Print or be damned
What does information technology mean for local media, and in particular the local press? Local broadcast media have never seemed as personal as local press, and so the local press often has the potential for a closer connection with people and more of a place in their hearts. People tend to see the owners of their local papers as custodians rather than owners aiming to make money - they forget it is a business with a business relationship with them as much as a news or heritage connection.
Yet technology, in particular the internet, is threatening the existence of local newspapers – the Birmingham Post is the latest to openly discuss options for its future (http://blogs.birminghampost.net/news/2009/08/why-the-birmingham-post-must-c.html). With national newspapers reviewing their incomes and strategies, and some considering charging for their online content, local media are not going to be immune.
A vibrant local media is important for local society and democracy – but has the local media been that vibrant in recent years, even before the internet mushroomed? A decline in revenues may be partly due to competition from other media, or may be walking hand-in-hand with a lack of relevance and connections with local people.
Those running local media in the Midlands need to review their strategies (and ideas about future income) and their connection with the region. Some thoughts:
- If your paper has a souring instead of soaring relationship with local communities, is going to fewer or thinner papers the longer-term answer, or is it to find ways to forge greater links with readers? Grasp the opportunity for more debate, to reflect more cultures and, perhaps, to reflect more widely the region rather than the narrower niche currently occupied. The Birmingham Post, for instance, seems to like to bask in a sense of glory from covering the region when it suits it, but does its heart or its content really make that wider connection beyond the outer ringroad?
- Syndicating national content is not the answer to the need to build a stronger local connection. It may help to fill part of a stronger website (which most local media need to continue to work on) but will not make and sustain the local connections needed for readership and advertising.
- If blogs are taking away readers (by stirring more interesting debate?), is the option to start your own newspaper’s blog placing the same kind of content on line, or to link with the bloggers being read and see what they might do for your local media?
- Similarly, social networking and media web sites such as Facebook, youtube and flickr are full of vibrant local content and networks of people. Have our local print media exploited all potential links with these groups?
There are so many options and ideas for the local press. We need strong local media – local news and debate cannot be left in the hands of interest groups or dispersed across the internet. The future may not be as definite and cosy as many would want for local media...but we should never waste a crisis.
Yet technology, in particular the internet, is threatening the existence of local newspapers – the Birmingham Post is the latest to openly discuss options for its future (http://blogs.birminghampost.net/news/2009/08/why-the-birmingham-post-must-c.html). With national newspapers reviewing their incomes and strategies, and some considering charging for their online content, local media are not going to be immune.
A vibrant local media is important for local society and democracy – but has the local media been that vibrant in recent years, even before the internet mushroomed? A decline in revenues may be partly due to competition from other media, or may be walking hand-in-hand with a lack of relevance and connections with local people.
Those running local media in the Midlands need to review their strategies (and ideas about future income) and their connection with the region. Some thoughts:
- If your paper has a souring instead of soaring relationship with local communities, is going to fewer or thinner papers the longer-term answer, or is it to find ways to forge greater links with readers? Grasp the opportunity for more debate, to reflect more cultures and, perhaps, to reflect more widely the region rather than the narrower niche currently occupied. The Birmingham Post, for instance, seems to like to bask in a sense of glory from covering the region when it suits it, but does its heart or its content really make that wider connection beyond the outer ringroad?
- Syndicating national content is not the answer to the need to build a stronger local connection. It may help to fill part of a stronger website (which most local media need to continue to work on) but will not make and sustain the local connections needed for readership and advertising.
- If blogs are taking away readers (by stirring more interesting debate?), is the option to start your own newspaper’s blog placing the same kind of content on line, or to link with the bloggers being read and see what they might do for your local media?
- Similarly, social networking and media web sites such as Facebook, youtube and flickr are full of vibrant local content and networks of people. Have our local print media exploited all potential links with these groups?
There are so many options and ideas for the local press. We need strong local media – local news and debate cannot be left in the hands of interest groups or dispersed across the internet. The future may not be as definite and cosy as many would want for local media...but we should never waste a crisis.
