Why Journalism Must Change or Die *
Posted by Curt Franklin on 13 December, 2007
Reading Adrian Holovaty’s blog post from 2006, it’s almost impossible not to start thinking about one of the most critical questions facing journalists today. “What can we give readers that makes them want to read our publications now, and at least once more in the future?” The same question from a different angle is “What can my publication give readers that they can’t get anywhere else?”
Publications have always been pushed toward relevance, but in the past the primary competition for readers’ attention was often nothing at all — at least, nothing in the form of another publication. Sure, big cities had multiple daily newspapers, but in smaller cities and towns the competition generally consisted of the morning paper versus the afternoon paper. Today, competition comes from every direction, and a dizzying array of media types. Given that reality, what can we do to make our publication critical to the reader’s life?
I think the first thing we have to do is figure out why the publication exists. What’s the mission of our publication? Back in the dot-com bubble days, people were always asking for your “elevator pitch.” That is, if you got on an elevator with a venture capitalist in the lobby of a skyscraper, what could you tell him about your business before he reached his floor? Think about your reader — what would your elevator pitch to them sound like? If you can’t get the mission of your publication down to a sentence or two, then you need to sit down and do some serious thinking about what you’re trying to do. You (and all the writers and editors of the publication) should have a crystal-clear idea of who you’re going to reach, and how you’re going to do one thing better than any other publication.
Once you know what you’re trying to do, you can set out to do it using the best technologies and techniques you can muster. Keep your stories fresh and meaningful, base them on information that isn’t well-aggregated anywhere else, and give the reader plenty of ways to deeply explore the issues on their own. I’m convinced we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of how the Web can be used to tell stories: go out, define your mission and tell your stories. Your readers are waiting.
* With apologies to Bishop John Shelby Spong. This title is based on the title of his book Why Christianity Must Change or Die.
