Specialism-the way forwards

With much talk of journalists needing to find a niche,an interesting report from Hold the Front page.

University College Falmouth is planning to specialise in arts and environmental reporting on its journalism course.

It quotes course leader Anna Kiernan who says

BA (Hons) Journalism at UCF has enjoyed a successful track record over many years and its graduates continue to achieve significant success, but the industry is ever changing and we need to continue to change with it. "To that end, we are going to play to our strengths and focus on the themes that connect the industry with our sense of place.

A 21st century innovation plan for newspapers

Nichepapers aren’t a new product, service, or business model. They are a new institution. They’re a living example of the institutional innovation that is the key to 21st century business. They’re not the same old newspaper, sold a different way. They are 21st century newspapers, built on new rules, that are letting radical innovators reinvent what “news” is.

The words of Umair Hague writing in the Harvard Business review as he puts forward a 21st century manifesto for the newspaper.

According to Umair there are eight essential innovations that must happen

1.They must impart knowledge and not news

2.that they should no longer dictate to their readers what their opinion should be.Instead co-create knowledge through "commentage.

3.Develop topics instead of articles

4.Strive for scarcity instead of circulation

5.Give the knowledge now and not the news then

6.Instead of seeking perfection through perfect grammar, perfect ledes, perfect headlines they should seek provocation instead.

7.pitch topics and stories to the community, and let the best ones snowball — through contributions like tips, criticisms, and corrections.

8.that they should be tech-neutral, using whatever works best for a given task.

Ht-Cyberjournalist

Kelner wishes he could uninvent the internet

Simon Kelner has made his views known on the internet and the media's failure to incorporate it into a workable business model on making occasions.

Yesterday evening,speaking to students at UCLAN,he reiterated those views describing the net as the "most serious threat to journalism"

The editor in chief of the Independent is an old boy at the University ,back in the days when it was simply Preston Polytechnic and the journalism course contained just thirty individuals.

The relationship between print and online was to Kelner,a conundrum.But the media made a big mistake when it decided to join the rush to put its content online.

People got use to free content and to turn back the clock now was akin to shutting the barn doors after the horse had bolted.

The Independent,he felt, should opt out of the inflationary rush to put all its content online,instead concentrating on niche output which may sustain a paid content model.

The revenues from online advertising will not sustain quality journalism

He is still optimistic about the printed word,believing that newspapers are not simply a medium for content but an intrinsic product themselves.People prefer to hold a newspaper and feel the pages and get the print on their hands.

He displayed a passion for journalism and asked that if the media crumbled,who would hold the legislators to account? Newspapers had to change and should concentrate on giving some meaning to the stories.

We have heard the viewspaper model before.It was a model that he firmly stood behind at the Independent and since being moved upstairs is no doubt pressing to the newspaper's board.

Kelner is a journalism enthusiast and it was heartening to hear his passion coming through.However as with his paper,idealism has to make way for the economic realities.

Simon Owens on how bloggers are filling a gap

Over at Media Shift,Simon Owens takes a look at how bloggers are filling the gaps that are left in the media as local newspaper coverage recedes.

As city daily papers continue to strain under the pressure of massive reporter lay-offs, hundreds of knowledgeable and independent local bloggers are rising up and finding themselves with small, niche audiences that sometimes provide massive political sway. And as these local bloggers continue to carve out their beats, local politicians and reporters are increasingly courting them in attempts to steer media coverage.

It was a point I made on Friday when looking at the writings of Jon Slattery after he left the Press Gazette.

It is surely part of the trend that is going to continue as more and more journalists work independently of media organisations.The question though is who will pay for this journalism?

Will a combination of models save the media?

Take a look at Mark Glaser's guide to alternative business models for newspapers.

There won't be however

a "silver bullet," an idea that will catch on as the savior for the newspaper business. Instead, a successful online newspaper will need a mix of many different revenue streams to survive in the digital age.

Instead Mark thinks that a combination of news aggregation,crowd funding,hyper local advertising,niche sites and paid content will be the model to get the news industry back into profitability.

(Via Martin Stabe)

Shawn Smith sets out an economic model for newspapers.

In a conversation with my doctor a few weeks ago, I learned why some educated people don’t care for local newspapers.
Why? Because half of the content in the local paper is wire copy - written by the WaPo or the NYT. The local media outlets don’t cover the stories that are important to him.

There is nothing new in his proposals,niche targeting as Shawn says

Newspapers, in their current form, suffer from an outdated model. Readers can learn a lot from newspapers, but they can’t learn a lot about one particular issue. There isn’t enough room to print it all.

So its worth reiterating his model

Break up newspapers into their related sections. Make the traditional paper into a strictly local front section, largely cutting down on wire copy, and then put out multiple niche publications for the different sections. New print publications can become aggregators of the best content on the wire and web. These niche publications can cover specific issues more in-depth and in interesting ways