciated by the subscribers. My editor deftly fused technology with the content and advertising power of traditional print media to achieve success. You can, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Print media is not dead. Printed material will always be with us, primarily for the reasons of permanence and portability. Newspaper publishers specifically need to understand what business they’re in now that the timeliness factor is owned by the Internet. Better still, they can exploit the power of the computer to deliver content and advertising […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}