Newspapers and Online: Seeking a Workable Fit
It seems at the end of each week, I provide an overview of something of interest from Jay Rosen’s PressThink. So to be consistent here is an interview he did with Bill Grueskin, Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal Online. It is a conversation mostly about how newspapers might find the proper fit in the online world.
Here is just a small piece of what Grueskin said:
you have to come up with a new language of journalism, with traditional roots in our standards, but that treats online like the revolutionary medium that it is. And then you have to hammer it home with your staff…
print and online would work like a family, with gently aging parents and striving college-age kids. Mom and Dad would support the kids for a while, then the kids would get jobs and chip in a few bucks every year, and finally, as the parents got older and earned less, their kids would contribute more from their quickly expanding incomes. And over time, the family would stay happy.
…things are moving both too fast and too slow. Circulation, particularly, got hammered at many papers, while online ad growth, tremendous as it is, stems from a relatively small base. Or, to stretch the analogy a bit further, these smart kids with such great income potential are being asked to pick up the pace when it comes to helping Mom and Dad pay the rent…
The key is figuring out content that connects with readers, that breaks some conventions, that is clearly on top of the news cycle, yet is still congruent with the kind of journalism the mother ship is doing. Its a constant challenge and no one has fully figured it out. But the trends show that some of us are getting closer.
