1. ASNE-Reynolds High School Journalism Institute
Newspapers:
Dead or Alive?
ASNE-Reynolds High School Journalism Institute
July 7, 2008

2. Tough times Fragmentation Information glut Political polarization
Audience
Platforms
Advertising
Information glut
Political polarization
“No time to read”
Falling circulation
Smaller newsrooms
New owners

3. The Big Gap And in case you weren’t convinced . . .
Source: Journalism.org

5. How will we get across the bridge?
Rapidly grow Web audience
Reinvent print papers
Become reader-focused
Become efficient:
Stop doing some things
Create new products
Adopt a culture of continuous change
Transform newsrooms for Web first
Video: EPIC 2015

6. Journalism Today THE BAD:
• Newspaper staffs are shrinking, foreign coverage is minimal, sections like science and religion are being compressed and absorbed into other sections
• Fewer full-time writers, more freelancers
• Newspaper stocks are going down
• Circulation and revenue are falling every year
• More and more, investors are needed to swoop in and save newspapers from going under, and sometimes that’s not enough
THE GOOD:
• More access to journalism worldwide
• More voices contributing and participating
• More ways to tell stories with advances in multimedia
• There will always be a need for news reporting and storytelling
• The number of people going online for news is increasing
• Newspapers are improving their websites
• New philosophies about the nature and importance of journalism are emerging

7. Can we succeed? We deliver on multiple platforms
YES! We have competitive advantages
We are credible
We are local
We deliver on multiple platforms
We are growing audience

8. Newspaper Audience by Age
Source: Scarborough Research survey data,

9. 67 million visitors!!
Source: NAA.org Neilsen/Net Rating

10. Evolution of Journalism
Old media includes print reporters writing for newspapers and magazines. Old media newsrooms are cutting budgets, taking buyouts, and shrinking their newsrooms.
New media still needs the same type of great, thorough reporting, but it is much farther reaching and diverse—and it allows for constant updates to news stories. New media includes websites for print newspapers, blogging, social media (Twitter), audio and video reporting, and news portals such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.
Some print newspapers have gone entirely online with no print edition. Others are updating content daily outline and putting out weekly print editions.
No matter the medium, great journalists are and always will be vital to the world.

11. Online News Audience
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project,

12. What is our strategy? 1. Integrate Web and newspaper workflow BUT
Differentiate content
Keep the core paper strong
Grow the “Pups”

13. Local is King: The Newspaper
What is our competitive advantage?
Watchdog
Narrative
Exclusive content
Smart visuals
Enterprising reporting
Personally useful content
Provocative commentary

14. Local is King: The Web How do we grow audience? First in breaking news
Video
Photo galleries
Databases
Interactivity
User-generated content
Search engine optimization

15. Then and now: Orlando Sentinel
Insert a “then” front page

20. Then and now:

21. The biggest risk is to take no risk.