For the past 4 months, I have been interning at The Philadelphia Inquirer, working on the Online Desk. My duties have included updating pages on http://www.Philly.com, creating and maintaing pages for special, multi-part features, editing and integrating online content into article and feature pages, an producing original content. During my time in the newsroom, if one thing has become evident, it is that the traditional newspaper format, as itnow stands, is in dire trouble– and that how a publisher embraces or ignores online news, will determine the success or failure of the newspaper enterprise.
In a roundtable meeting for the company’s interns, publisher Brian Tierney revealed what I agree will be the secret to newspapers’ success in the online medium:
In radio and television news, the hosts and reporters are the “talent” and the capital that keeps the broadcasts afloat and lures listeners and viewers back for the next show. It is their sheer force of personality that must snag an audience.
Radio news is ripped from newspaper headlines and leads, both local and AP. Television networks send their crews out guerilla style (Or maybe it should be gorilla style– I’ve had to fight network photographers to get good video for the newspaper’s site) to grab 30 second reports– and then get the heck out and on to the next big breaking event.
Newspapers, however, on their newsdesks, and moreso in their sports experts and feature columnists, have employees with intensly specific knowledge, and often have contacts on the “inside.” The other medias do not have these inside contacts.
By leveraging their talent pool of specified writers, newspapers have the ability and potential to create detailed online insider reports, and innovating and interesting investigative or behind-the-scenes video and audiocasts without hiring any new employees. The vehicles for creating this content are already dormant in the newsroom– They must simply be activated and channeled into online delivery methods.
For example, when a new movie opens, actors will often travel from city to city promoting their film. During these promotion runs, the paper’s critic will interview the actor, see the film, and later write up a review. Leveraging online multimedia potential, while the critic interviews the celebrity, a cameraperson can record the encounter, and ask additional questions that would not fit in the space allotted on a newspaper page. If there is time, and the celebrity is willing, the actor can participate in an online chat with newspaper readers (heavily moderated, of course.) This chat can be edited and published as a newspaper sidebar. After the critic watches the film, their evaluation can be captured as video or audio, and can include topics supplimental to the printed review. Film critics often can provide insight on Hollywood politics, in-production movie news, and general industry trends. This information can be published in blog, video, or audiocast form.
The potential is endless, and can be applied to nearly any newspaper beat– features, sports, living, and news.
