I have written about the decline of the newspaper industry for quite some time. The amazing part to me, is that most newspapers still just don't get it.
"We're going to break a lot of rules that newspaper Web sites stick to, and we are looking everywhere for efficiencies."
As I pondered this statement from seattlepi.com's Executive Producer, Michelle Nicolosi, all I could wonder is why has it taken so long for the Seattle Post Intelligencer to finally take aggressive action like this?
Media outlets such as Examiner.com recognized the shift of the news industry quite some time ago, and moved forward accordingly.
Ms. Nicolosi's strategy seems to rely heavily on contributions from bloggers, which is great for "local" news, I guess, but what is the overall value to the readers? Becoming a news source like Examiner.com is swell, but why rebuild the wheel? Why not align yourself with existing outlets that already offer the exact same thing?
The time has also come for newspapers to stop taking sides, left or right. Present the facts, the real facts by the way, and then let the readers decide. One thing that writing this column has taught me; most readers are smart, well-informed and can draw their own conclusions without bias from the writer.
Most newspapers have done an awful job of reporting local news on an in-depth basis, as well as conducting little to no investigative journalism. This, not national news, is their appropriate niche, and one that their survival hinges on. Hopefully, for the sake of the folks at seattlepi.com, they get that.
Comments