WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

The death of LA TRIBUNE in Paris shows that full color, size or design will not solve the problems of newspapers.

LA TRIBUNE is firing two thirds of a very small newsroom with 77 journalists, and now wants to become a printed weekly plus a daily news website, all done with less than 30 journalists.

Good luck!

More and more, bad newspapers with bad managers, no advertising and a few readers, are becoming “digital papers”… when, in reality, they were dead on print like they will be dead online.

Newspaper need more than cosmetic solutions.

You cannot change a paper just adding more color, more graphics or playing with the format.

Newspapers need more and better Journalism, more and better journalists, and more and better managers, on print and on line.

Nor less.

If not, any solution is just putting lipstick-on-a-pig.

That’s all folks!

Nathan Myhrvold, former chief strategist and chief technology officer at Microsoft, founder of Intellectual Ventures, writes in Bloomberg View:

“Could newspaper journalism likewise entice readers to pay for online news? People like quality journalism, so I believe that, ultimately, they can be persuaded to pay for it. But as with cable, the price will have to start low; it can then inch upward as the public gradually accepts the new business model.

The question is whether paid-subscription news sites can make the transition fast enough to make up for their plummeting ad revenue. It takes time to persuade people to pay for something they expect to get free. Ultimately, the change will happen, but maybe not fast enough to save some of the great institutions of newspaper journalism.”

My take: Yes, many great institutions of newspaper journalism will not make it, but Journalism will survive. So, great is good, but fast is better.

Tags: Bloomberg View, Journalism, Nathan Myhrvold

Canwest, a Canadian media company that wanted to play as a great newspaper publishers, has failed miserably.

Losing circulation.

Losing advertising.

Losing a lot of money.

Firing a lot of… decent journalists.

And I suspect, keeping a lot of bad managers.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to listen a presentation of its CEO at the Canadian Newspaper Association annual meeting in Winnipeg.

As soon as he ended my only reaction was:

Too much talk about business plans, money, strategic plans, money, money, money… and almost no references to journalism!

Always the same sad story.

Well, now the survivors ad the saviours have found the secret.

They are changing the name of the company: from Canwest to Postmedia Network.

Great trick!

Canwest is being sold for C$1.1 billion, including C$950 million in cash which will fully pay off Canwest’s bank lenders, who are owed C$925 million.

Good luck!

Steve Coll, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, explains in his blog Think Tank why we need brave journalists covering disasters like the earthquake in Haiti.

The lead:

“Journalism is not a particularly esteemed profession, but its capacity to bear witness remains one of its more redeeming attributes. At moments like this in Haiti, a journalist’s function as a witness can be relatively uncomplicated, in comparison to, say, the processes of political or investigative reporting. In the field during a natural disaster of this scale, you do feel at times ghoulish and intrusive upon both the grief of survivors and in relation to the more directly useful efforts of rescuers and humanitarian relief workers. And yet all of those classes of participants in the crisis will recognize, most of the time, that journalism helpfully amplifies their own condition or potential.”

The end:

“Technology, increasingly, makes us all witnesses to crises. And yet, only those journalists intrepid enough to find their way forward, independently, can focus our lenses.

The New Yorker’s piece is a must-read.

Mario García, the well known Cuban American newspaper designer, writes in his blog after a review on how the international press has done presenting the news from Haiti, and ends his post asking about the Haitian papers.

“Although I have tried to get a pdf of a Haitian newspaper, I have not been able to do so. Perhaps they are not even publishing, but if anyone has access to a Haitian newspaper, please do send me a pdf.”

Are you kidding?

Here in Wales, we had a lot of snow in the recent weeks, so milk was not deliver, posted mail was late, food supplies didn’t arrive… but John, our loyal and brave newspaper boy (that must be in his late 50′s), delivered the papers to our front door everyday.

With no excuses.

He is my hero!

But to ask about what ad how the papers in Haiti are doing is too much.

Just go to the web and see what they have online.

It’s as tragic as the earthquake.

This country, yes, is very poor, so you cannot expect too much for their on and off line new operations.

And here is the proof from today’s homepages.

Life as normal?

Soft news day for the Haiti Star:

Here, at least, the front a picture tells the real story:

The Haiti Progress, an “alternative” voice, is almost out of business, just talking about…Peru:

The Haitian Times is in real news business, but continues offering appropriate advertising when the population goes almost naked, and I suppose not too much interesting in lose weight:

Le Nouvelliste does better than the rest, but still keeps a non sense poll that sounds like asking a dying country if they prefer to have holidays in the French Riviera or Cascais:

And they have created this special bare website that delivers real pictures and real news from the chaos.

So I don’t know Mario about any print papers here, but don’t expect too much.

If, as Leo Bogart used to say, “the crisis of newspapers is always the crisis of their cities”, Haiti is a dead matket.

More amazing pages from i, the new INNOVATION’s revolutionary newspaper of Portugal that excels in how to present and explain the news using the best tools of visual journalism.

Investing in hard news.

With knockout pictures.

Covering Sports with revealing and compelling interviews.

Or just splashing terrific and well edited panoramic pictures.

And small is beautiful, too.

And bold double spread pages that you never saw before.

Yes, nothing new.

Just Journalism.

Period.

The best of the best solutions for any newspaper.

And this is, for me, the biggest lesson learned from the directors and editors of i.

They are the ones that deserve the credit for this display of creativity and courage.

The INNOVATION team was only a provocateur.

They are the ones that at the end of the day implemented our crazy ideas.

Parabens!

Sad words from the late Norman Mailer:

“Newsrooms these days all sound like you’re in a monastery.

All the computers are so silent.

I miss the old days.

Lots of journalism writing is bad because the pressure of being a good writer is not the first talent you need to be a good journalist.

The first talent you need is the emotional readiness to introduce yourself to strangers and pick their brains.”

And he didn’t know that now in many newsrooms journalists don’t even speak to each other, they e-mail instead!

You will not change newspapers if you don’t change newsrooms.

You will not improve newspapers if you don’t change the workflow.

You will not have better newspapers if you don’t have better newsrooms.