What's happening Around the Web

We have more information about news consumption than ever before.

Problem is, we’re not sure what it all means, or how it will impact the future of community journalism.

Let’s take something that came out just this week: The Pew Research Center tells us that tablet computers are exploding in popularity. For instance: it took the iPad one quarter to reach the same rate of unit sales that DVD players took five years to achieve. Which is not to say that we were slow to part with VHS and move to DVDs. In fact, it was considered a phenomenally quick transition for a nation where so many people already had a VHS player next to their TV sets.

Phenomenal, that is, until the tablet came along. Now 11 percent of American adults have Internet access via tablets. At its current rate, the iPad will pass gaming hardware and cellphones to become the fourth biggest consumer electronics category next year.

And what does that mean for news? Of tablet owners, 77 percent read the news on their device once a week, and 23 percent have a print subscription that gives them free access to tablet services.

That’s the good news. On the other hand, only 21 percent of those who don’t have news access would be willing to pay $5 a month to access their favorite tablet news site.

It’s just one more confusing part of the media future into which we’re rushing headlong. The bottom line for community journalism? Nobody knows how all of this will shake out, but we have to stay abreast of the issues and trends, so that we won’t be starting from scratch when it’s time to make some critical decisions that will affect our newspapers and news sites.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39501308/iPad_Adoption_Rate_Fastest_Ever_Passing_...
http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2011/10/the_tablet_-_a_saving.php
http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2011/10/get_on_the_tablet_bandwag...

If you’re following what’s happening in our business, you know that one of the big names today is Ken Doctor. He’s a leading news industry analyst and author of Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get. OK, I can hear what you’re thinking: “I’m trying to get out a newspaper in the most difficult economic times in my lifetime for this business. The last thing I have time for is some media theorist.” I get it. But Doctor writes about trends that aren’t as far down the road as we would like to think – and he definitely has some insights that everyone in community journalism needs to be thinking about. At the Center, we frequently talk about these issues as the difference between hurricanes and tsunamis. Hurricanes announce their presence with wind and tide shifts and bands of rain. Tsunamis are different. They are a gigantic wall of water created by tectonic shifts in the earth. You can be on a beach in sunny weather and be totally unaware that just past the horizon a giant wave is headed your way. The tsunami has already hit the metros, but we see less evidence in community journalism. Nevertheless, it’s coming. And Ken Doctor is one of those people who’s writing about the changing business models brought about by the digital revolution. If you haven’t read any of his stuff, here’s a great introduction. In this article, he starts out talking about Netflix and goes ahead to draw parallels to the news business. He calls Netflix “a canary in the circulation coalmine.” Take a few minutes to look over this interesting piece on the future “newsonomics” of our business.

One way to know you’re getting older: When you hear the word “branding” and cattle come to mind. But if you’re at all plugged in, you know that today the word is typically used to refer to a product’s – and now a person’s – identity. Who you are. What you’re known for. Your uniqueness. What one writer called your “digital footprint.” Some of the more traditional journalists still shy away from “branding” as applied to individual reporters – they see it as a concept that applies to cereal or soap, not journalists. But actually, many journalists have been branded for years, though they never thought of it in those terms. One reporter might be known as the go-to guy for public records and making sense of data in a way that related to readers. Another might be a word-person – her prose full of voice and the type of writing that made you want to read sentences out loud. But it’s more than that, and this is why you need to read Steve Buttry’s blogpost (Steve is also a consultant to TCCJ). This article will help you think through what your brand is, and what you can make it. And as an added bonus, at the end of the post he also refers you to a number of other postings that will help you to develop your personal brand. This is a must-read, especially for younger journalists.

New advertising figures are now out from NAA, and it’s a mixed bag of news. On the positive side, there was a 4 percent increase in print employment advertising, and newspapers attracted nearly two-third of Internet users – more than 111 million unique visitors in April. On the downside, total print advertising revenues fell 9.5 percent in the first quarter of 2011. And overall, print revenues are down $10.5 billion from 2006. The figures also showed that digital is now nearly 15 percent of total newspaper advertising revenues.

So we have two media companies. Both are wildly successful and make a lot of money. They have all the customers they could want. And then the media landscape begins to change. One company stands pat and believes that it offers such a valuable and appreciated service that it will weather the storm. Or to paraphrase TARP terminology, it is “too valuable to fail.” The other company realizes that it does not have to change the product it delivers, only come up with a new delivery system while still keeping the old product. Which newspapers are we talking about? Not newspapers – Netflix and Blockbuster. Netflix is still in the movie business, but changed from being a send-it-in-the-mail business to a video on demand leader. Blockbuster went bankrupt and got swallowed up by Dish Network, which is itself in trouble. There are definitely lessons here for the newspaper industry.

This article, "15 Ways to Generate Revenue for a Community News Site," was written for hyperlocal online news sites -- the competitors of most newspapers. But some of these ideas can easily be adapted for use by your own newspaper's website. Here the first one: "Find a topic of interest to an audience and a particular advertiser. Have the advertiser put together a video to be aired on the site as a webinar. Readers sign up for it for free. The advertiser gets the names and emails of the attendees as possible sales leads in exchange for a sponsorship fee. A real estate agent might conduct a webinar on how to shop for a home, for example." Let's imagine, for instance, that you have a restaurant that's known for making the best apple pie in town. Take your Flip camera down to the restaurant and let the owner show how to bake a great apple pie, step by step, on video. Then he/she can talk about the restaurant and the other pies they make there. At the end of the video (and you promote this at the very first to keep people tuned in), you offer a recipe if you click on a link -- that helps to build the owner's email list with the captured addresses. And who's going to help the owner with the email campaign and tie it into your print and Internet editions? Your paper, of course!

So now the readers of NNA’s latest survey know what any community journalists have always known: Our readers think we’re doing a good job and almost three-quarters of them read us regularly.

What other industry can make such claims? Three-quarters of the people who live in towns served by community papers don’t shop regularly at Wal Mart or watch the same TV show or listen to the same music. But the latest Community Newspaper Readership Study by the National Newspaper Association and The Reynolds Journalism Institute indicates that a whopping 73 percent of residents in small towns and cities read local newspapers from one day to seven days a week. And more than two-thirds (78 percent) read most to all of the contents.
And there was even more good news in the survey: 80 percent consider local newspapers their primary news source; they prefer their community paper because it focuses on local news; and three-quarters say they look forward to reading their local newspaper.

What about other media? Eat your heart out, television – 50 percent chose newspapers for local news as opposed to 16.3 percent for TV and 6.7 percent for radio.

You can read a digest of the survey at the website of the Reynolds Journalism Institute (first link), or, if you’re a member of the National Newspaper Association, you can access the complete report that the NNA website (second link).

May could be a bad weather month in Texas, and if so you'll need the resources of the Weather Channel in your reporting. The Weather Channel has all types of information that will give you perspective on local weather emergencies -- including this interactive map that will allow you to monitor weather radar for your city and county. SPJ's Journalist's Toolbox also has good weather reporting sources.

Mel Taylor shares a smart strategy Google is now using, one that could easily be adapted by Texas community newspaper. Instead of cold-calling, Google offering local business a chance to schedule free photo shoot.

Google sends a professional photographer to take shots of business, then uploads them into Google Places and Google Maps. Mel notes: "GREAT way to start relationship with small business operator (then upsell them later)." Sounds like a good way to start a relationship with businesses that haven't advertised before.

You think high gas prices are hurting your bottom line? What if you had to fill up a school bus? And what if that school bus made pick-ups in rural areas and drove many miles every day? Here’s a math problem for your fifth grader: Suppose a school bus gets 8 miles per gallon and drives 50 miles a day. The gas tank holds around 60 gallons and gas costs $3.81. How much more will the district spend on that bus per week than it did when gas cost $2.50 a gallon? It’s a great word problem for a fifth grader and a great story idea for any community newspaper in a rural area where school buses drive long distances. The link shows you what a Michigan TV station did with this idea.

Aren’t you tired of webspeak?  Can you remember the days when we talked about readers, not uniques or pageviews?  The Washington Post has decided to try a new language in its reports to the staff on readership of the washingtonpost.com:  English.  Pageviews have become “pages read”; unique visitors have become (drumroll here….) “readers.” As Ken Doctor, the newsonomics guru, notes in this post:  “The idea: demystify foreign terms and turn them into what they are — stats any self-respecting journalist has to care about.” And results of these analytics are that the Post knows more about its readers – for instance, that 10 percent of its audience accounts for more than a third of its traffic, and that Facebook referrals are up 238 percent. If you want to read more about measuring traffic to your site, read this blog from Associate Director Andrew Chavez.

Tell your reporters to put down their cell phones and check their e-mail – there could be a message there from your correspondent in Calcutta. And other than the obvious fantasy of having a correspondent in Calcutta, there are three errors in the first sentence, according to the latest style changes from AP. Last week, the sentence would have been OK. This week, AP joined the rest of the 21st century in changing e-mail to email and cell phone to cellphone (same with smartphones). And under the theory that we should go along with the spelling favored by more than one billion Indians, Calcutta has become Kolkata (how long will it take you to remember that one?). Last year, AP changed web site to the more popular website. But we’re sure you’ll find a use for those extra hyphens somewhere . . .

At the Center, we get questions about pretty much everything that goes on in local journalism, from how to get the school superintendent to stop flagrant violations of FOI laws to how to how fight Craigslist to whether or not you can pull a picture off Facebook and use it. But the issue generating the most queries, to paraphrase Hamlet, is this: to paywall or not to paywall; that is the question. And thus we probably have more Around the Web postings about paywalls than anything else. We try to pass along the commentary on this issue that'll be the best use of your time, which is why we're recommending Alan Mutter's latest blogpost, " NYT.com latest pay scheme can succeed, but..." Mutter addresses the experiment that has a lot of community journalism's interest right now -- the new paywall at The New York Times. Basically, it's paywall lite, and it goes into effect March 28. The new plan will allow readers to see 20 articles a month for free. If you want more, you pay. Theoretically, the plan will allow the paper to generate pageviews with the free content while still generating revenue from those who want more Wlll it work? Might this be viable option for community newspapers in the future? Check out Mutter's discussion of the Times' version of a paywall -- it's a good overview of the whole issue, plus an interesting take on whether metering might be the next big thing for newspapers.

The taxman cometh, and here’s some help to figure out the types of questions we journalists have at tax-time: freelance income, home offices, travel and entertainment, royalties and other issues employees at community newspapers have. And if you’re struggling with your taxes, remember Jay Leno’s sage advice: "Worried about an IRS audit? Avoid what's called a red flag. That's something the IRS always looks for. For example, say you have some money left in your bank account after paying taxes. That's a red flag." Luckily, most of us in community journalism don’t have to worry about having money left over.

Click the link below and click on No. 36.

Consumers like coupons, but they’re not clipping them like they used to. Instead, they are downloading them. A new report just issued says that digital couponing increased by 41 percent in 2010. Digital coupons outpaced the growth of newspaper coupons by 6 to 1. There are more than 49 million Americans who use digital coupons, and of those, almost one-third have not read or looked into the Sunday newspaper for coupons in the past six months.