The cure for writer's cramp is writer's block. - Inigo DeLeon

The Spokseman-Review tries freemium listings and sees success

by Jason Preston

Poynter’s Biz Blog today highlights an award given to a Spokane paper for being smart on the internet. Specifically, for taking a page from the freemium book and offering a free service with chances to go premium for a little extra ca$h:

And the winner is: The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, for an ingenious variation on local search, a business directory that includes an informative free listing and lots of opportunities for upsells.

The twist at Spokane’s BizFinderNW.com, is to offer a listing with address, store hours, a map and a photo for free. Businesses can amplify on the listing or buy a display position if they wish. Like most local search ventures, there is room for user comments, though no news content per se.

I think freemium (or maybe cheapmium) is going to be the basis of a lot of newspaper business going forward. In fact, my thoughts on subscriptions are basically finding ways to bundle premium offerings to make the package more sellable.

May 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment 

What is a subscription?

by Jason Preston

I‘ve tossed around the idea of using freemium services and mulled over the difference between a subscriber and a reader, and I think these are very important concepts to the future of newspapers.

I think this because I’m beginning to realize how securely the concept of a “subscription” is tied to the physical paper delivery. People are not going to pay to look at a newspaper web site. And while American newspapers might only get about 20% of their revenue from subscriptions, that’s an important source of cash to maintain.

Going forward, I think subscription revenue is going to be even more important to newspapers as new measurement metrics and a proliferation of online media channels give advertisers more places to spend their money (and consequently, bring ad prices down).

Not to mention, have a significant chunk of subscription revenue would ease some of the inherent tensions between good editorial and business practices.

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May 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment 

The Craigslist vaccine: Why newspaper classifieds aren’t effed

by Jason Preston

I’m Joe Consumer.

Joe Consumer wants to sell his old computer monitor because he got a shiny new one. What does Joe do? He thinks first about his options. Here are the obvious ways to sell his monitor:

  1. Ask his friends and family if they want to buy it.
  2. Put an ad in the newspaper
  3. List it as an auction on eBay
  4. List it for sale on Craigslist

I’m sure there are hundreds of ways Joe could sell his monitor. But those are the ones that occur to me quickly and without much effort, and it’s pretty likely that at least one of them will work. Of those four options, only one costs Joe money.

Listing it in the newspaper.

The funny thing is that when I talk to people at newspapers, they all know this already. I get the “duh, we’re effed, shut up about it Jason” response.

But newspapers are not completely effed when it comes to classifieds, and here’s why.
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May 9, 2008 | 2 Comments 

Journalism in videogames: apply as a seasoning

by Jason Preston

If you’re tracking the recommended reading I have in my sidebar, you probably spotted the post on Poynter last week about the idea of using videogames for journalistic storytelling.

As a long time videogamer and someone who used to run a video game web site, I wonder if making videogames to inform people about journalism is really the right approach. The “serious games” market has suffered with the very community they hope to reach out to (the videogame community) because it tries to approach serious issues in a medium that people use for escape.

I think that journalism videogames developed in the same vein would suffer a similar affliction.

Which is not to say that they shouldn’t be made at all. Serious games have their purpose and it is a great one - interactive computer-based learning is undoubtedly going to be a key component in the way we teach people going forward.

But applied as a seasoning, think about what it could do culturally.

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May 7, 2008 | 3 Comments 

Link Lessons: Stop licensing AP content

by Jason Preston

Iam calling this sporadic, as-it-pleases-me to write it series “Link Lessons” because I think that with very few exceptions, newspapers have largely ignored the power of the web’s biggest currency: the link.

I think smart linking goes hand in hand with an emphasis on local coverage in the quest for newspaper survival.

This is going to sounds like a complete contradiction, but here goes: When are newspapers going to realize that they are competing with the AP, and stop paying for AP content when they could simply link to it?

Here’s why this is actually a good idea:
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May 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment 

Information advertising

by Jason Preston

Last week Scott Karp ruminated on the future of online advertising: will it be driven by entertainment or will it be driven by information?

He presents two good examples that represent each technique in the world of car advertising. If you want to get a handle on what I’m talking about when I refer to one or the other, you should go read his post.

Got it? OK. Here’s why I think that information advertising has a much bigger future on the web: it fits the nature of the medium.

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May 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment 

Why RSS and mobile internet matter to newspapers

by Jason Preston

A few days ago the New York Times wrote about the Madison, WI based paper The Capital Times (and, I’m happy to say, the NYT actually linked out in their article).

Last Saturday The Capital Times joined the ranks of newspapers that have cut their print edition entirely and moved their operations entirely online.

While I’m excited to see newspapers taking this leap and moving their operations completely online, this is a worrisome statistic:

In its account of The Capital Times’s last daily press run, The State Journal reported that it had “succeeded in garnering most of The Capital Times’s former subscribers and will see its average daily circulation rise from 89,000 to at least 104,000 starting Monday.”

What the internet is really lacking thus far is a strong, mainstream subscription based service. I think that the two tools most likely to “save” the newspaper industry are RSS and phone-based internet access.
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May 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment 

The Wall Street Journal renewal policy

by Jason Preston

My co-worker, Kim Larsen, canceled her Wall Street Journal subscription a few months ago.

You would think that signing up to get the paper again would be a pretty simple process, right?

When she called today to reactivate her subscription, the service department at the Journal told her that reactivating her old online subscription for another year would cost $119.

Signing up for a new online subscription on their web page costs $79.

“It makes me want to get tell them to take a flying friggin leap,” Kim told me, “How ridiculous is that? Thanks, I’d love to fill out all this information again.”

In this particular case, they’re going to get a new subscriber anyway. But I think that getting a new subscriber is far more valuable than getting a new reader, and newspapers ought to be doing what they can to make it a painless process.

Especially since Kim is trying to sign up for the online subscription. Every operator on their phones should be pushing that option with deep discounts—the marginal cost for one more online subscriber is, roughly, $0.

So that’s $79 of profit for the Journal. Don’t discourage that.

April 30, 2008 | 2 Comments 

Why the New York Times “wins the Internet,” and three things you can do to catch up

by Jason Preston

This morning Bob Stepno’s Other Journalism Blog pointed me to a giant QnA type piece with the New York Times‘ Design Director Khoi Vinh.

Given my basic interest in design (both for print and the internet), and my complete admiration with the New York Times website, I dove right in.

While most of his answers are more vague than I’d like, it’s 100% clear to me that Vinh’s understanding of internet design vs print design is one of the big reasons that the New York Times web site is so far ahead of other papers.

If you read carefully, Vinh offers several good takeaways for other newspapers:
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April 29, 2008 | 2 Comments 

Seattle papers see print growth - what does this mean?

by Jason Preston

Editor and Publisher reports that my two local papers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Seattle Times, under a joint operating agreement (JOA) both saw increases in their paper circulation numbers this year.

Assuming that the recent death of the King County Journal is not wholly to blame for the jumping numbers, this is good news because it indicates two important things:

  1. People, at least in Seattle, are still interested in reading the news
  2. People like to be subscribers, not just readers

But it’s bad news for another reason entirely:

  1. Newspaper brass could use this as an excuse to stick their head in the sand and continue to ignore the internet

The print daily as it currently exists is almost certainly dead in the water. Rising circulation numbers indicates an interest to read the news, not an affinity for the method of delivery.

April 28, 2008 | 4 Comments 

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