August 26, 2006
Good ideas for newspapers
Growing up I read the New York Times every morning at the kitchen table; I stopped in 1995, when I got Netscape 1.0 beta.
The newspaper industry | More media, less news | Economist.com
1. Less commoditized information. International, finance, sports areas with too many similar sources - commodity information. what papers need instead is *local* or *opinion* or *personality*. Those are things you can't just get on Yahoo News.
2. Shorter stories. Since the news is continuously present and continuously updated (e.g., blogs), it is pointless to read a 6 page story on a situation when you know that updates will be available in hours. Shorter stories say less, but they can fit in the context of *more* stories (over time, from multiple sources). They don't have to standalone, and the "thoughtful, analytical" work of reporters transforms into providing updates against an issue environment.
3. User-created. The best way to have stories about Long Island City is to have someone in Long Island City. Since this is not practical for everyplace and every interest of the readers, instead find a way to have the readers write their own content for each other. Their stuff will be shorter and more personalized/local, but that's what #1 and #2 are about.
Posted by amol at August 26, 2006 12:05 PM