Amy McDonald @ The Times
How do traditional print newspapers intengrate into this digital age to remain relevant with my generation?
Part 1:What I Need to Know
My research is fueled by several incidents that piqued my curiosity.
The first of such incidents occurred when I arrived at the Gainesville Times along with my fellow interns: we were presented with the opportunity to begin our own section of the online newspaper--for teens, by teens. After a bit of an initial struggle, we created a name and got up and running. Then, we ran into a problem: reaching our intended audience. Yes, we were online, but high school students don't go straight to the Gainesville Times when they have free time to surf the internet. We started a Twitter and Instagram page to reach out and hopefully gain readership within the Hall County community. This helped us reach people to read our articles, though we were slow at first gaining a solid following.
Another incident made me question where the newspaper industry is going as a whole is when I overheard the metro editor, Shannon Casas, discussing what their primary readership desired to be in their newspaper with the reporter who covers government and politics. To keep up print subscriptions (what seems to make up a majority of the Times' readership) they appeal to their primary audience of, in general, conservatives over 50. Not to say conservatives over the age of fifty are bad or wrong, but young people have different ideas, desire different content, and want to receive their content in a vastly different format. They are the future. It is important for young people to be engaged in their community, and this doesn't always happen because young people have no way to put their finger on the pulse of their community outside of their circle of friends. Nonbiased, fact-checked journalism is a reliable way to see what is happening and how to get involved. Journalists must find a way to mold their trade into a product that is accessible and engaging to the next generation, to keep alive the written communication, as well as care for community.
Part 2: What I Know or Assume
Newspapers have been slowly trying to make the jump into the information age, but many are struggling to go beyond simply putting content online. Most papers in America are local papers that serve to keep people in contact with their community, but have trouble competing for attention and readership in a world where more exciting global news is easily accessible. In my personal experience with newspapers prior to interning at the Times, I saw them as the only entertainment for people like my grandparents who didn't have an appreciation for TV, and what teachers put on tables when we dissected in science class. After my internship, I see how vital newspapers are, but I worry for the evolution of my culture, that newspapers will follow in the footsteps of tv stations such as History and Discovery channel, that we as a culture will continue to trade sound, vetted information about the world around us for shallow entertainment with no real value and purpose. My generation, those born in the late 90's and early 2000's, have always had information readily available to them, mostly through TV news and now as we get older, through social media. We do not go out and seek relevant information, we wait for it to find us a majority of the time. This means that the usual way newspapers present themselves will need to change as a new generation comes of age. Newspapers will need to learn how to interact effectively on social media, create engaging and visually appealing websites, as well as a mix of written and visual content to gain readership and pageviews as a new generation moves into adulthood.
Part 3: The Search
I wrote annotated bibliographies as a major part of my formal research, and both added greatly to my understanding of the question of the modern newspaper, as well as how newspapers are surviving. My first source I explored was an article by Liz Colville entitled “A Newspaper Turns into a Blog, and Other Experiments in Online Journalism.” This article explains how 2009 saw some of the largest newspapers fold or file for bankruptcy, due to lack of paying readership. To cope with this, some newspapers have been eliminating staff positions, and others are getting rid of daily editions, only printing papers a few days a week. This article outlined a more drastic measure seen in Colorado, after a local newspaper went out of business. “Several of the writers were publishing their pieces on a site called I Want My Rocky, which was formed in December 2008 as a rallying cry to save the newspaper.” (Colville) The online site employed the tagline “Colorado’s oldest newspaper stopped publishing Feb. 27, 2009, but it didn’t die.” This was a recurring theme throughout the article. Colville’s article referenced the Christian Science Monitor becoming strictly online in 2009. Toward the end of the article, Olga Kharif is quoted in BusinessWeek saying how social media is the key to reaching young people, as well as “micropayments, hyperlocal Web sites, and publications designed for e-readers” for ideas that could be beneficial to the industry. Social media is a tool the Gainesville Times uses reach readers “through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and videos on our website. More and more effort continues to be put into online as more readers head there for information.” Clark Leonard told me in our interview. He also explained how the Times produces a strong weekly video to gain interest from the community. Leonard also explained how the Times uses Google Analytics to track how many pageviews a story gets, and where that traffic comes from (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.) In newsroom emails, I have seen how the metro editor, Shannon Casas, checks these statistics, and if a specific story does well, she will send a reporter to do more digging to write a follow-up article, or add more depth to the existing article. My second annotated bibliography explained how millennials do interact with newspapers more than people think. This article by Kathy Pape stated “(a) recent Pew State of the News Media study notes that 23% of people aged 18-24 reported reading a newspaper yesterday." The article said the young people who reported reading a newspaper regularly were the movers and shakers in their communities. This leads me to believe if, at the current state of newspapers there is a correlation between readership and making a difference in community, if more young people would read newspapers and learn about what is going on in their area, they would get involved to make a positive difference in the world. Getting more young people to read newspapers means making the jump to having interactive content available not only online, but having a relatable yet professional presence on social media to draw attention to articles and stories.
Part 4: What I Discovered
I discovered that different print newspapers have taken different measures to become relevant to my generation. Most papers that are wishing to engage young people have taken to social media, creating a digital presence there, in addition to providing online content. There is still a balance to be struck between charging for access to online content in a generation that is accustomed to having free information at their fingertips—but there must be a tradeoff between paying for a higher quality of reliable and vetted information. As newspapers transition into a digital presence, I see job openings for people such as myself. I understand the subculture of my generation, and how they relate on social media. Posts are not ‘one size fits all’ but news stories must be tailored for each media outlet. A caption on an Instagram post should be shorter than one on Facebook, and a Tweet should have a hashtag that follows the life of an unfolding story so users may comment and track others’ views and opinions. As the editor of the Times, Keith Albertson said, “it’s no longer 15 white men in a boardroom deciding what news will print” meaning that the readers now direct when, where, how and what goes into publication. This idea is the key to the future of the newspaper industry—listening to what the readers want, and how they respond. Instead of waiting on the readers to come buy news, it’s time to take the news to the people, thus creating well informed citizen readers having an impact in their communities.