In another of the guest lecture series, Darren Thwaites, editor of the Evening Gazette in Teeside, spoke to journalism students on 3rd March about the projects his paper is undertaking. He promised a bit of optimism in an otherwise depressed sector, and largely delivered.
To summarise some of Thwaites key points: he felt that the role of a regional publisher had now moved from educating, informing and entertaining to 'attracting audiences with content', and that competition was less in the form of other journalistic media, but anything - from the BBC to a Wii - that could contend with the Evening Gazette for the time of their users.
Thwaites gave five key points through which the Evening Gazette website has grown to approximately 200,000 unique users a month:
1. Treat print and digital with equal value
2. Strengthen the brand and grow audience
3. Publish breaking news earlier and later in the day than ever before
4. Get readers more involved than ever before
5. Delve deeper into their core communities.
Importantly, the Evening Gazette has managed all this while increasing their print audience by 6,000.
The last point leads onto the hyperlocal community sites that the Gazette is developing. Based on postcode areas, the project has extended the role of a community correspondent and recruited over 450 bloggers and is making use of user-generated content (UGC). Along with a group on Flickr, search engine optimisation, live web chats, a mobile site, podcasts, a cashback site and sponsored videos, the site and it's hyperlocal branches could offer a new realm, and perhaps a business solution, for regional papers.
I asked Darren whether or not the paper was making any money from the website, and he admitted that only around 5-10% of their revenue was from their online material. Of course, if the website contributed towards higher circulation, which it no doubt does, then the real figure would be greater.
In subsequent correspondence, I also asked Darren whether or not their site could have been so successful without the newspaper brand as a base. I've always been intrigued as to whether it would be possible to simply set up a sustainable website, using both professional journalists and UGC focused on a hyperlocal area without a pre-existing brand as a base, similar to the Bayosphere project attempted by Dan Gillmor.
Darren responded that:
"I don't think our hyperlocal sites could have been as successful without
the Gazette brand (in print and online) sitting above it. We're able to
signpost a massive audience towards an added value product and we're also
able to use our own professionally-generated content to help populate the
sites. We're a trusted local brand and that's an essential starting point."
the Gazette brand (in print and online) sitting above it. We're able to
signpost a massive audience towards an added value product and we're also
able to use our own professionally-generated content to help populate the
sites. We're a trusted local brand and that's an essential starting point."
Ben Spencer, a fellow journalism student at Sheffield, raises his own concerns about the project:
"My concern, however, is that this could develop into journalism on-the-cheap. If editors can get content direct from their readers, could this provide further excuses for cutbacks?"
However, considering the content I don't feel this will be a problem. Even with twice the number of dwindling staff many regional papers have, they couldn't cover such small geographical areas in as much detail as readers can.
These stories - the potholes, the cake sale, the planning permission, the reducing hours at the post office - have a fairly good chance of simply not being reported without UGC. Better to have members of the public report them, with some editorial guidance and increase the number of visitors to the site (which should increase the revenue) and give users more reasons to look at the site (therefore increasingly familiarity with the brand, and hopefully increase circulation) rather than simply ignore the potential for stories.
In all, I see such local community sites using UGC as complementary to regional newspapers, rather than replacing the reporters and therefore risking cutbacks. Most users don't have the time to investigate, to go to the council meeting, develop the contacts or make the phone calls (though the more that use it, the easier it would be to find out more). What is reported is perhaps journalism on the cheap, but that doesn't mean it is either not worth reporting, or is a direct threat to traditional reporting - especially if the subjects have previously been ignored.
However, as Ben mentions, the project requires a lot of attention with very little revenue generated as a result thus far. But regional papers need to be experimenting.
On the other side of the pond, one of the biggest newspaper names, the NYT, is launching a project called 'The Local', in collaboration with students at the City University in New York .
Jeff Jarvis on the project, which he is heavily involved with:
This sparked a debate between Jeff Jarvis and Howard Owens other whether it was essential that those running the sites were professional or local amateurs. No doubt we'll see how well it works over the coming months, and it will continue to generate discussion either way.
Above all, despite the interest of my generation in world affairs and an apparent antipathy with local news, it should be remembered that, as stated on Springwise:
Related posts:
Media Convergence Week at Sheffield University
BBC local video news websites decision
Tim Luckhurst on buying a newspaper 'for democracy'
These stories - the potholes, the cake sale, the planning permission, the reducing hours at the post office - have a fairly good chance of simply not being reported without UGC. Better to have members of the public report them, with some editorial guidance and increase the number of visitors to the site (which should increase the revenue) and give users more reasons to look at the site (therefore increasingly familiarity with the brand, and hopefully increase circulation) rather than simply ignore the potential for stories.
In all, I see such local community sites using UGC as complementary to regional newspapers, rather than replacing the reporters and therefore risking cutbacks. Most users don't have the time to investigate, to go to the council meeting, develop the contacts or make the phone calls (though the more that use it, the easier it would be to find out more). What is reported is perhaps journalism on the cheap, but that doesn't mean it is either not worth reporting, or is a direct threat to traditional reporting - especially if the subjects have previously been ignored.
However, as Ben mentions, the project requires a lot of attention with very little revenue generated as a result thus far. But regional papers need to be experimenting.
On the other side of the pond, one of the biggest newspaper names, the NYT, is launching a project called 'The Local', in collaboration with students at the City University in New York .
Jeff Jarvis on the project, which he is heavily involved with:
"We have to move past the old newspaper notion that one will - and can afford to - “own” a town. Those days are over. Instead, we’ll have ecosystems of local news linked together, and to support them we need complementary content and coverage and networks to sell ads into and for all the players. In a network that links to its own members all ships will ride with the tide of links."
This sparked a debate between Jeff Jarvis and Howard Owens other whether it was essential that those running the sites were professional or local amateurs. No doubt we'll see how well it works over the coming months, and it will continue to generate discussion either way.
Above all, despite the interest of my generation in world affairs and an apparent antipathy with local news, it should be remembered that, as stated on Springwise:
"Billions of people may inhabit this planet, but when it comes right down to it, most of us are still primarily interested in what's going on in our own backyards."
There will always be a place for local journalism. It might just end up being smaller, more focused, more frequent and on more platforms than the weekly paper we've been used to.
Related posts:
Media Convergence Week at Sheffield University
BBC local video news websites decision
Tim Luckhurst on buying a newspaper 'for democracy'
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1 comment:
The problem with The Gazette is that nobody cares about what happens in Middlesbrough unless they live there. Therefore (for example) if they can post as many quirky stories/videos as possible, that will get the traffic they desire, regardless of hyperlocal specific mini-sites...but that would of course undermine the authority of their news. It's tough!
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