I plan on doing a full critique of the site once it goes live.
Jacksonville.com is slated to launch soon. By the time you read this it might already be online. As the largest online media outlet, it is many people’s first impression of Jacksonville, if it’s not this site (wink!). What do they say about first impressions?
Marilyn Young, assistant managing editor at Jacksonville.com posed the question above on Twitter today. Instead of replying in 140 characters I felt it was my responsibility to tell her what I thought in as much detail as possible. Here it is!
Hi Marilyn,
I commend you and Jacksonville.com for reaching out to the Twitter community to ask what we would like to see come out of the visioning sessions this week.
In my opinion, you’re doing many things right. You’ve started and continue to develop a strong community via social networking. It’s invaluable to those of us who communicate with the paper this way. It’s given me an view into day-to-day operations at the TU and has changed my perspective on (you) the paper in the following ways:
I consider you friends
I think you have quite a bit of personality
I’m excited to see you embrace new technology
I’m excited to see the young people on staff (Jason, Amanda, Tia, Jonathan, Joe) to name a few
Now on to your answer your questions: What can we do better and what new things can we do?
1. Design, design, design.
(Yes we have to go over this again) I’ve harped on this from the day I met with Rich to review the current design. Good design will sell papers and good design will keep people on the site longer. I would love to see you get rid of those drop-down menus too. You know, the ones that fly out everytime my mouse passes over them.
2. Community
I’d like to see a community manager take charge of comments and drive the conversation. It seems like each article with comments (or at least the ones I read) devolve into name calling and unproductive conversation. I don’t know if it’s a matter of having a single person or each article author drive the conversation, but someone needs to. If no one is watching the candy store, the kida are going to act up, right? Be part of the conversation.
Maybe you could feature users who leave good feedback consistently and give them their own blog.
3. More video and more audio
I think every reporter should have a Flip camera and an audio recorder. It would add a great new dimension to stories. Shoot a quick video (1-2 mins) or record an audio snippet of an interview (these can be a bit longer). They don’t have to be produced after the fact, just upload to YouTube, embed in the story, and publish.
I think this is where many people stumble with video and audio. They feel the need to have intro music or fancy titles, no. We’re ok (the readers) with raw video, if it enhances the story and gives us a different perspective.
I’d also like to hear more podcasts. A few columnists used to have podcasts, but I can’t find them on the site. There’s so much knowledge at your organization, you need to get those smart people talking. Have a roundtable once a week where three journalists expand on their printed articles, the most popular articles of the week or the most overlooked. Something similar to Urban Jacksonville Weekly. Check out Media Shift’s 5 Across.
4. Shape election coverage
Integrate the things I’ve mentioned already into the upcoming Mayor election and cover it like there’s no tomorrow. We’re at a very important time in the history of our city. One might call it a defining moment. Our next mayor could shape Jacksonville into a city of the future by getting us back on track with the rest of the country or they could drive the city into the ground.
We need you to get the word out about the important issues and make this an election that engages the public.
5. Engage and participate with other Journalism publications
There’s a podcast called Journalism Now who has a weekly discussion covering multimedia, data and social aspects of modern news. It’s awesome and they record in Gainesville. I’m sure if you asked them to participate they would include you in the discussion from time to time.
I would also like you guys to shout it from the rooftops if you are doing something innovative. I could see the editors sitting down each discussing trends in Journalism and talking about ways Jacksonville.com could apply them.
For example Rebooting the News, a weekly podcast on news and technology with Jay Rosen and Dave Winer is a great example. Granted, Jay is an instructor and Dave is an entrepreneur, so they are pretty free to say what they want. It’s transparency and it’s fascinating. I feel like if you can personalize the people at the paper via discussion, you can build better communities around the paper. If people feel like they know the reporters, they wi
6. Be a media leader and an important industry brand
I would like to see my local paper emerge as an industry leader and thought provoker. I would like to hear about them speaking at conferences, guest hosting podcasts, winning journalism grants for innovative projects like the Knight News Challenge.
Strategize ways to distinguish yourself and do it! The St. Pete Times does this through technology and special projects. Maybe you can you invite them up here for some type of summit to discuss issues of news, technology and journalism? I think a Florida journalism summit hosted by the Times Union would be awesome!
Be seen as an organization who cares, who organizes events, who engages peers defies expectations. Send some journalists to conferences to energize them. They will can network with their peers and bring back innovative ideas to the TU.
7. Wrapping up with investigative reporting ideas
Abel mentioned bolstering your investigative reporting. This seems to be the journalistic darling right now, along with the increased emphasis on hyperlocal.
Maybe you can take one reporter, your best investigative reporter, and turn them loose. Give them the resources the need to report on a story and give them the air cover to concentrate on the story without distraction. Make this person the investigative watchdog. Have them investigate the TU. Have them investigate the school board. Have them investigate pension funds. Give them a blog and a Twitter account so they can update the story and source leads. Give them a video camera and a recorder so they can present the story in more than a printed dimension.
Finally, here is my inspiration for new media and journalism
Before we get started let’s recap the situation with The Florida Times-Union and parent company Morris Publishing. On May 29th Morris Publishing received a fourth extension on a $10 Million dollar interest payment. The next and maybe final deadline is June 12th, just two days away.
I’ve heard time and again from various people that “the Times-Union will be fine” and “just because Morris goes bankrupt, doesn’t mean the Times-Union will”. That’s fine, but the paper has yet to detail the specifics behind these statements. I’d like to know what everyone at Jacksonville.com seems to know.
Recently Jim Currow, Times-Union Publisher, spoke at the Meniak Club of Jacksonville and was heard saying:
I agree. I know journalists are capable of telling the story better, reassuring the public of it’s continued operation if or when Morris goes bankrupt. They have yet to do this.
most of the newspapers published by bankrupt companies are actually turning operating profits. What’s killing their parent corporations are huge debt burdens.
From what I hear, this seems to be the case for the TU. What better time to innovate and make drastic changes than when you have nothing to lose? No one will fault you for failing if you try, but they will point a finger if you sit there and do nothing. So let’s look at some new models.
Reduce Daily to Weekly
Don’t cut print all together, you’ll kill one of your only good sources of revenue, but you know that. Reduce daily printing to weekly or bi-weekly. Getting out of the vicious daily publication cycle could provide more time to write in-depth stories or cultivate online content and relationships.
By producing a limited number of premium-priced, niche publications on only the days when it is profitable to do so, publishers can begin to focus more of their attention and resources on creating the wide array of tightly targeted Internet and mobile products that represent the future for their franchises. – Facing up to life after print for newspapers
Redesign the Website, Again
I know. Jacksonville.com just redesigned a few months ago. While they’ve made huge strides in functionality and interactivity, the design still leaves much to be desired. Design can influence people to stay in your site longer and explore.
Compare the way the New York Times or CNN looks to Jacksonville.com. The NYT is comforting and relaxing, interesting and compelling. There is something off about Jacksonville.com, the design is no tightly tuned.
Small things can be done to tune the current design. It will require a talented graphic designer and a time investment, but the time will be well spent. Until then, thank goodness for Google Reader.
If you’re not writing about local news, your paper’s readers are probably getting what you do from somewhere else. Get over it. CNN and ESPN are not new, and nytimes.com wasn’t far behind. Write local. There are plenty of cooks and painters and poets in your neighborhood. Go out and meet them.
I’m not saying drop everything and start doing what I do at Urban Jacksonville, but hyperlocal fills a gap in what media outlets are choosing to cover, or more accurately choosing not to cover. The Times-Union is already aggregating select hyperlocal news sources in the city, they should take the next step and launch a hyperlocal team. Or maybe, I’ll beat them to the punch.
When it comes to dollars from hyperlocal content, the money is in the advertising. As we get better geo-location tools, serving ads on a block by block neighborhood will be more valuable than ever. Start building niche audiences now so when the tools arrive you’re ready.
I’ve seen the value in hyper-targeted, local advertising. I think my readers will agree the ads on my site are better than ads anywhere else in the city. Why? They feel like content, not advertising.
Moving reading off the web and onto a wireless device makes it possible for newspapers to create exclusive content that would provide incremental revenue.
The newspaper doesn’t scale with a hit, or it can’t make incremental revenue off more popular articles
Here are some comments from me friend Andrew Connell on the Kindle and his new reading habits. While AC does not fit the profile of your average Times-Union customer, he is an emerging market the TU could reach out to and engage. And guess what, there’s thousands more behind him.
I know many folks, including myself, who would start subscribing to the TU if they offered it in a Kindle format. Kindle is quickly catching on… you almost always see them in biz class when you fly. 9 of the last 10 flights i’ve taken people have asked about mine.
Many folks are canceling print subscriptions and electing for the Kindle version because it’s cheaper and more convenient. I cancelled my WSJ subscription and get it on my Kindle every day now. When I travel, I’ll usually buy a USA Today and an occassional NYT as well… all via the Kindle.
While journalist are re-establishing local beats and focusing on producing hyperlocal content, you can use something like Spot.us to fund in-depth stories and investigative reports with community funded reporting.
Producing investigative stories requires large amounts of time and resources to get the story right. If the community could decide what stories they wanted the paper to report on and finance those stories it seems like a win-win. While some at the Times-Union may not like asking for money, I think desperate times call for innovative measures.
