New Study: Newspapers’ Progress Going Social

The Bivings Group just published their latest annual “Use of the Internet by America’s Largest Newspapers.”  The study shows newspapers have made significant progress from a year ago  to become more social, open its content by linking outside its own web universe, and allow more user-generated content.

Courtesy of Precious Roy via Flickr

The study is indicative of two trends that run parallel and in many ways, hold the key to large newspapers’ ability to make profits.  First, newspapers by now fully understand the environment in which they are publishing.  Blogs, online video, social networking sites and mobile will not be beaten and major newspapers cannot simply fend them off.  Information sources outside of newspapers will exist alongside them.  Newspapers get that.  They’re figuring out now how to best handle that relationship.  As the Bivings Group report shows, newspapers understand this reality and are embracing this new media environment.

Second, the Bivings’ study also demonstrates that while newspapers are becoming more social, and therefore more relevant in the social webosphere in which information is exchanged, they are still a long ways away from monetizing their content in a digital medium.  In other words, they’re improving their online audience aggregation, but cannot match the audience with advertisements in a profitable way that existed with paper editions.  That’s traditional media’s new media dilemma.

Just this week, I read that Digg founder Kevin Rose is also grappling with how to best monetize his highly trafficked site.  Inc magazine reports that Digg is in fact losing money.  For me, I see the financial challenges Digg is facing, without all the overhead that traditional media carries, and I believe it will take some massive traditional media reorganization to remain profitable.

My prediction is that the very biggest newspapers, like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal will be able to continue to focus on the journalism they are currently engaged in and get by.  But others, like the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe and Washington Post will have to do a better job of becoming something unique and meaningful to its readers.

I think that’s a healthy process and is a natural outcome of technological and media advancements.  Years ago, getting national newspapers in my hometown, Chicago, was just more expensive and often came at the expense of missing some of the local news that I liked in my Chicago papers.  But now, I can easily access national newspapers like the Times, get the content I want, which makes my reliance on Chicago papers for information significantly less.  In other words, I’m not going to read Chicago papers for international or national political coverage when I can get better coverage and writing from other places.

In that environment Chicago papers have to provide something relevant to consumers.  I doubt a paper like the Tribune will have a readership as big as it once did.  That’s just the reality of the new media envrionment.  I think the Tribune should be building new expectations for this new media age.

Thank you to the Bivings Group for great research.

Russ Feingold Defining Progressive

I’ve admired Russ Feingold ever since I was an undergrad at UW-Madison (though I interned for Sen. Herb Kohl).  He’s one of the few political figures that carries ethics to the highest standard and who is not afraid to say and do what he believes is right, many times crossing party lines.  Sure, lots of political leaders say that but many don’t act on it.

Sen. Feingold is the leader of the U.S. progressive movement, particularly appropriate since he comes from the state that prodced the founder of the Progessive Party led by Bob La Follete.

Bill Moyers interviewed the Wisconsin senator this week..  Though I am not a huge Moyers fan, I think Russ Feingold was vintage Russ Feingold.  After a period of remaining out of the spotlight due to the election, Feingold reminded me of the integrity and vision political leaders ought to have guiding them through service.

In particular, I admire Russ for “walking his talk.”  He has been a consistent advocate on important issues, such as election reform, protecting the Constitution and foreign affairs.  I don’t agree with all of the senator’s positions.  But, in a political climate that often demands horse-trading and reshuffling positions, Sen. Feingold has been remarkably true to his brand.

He was the lone vote against the Patriot Act, opposed the Iraq War, sponsored the McCain-Feingold election reform legislation and sponsored a motion to censure President Bush for illegal wiretapping.  His instincts to act swiftly and for what is right is almost unparalleled in Washington.

In the Moyers’ interview, Sen. Feingold is asked about the progressive movement.  He states:

But we also have a commitment to clean government, to open government. That’s what “Fighting Bob” La Follette was all about. And some of the major reforms in the history of the country in terms of ethics, in terms of unemployment compensation, in terms of child safety laws, were all part of that great progressive movement that was started in the late 19th century and early 20th century in Wisconsin. And by the way, progressivism in Wisconsin also means fiscal responsibility. So it’s an interesting twist. But that is sort of some of the things that have gone into this belief, that we don’t like government to be involved unless it has to be. We believe in people’s liberties and their freedom. But sometimes, government has to step in, in order to make sure the community is working together.

This reminds me a lot of the modern libertarian movement and moderate Republican and moderate Democratic positions.  It’s interesting that this platform is referred to as progressive.  I think the attractiveness of progressivism, as Feingold defines it, is ironically the reasoned and moderate positions that govern its ideology.  More so, because Feingold identifies with this “progressive camp,” he is less burdened with political games that so often influence political decisions at the highest levels of government.

As an aside, I’ve observed many political candidates espousing far left political positions that call themselves progressives.  Knowing Russ Feingold’s positions, it is unfortunate that the word progressive has been hijacked so many times to mean something other than its original intent.  But, more on this topic for a future post.

Now in terms of social media, I think Sen. Feingold is quite good but has some room for improvement.

He maintains a blog, which is great, but those posts are all recycled articles that he’s published elsewhere and is reposting on his blog.  It’s ok to recycle material, but sometimes he simply must use his blog to comment on important political issues and speak directly to the public.  He can’t just use media releases to do that.

Next, Sen. Feingold must get on Twitter.  This social network is becoming such an important place for conversation and information exchange, that for him to be left out of this space, he is missing a huge opportunity.

Surprise? Tribune in Ch. 11

News of the Tribune Co.’s bankruptcy this morning was hardly surprising.  In fact, I was most surprised to see the Tribune simply mentioned when I went to the NYTimes website this morning just because  I can’t recall the Times ever referring to the Tribune for anything.

The Tribune joins the Chicago Sun Times in financial trouble, calling into question whether America’s third largest city will cease to have any, let alone two, major daily papers.

This got me thinking, how has the Tribune gotten into this financial mess?

Horizontal Growth

Over the course of many years, the Tribune has acquired other media entities, including newspapers (L.A. Times), T.V. (WGN) and radio (AM 720 in Chicago).  For decades this seemed like a good move because TV, print and radio were simply the sources of information distribution.

I have a feeling that over time, the Tribune just got too big.  Plus, all forms of traditional media advertising, the way these outlets make money, have been hit hard simultaneously as ad budgets get allocated further away from print, TV and radio.  Enduring all these blows at once must have been crippling.

I think the reality that TV, radio and print really were not the same business, became very evident as the Tribune began falling.  On the surface, yes, they are all media and they all survive on advertising.  But beyond that, they are different businesses and it’s simply hard to be great at the newspaper business, and the TV business, and the radio business.  Scalability could probably be reached through owning many outlets within the same the medium – all print or all TV, for example.

Image courtesy of http://flickr.com/people/beautyislikeyeah/

Applying the Wrong Prescription

Then along came the Internet, and these weird things called blogs and social media began to undermine traditional media and steal audiences.  Instead of trying to adapt in this new online world though, the Tribune began making changes within its own pre-internet world.  For example, its answer to declining readership was to put a heavier emphasis on entertainment news.  It seemed as if some genius at the Trib read a marketing report saying that entertainment news is a hot seller, and so the Trib better start focusing on entertainment to gain back audience.  This only compounded the Tribune’s downward spiral into not just being in a business where the means of production and consumption were changing, but the paper also no longer did what it was originally good at – reporting the news.  More on that later.

By making all these costly changes – heavier focus on entertainment, layout changes, cutting out news sections, etc. – the Tribune was not addressing how people wanted to get their news and how the Tribune could continue being relevant to a changing readership.

They could have stopped and said, “hey look at the Huffington Post” (who just got $25 million in funding), “what makes the windycitizen blog a hit?”  They didn’t ask those questions obviously because their delivery style has not changed and there has been no attempt at changing it.  These new forms of journalism that feature more interactivity were key to these sites’ successes.

Moving Away from Tribune’s Core Business

In the last few years, I find it extremely hard to tell anyone what area of the news the Tribune really owns anymore.  Local politics?  I’d choose a host of blogs that provide stories that I follow via Twitter.  Business?  Crain’s has the Tribune beat.  Sports?  Maybe.  But, I’d still take ESPN.com to get a fuller picture of what’s happening.

My point is, areas that the Tribune used to be great at, they no longer are.  When I get up each morning and look at the local news section of the Trib online, I see anywhere between 10 and 20 stories, of which about 3 are interesting.  International news?  The Tribune is a joke.  Regional news?  I don’t see them taking leadership on this either.  City politics?  There’s some decent coverage, but again, there’s more depth from someone like a Ben Joravsky at the Reader or the blogs that cover this.

What about the Tribune’s columnists?  That’s probably the biggest turnoff about the Tribune.

Think about the New York Times again.  People read the Times because of minds like Tom Friedman and David Brooks.  The only one at the Tribune worth their salt is John Kass.  Kass has proven he has the chutzpah to report on tough issues, call out people when he believes they’re wrong and he’ll stick with a story.

The others? Eric Zorn is soft and Mary Schmich is uninteresting.  And what’s with Dawn Trice?  Do we really need a columnist devoting their three to four days per week column to race relations?  If the Tribune should know anything about the next generation of readers, it’s that the Millennial generation is a post-racial generation in so many ways.

Prescriptions for Success

Here’s my recommendations to getting the Tribune back on track:

1. Develop a real online strategy.  Give readers the news and give them control over how they get their news.  Let them rate articles to determine what goes on the front page, put up new pictures from the day’s news instead of the same photos week in and week out.  Also, the Tribune should show respect to bloggers and other smaller news outlets.   A little humility and cooperation might go a long way to engender some good cooperation between news sources.
2. Invest in good minds, make things interesting.  Right now, I don’t see any debates happening from the Tribune between its columnists.  Wouldn’t it be interesting if the Trib featured two smart people with differing political views to take on issues in order to make its readers think and question their own assumptions?
3. Be really good at something.  If the Tribune is cutting its DC staff or its international staff, ok…then cover local politics better than anyone.  Give us good reporting and full coverage, with pictures, videos, etc.  Then, cut out the stuff that you’re not good at.  If I wanted to read about entertainment news, I’d go to People or US Weekly.
4. Downsize the scope of media ownership.  I think being as big as the Tribune is, has hurt the company.  Again, it can’t do everything great.  It should pick a core business and be the best at it.  Get out of the businesses that it doesn’t understand or is not good at.

The Wild Card

Sam Zell is no ordinary owner.  He’s one of the keenest business people in the world and he knows what he’s doing by bringing the Tribune into bankruptcy.  I think the paper will emerge one day in much better shape than it is today – I wouldn’t dare say profitable but I’d say not hemorrhaging money.  Zell has the business understandings to fix this complex problem.

Social Media Will Be Very Important for Vacant Emmanuel Seat Hopefuls

Some prominent local and state Democrats are preparing to vie for newly appointed White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel’s open congressional seat.  In this coming special election, candidates will not have the time, nor the money to run a full-blown campaign with large media ad budgets.  In this atmosphere that will likely feature some recognizable names and good reputations, candidates will have to look to social media as a mode to connect with the district.

This special election promises to be different than other Illinois special elections.  Mainly, such as in the special election for Dennis Hastert’s open seat, the race was divided along party lines.  Here, the 5th district is so heavily democrat, that whomever emerges from their party, will surely win the election.  That being said, we’re looking at a crowded field of candidates cutting up the electorate along several lines.

Social media will be critical to serve the following purposes:

• Growing name awareness – most of the candidates are known quantities, but still have a ways to go before they reach Emmanuel’s level.
• Establishing their point of difference (branding) – people’s minds and traditional media usually define a candidate by a narrow set ideas of ideas or positions.  Social media can help the candidate define those positions and priorities, rather than anyone else, and have traditional media play the role of reinforcing those positions.
• Connecting with constituents, finding the evangelists - Chicagoland has a growing number of political insider blogs and interested citizen journalists that people look to for an “on the ground perspective.”  Candidates will be well served to cultivate relationships with those people.  Having key bloggers and opinion shapers in the district will be a big leg up in a tight race.
• Speaking directly with constituents – if the 2008 presidential election proved anything, voters want interaction with candidates.  I think in an election this size, the ability to scale interactions is totally within reach.
• Keeping things interesting – with all the 2008 election hoopla, we might be experiencing voter burnout.  Social media is a fantastic way to communicate and entertain.  Candidates who execute a good social media strategy will find voters will be spending more time finding out about their them.

This special election will be so interesting because it is a condensed race, filling a big-name elected’s seat and featuring candidates who are accomplished in their own right.  It’s an interesting environment for an election playing out in the 5th district.  I think whomever can think outside of the traditional boundaries of campaigns will be successful.

Chicago Alderman Flores Gets Twitter

Yesterday, Alderman Flores and I become followers of each other on Twitter.  To my knowledge, he’s the only Chicago City Councilman using Twitter.

Alderman Manny Flores

 

 

A quick scan of his Tweets demonstrates the Alderman really gets Twitter.  Yesterday, Ald. Flores posted seven Tweets to give his followers a sense of what his daily schedule is and what issues he’s paying attention to.  Examples include:

“visiting with students from Noble Street Charter High School to discuss alternative energy to help students prepare for a debate”

“having his office staff attend a briefing of the Chicago Climate Action Plan conducted by the Chicago Department of Environment.”

“leaving the Academy for Global Citizenship – great curriculum. Very inspiring.”

In Chicago especially, this level of transparency is vital because of the long history of shadiness and corruption (Ed Vrdoliak???).  For his constituents and followers, Flores is demonstrating his understanding that the public wants to see how he spends his time, how he manages staff resources and where he stands on issues.  The more he can communicate to the public and open himself up, the more trust he will receive. 

Trust is everything in politics.  Simply by using Twitter, Flores is strategically working to earn the political capital that he’ll need to take on bigger issues and manage a larger political profile.

Beyond Twitter, I went over to Ald. Flores website as his Twitter presence piqued my curiosity.  The design was simple, the information useful and straightforward.  I especially liked that the staff was listed, noting their areas of expertise and matters they deal with, along with their contact info.  That’s good constituent service.  

Furthermore, Flores’ set up a nice email reply that came when I signed up for his e-newsletter.  Here’s the response I received: 

 

Dear Jesse,  Welcome to Alderman Manuel Flores, 1st Ward. We are happy to have you as a member of our community. Your email address and interest preferences have been recorded in our database. In the future, you will receive periodic emails specific to your interests. Privacy is important to us; therefore, we will not sell, rent, or give your name or address to anyone. At any point, you can select the link at the bottom of every email to unsubscribe, or to receive less or more information. Thanks again for registering. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us. Sincerely, Alderman Manuel Flores Alderman Manuel Flores, 1st Ward

Huckabee Building a Community Through Social Media

Mike Huckabee is continuing to position himself as a leader of conservative ideas with a growing and dedicated grassroots support network.

A recent email from his HuckPAC organization offers an example of how to keep the grassroots activated, by employing a simple formula of good web writing and opportunities for interactivity.  In a few short paragraphs, the Huckabee organization was able to capture the former Arkansas Governor’s personality while providing some newsy updates.  Plus, there were three offers for additional information and user interactivity that will contribute to building Huckabee’s grassroots support network.  The offers for additional interactivity were:

1. Huckabee’s book tour schedule
2. An invitation to blog a book review of Huckabee’s new book
3. An invitation to tap into a phone bank to make calls on behalf of South Carolina Sen. Saxby Chambliss, currently in a tight race with Jim Martin

As a side note, a quick review of the 29 blog entries/comments on Huckabee’s new book surprisingly do not reveal any real negative remarks or criticisms of Huckabee’s ideas or policy positions.  For a political leader who has embraced social media to the extent he has, it makes  me wonder if Huckabee’s team is screening for any perceived negative comments and not allowing those on the site.  If that’s the case, it’s a big mistake.  

Overall, Huckabee’s communication structure is a good example of public affairs communications for a few reasons.

First, he makes all his points using great brevity.  I’m able to get a sense for Huckabee as a person and still get the pertinent information about his organization with invitations to participate in 300 words or less.

Second, Huckabee’s organization is really good at integration.  They have both HuckPAC and Huckabee’s personal website perfectly positioned to compliment each other and lead web users directly to the right place to participate.

Third, ease of use.  Huckabee’s social media efforts make the barriers to users’ entry very low, which means a much greater chance for participation.

I know I’ve used this blog before to focus on Huckabee.  I will make a genuine effort to follow other 2008 presidential hopefuls and 2012 hopefuls to find out who else is using social media as well or better than Huckabee.