Shortly after the Ann Arbor News closed, AnnArbor.com went live. The site has an interesting format — it’s rather blog-like — and it screams hyperlocal. It’s definitely worth looking at if you’re a community journalist. And on top of the interesting format for news, they’ve also rethought advertising in a unique way. Check out the articles for more information. The first link, from the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard, covers the reasoning behind the sites layout and delves into the ad issue as well. See the other two links for some commentary on the site from Steve Buttry and Jeff Jarvis.
Category: Online news
Steve Outing’s latest column on E&P’s site goes into detail with a persuasive psychologist on the psychology behind paid content. His expert is Dr. B.J. Fogg, an expert in how technology can be used persuasively and the head of Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab. “Often, it seems like the CEOs of newspaper companies are talking only among themselves,” Outing writes, “and not thinking about what the online news consumer wants — or is willing to accept.”
Chi Town Daily News, an online-only Chicago news source, is telling readers how much each story cost them to produce. Donations help support the site, and within the statement at the bottom of each story that tells readers how much the story cost, there’s a link to donate.
Mark Luckie at 10,000 Words has a post about Adobe Flash and journalism and is saying something that isn’t said enough — journalists don’t need to know how to use it. As he says, Flash was all the rage when it came out. But, as we’ve shown in our Web workshops, there are many free online tools that do the exact same thing with far less effort.
Steve Buttry from the from Gazette Communications in Iowa posted a tip sheet for journalists on how to use Twitter. He covers everything from breaking news to linking to figuring out who to follow on the service. If you don’t have a Twitter account, read Buttry’s post then check it out.
Many of you are looking for different approaches to the online product. Check out this one from Columbia, Mo., a combination of a blog-like news stream with in-depth overview pages. Columbia Tomorrow lets members of the community start their own discussions on news posts. And check out the site’s video, which explains more about this project’s approach.
Categories
To charge or not to charge
So you’re wrestling with the issue of charging for your Internet product. Do you want to do it? If so, how much? And if you charge, do you charge everyone, or only those who don’t subscribe to your print edition? If that’s the discussion around your newsroom, you’re in pretty good company; The New York Times is talking about the same thing. This article will show you what the Times has come up with.
Kevin Kelleher gives a good overview of the free-vs.-paid content argument, then presents his case that this is definitly the wrong time for newspapers to begin charging for online content. Here’s a sample of this thinking: “For the sake of argument, let’s say that news sites are routinely charging readers in five years. By then, the economy may be substantially healthier than now, and advertisers will be looking for sites with large, loyal readerships to sell their ads on. But that won’t include newspapers. They’ll be catering to that 10 percent of their online audience willing to subscribe. The rest of the Web will have long stopped linking to—and talking about—their stories. The dollars will flow right past the newspapers’ pay walls. And then they’ll really be sorry.”
Kevin Kelleher gives a good overview of the free-vs.-paid content argument, then presents his case that this is definitly the wrong time for newspapers to begin charging for online content. Here’s a sample of this thinking: “For the sake of argument, let’s say that news sites are routinely charging readers in five years. By then, the economy may be substantially healthier than now, and advertisers will be looking for sites with large, loyal readerships to sell their ads on. But that won’t include newspapers. They’ll be catering to that 10 percent of their online audience willing to subscribe. The rest of the Web will have long stopped linking to—and talking about—their stories. The dollars will flow right past the newspapers’ pay walls. And then they’ll really be sorry.”
The thing newspaper columnists do best, Robert Niles says, can make them great assets online. Many columnists already have established followings, it’s just matter of converting those followers into participants in an online dialogue. His piece in Online Journalism Review has some practical advice on how to do that.