Newspapers and blogging
_17:03
Newspapers and blogging
While reading over all the articles surrounding the recent buyout of Pyra I was reminded of a conversation I had two days ago with the Holland Sentinel and Morris Communications. I brought up the idea of introducing our news writers to blogging.Long story short - they told me that blogging was a fad and that it would die out in the near future. They didn’t want to get into the blogging scene. This is an interesting oversight from two companies and the boldness of their quick commenting accusation despite everything that is going on is actually shocking.
Dan Gillmor stats:This is much more than newspapers can currently offer without blogging and it’s what people are starting to turn toward. Society understands that giant companies, newspapers, and media in general control what information we see, hear, and read.The buyout is a huge boost to an enormously diverse genre of online publishing that has begun to change the equations of online news and information. Weblogs are frequently updated, with items appearing in reverse chronological order (the most recent postings appear first).
Typically they include links to other pages on the Internet, and the topics range from technology to politics to just about anything you can name. Many weblogs invite feedback through discussion postings, and weblogs often point to other weblogs in an ecosystem of news, opinions and ideas.
… Weblogs are also becoming a valuable communication tool for groups of people, and have begun to infiltrate the corporate, university and government spheres.So should companies like The Holland Sentinel and Morris.com overlook these innovations in technology? Absolutely Not! What’s sad is their amount of denial and misunderstanding of these new forms of communication. They so badly want to hang onto their printing machines and gallons of ink. Readers don’t want to wait until 10:00pm or 11:00pm to hear the news - and why should they?
Meanwhile, during the fast pace of technology, I’m stuck in meetings with company leaders to determine how much more advertisement we can cramp into our website and how we’re going to survive. All the while, completely overlooking what is currently going on around us and opening our doors to change and innovative ways of doing our every dayís task.
UPDATE
If I can also add - Newspapers aren’t currently able to cover and produce everything that is going on. When I read about the Google/Blogger.com buyout, there wasn’t a newspaper around that even had a chance to say anything. I still haven’t seen any newspaper talk about ESPN.com’s current stradigy to redesign their site. A site that is visited almost more than any other sports site on the planet.
Eric J Says:
I work for a newspaper Web site and blogs are not even on their radar. I’ve mentioned the value of blogs and even written about how a blog-type system would add value to our existing method of publishing and their reaction is, “Huh?”
I think it’s true of just about all entrenched businesses, they don’t want to think about the future or change. Every day we, in the Web department, must battle the old Century thinking in our sales staff and newsroom. When a local story breaks they often don’t think to send some copy to the Web. We have to remind them or plead for a story. It’s getting better but we still have a long way to go.
I envision a paper Web site where staff can post unedited, informal blogs about such topics as the Google/Blogger deal and then maybe gauge reader interest in the blog to determine how much coverage the story warrents for publication. That’s just one idea. You are right, most Newspapers are just not thinking progressively and I guess they won’t until it’s too late.