Friday, June 12, 2009

Mark Glaser's ten steps for saving newspapers

The latest suggestions for saving newspapers comes from Mark Glazer who has recently spent nine days in hospital and had time for some thinking.(Thankfully Mark is on the mend)

1. Do custom small print runs targeted to neighborhoods and interests. Not daily.

2. Support local writers, reporters and bloggers; help market them, sell their ads; decentralize the operation.

3. Replace circulation, printing, print production staff with tech, SEO, community managers.

4. Find out what the community wants in real face-to-face meetings, not focus groups. Then do what they want.

5. Use pro-am methods. Include community-contributed content edited and vetted by pros.

6. Smart multimedia. Don't do it just to do it. Use the right medium to tell the right story.

7. Promiscuous revenues. From ads, niche paid content, donations, non-profit grants to directory listings.

8. Produce mapping and database projects. Employ or train hacker-journalists.

9. Meet regularly with local businesses to gauge their needs. Create online directories of local businesses.

10. Create a bottom-up organization where innovation is encouraged and rewarded at the edges. Use good ideas from anyone.


Some good points of which many we have heard before.

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