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People are getting the bulk of their news from the Web, and many traditional news outlets are nervous about the future of print journalism. But should they be as worried as they are?
This article from ESPN.com inspired me, not only as an athlete but also as someone who studied mass communications.
The piece is a riveting account of two strange
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Comments
10.14.08
Sounds similar to what I wrote yesterday on Megan Berry's "Is Online Content Too Shallow?" In order to make this transition from print to online, the design has to follow. I've questioned the meaning of my job more than once. How important is it to design pages? But we're creating the product. It's the look, the feel, the style... otherwise it would be words on paper which is what a lot of the web is still. I think as customizing pages becomes more flexible for designers, it will increase the ability to read longer pieces online.
Other than that, the real issue is advertising and not the journalism. When print began flowing to the web, people didn't know what to do. It was treated as a bonus, not a real medium, to their print advertisers. It was much cheaper in the sense you don't pay to print and ship. This mentality hasn't left most people's minds. They know its cheaper to produce web content. However, it was forgotten that we have to pay the content producers, so it still costs a lot of money to make a quality website. Since web was always a supplement, it didn't matter, but now that its becoming the parent, its a real problem.
The way we measure and pay for ads on the web has been marked, in a lot of ways, by Google. It takes probably about 20x more page views to get what you would sell an ad for normally in a print version. This depreciation is distressing and needs adjusted but because of the size of Google and their ad network, its an uphill battle.
10.14.08
@Smith+Fritzy - I was hoping the cost of production would come up in the comments as I wasn't sure how to address it in my post. I wrote the post because I saw ESPN's online content taking on a new form that was both inspiring and educational. If more sites continue to post features like ESPN did, then I think the sharing aspect of social media will help draw viewers to the site, therefore increasing page views and helping bridge the financial gap as journalism makes the transition from print to digital. Obviously, this is the ideal and who knows if it will ever become a realistic business model.
It's going to be a long journey as media companies figure out how to be profitable online, but I wanted to point out that ESPN did an excellent job melding print design with the Web to make a longer article more readable for those of us who suffer from Internet ADD.
It will be interesting to see what other changes media outlets make as the Web becomes the parent, as you said.
Thanks for the great insight!
Best,
Meg
10.14.08
Meg, thanks for bringing this to our attention! I definitely agree with your sentiments and would love to see more of this, which is why the discussion about how to pay journalists and organizations enough so that this sort of stuff can be produced is a necessary one.
I think Open Salon's Tippem, which allows bloggers to tip each other, is really interesting. Providing people with good information is a service, it can aid in getting things done, stimulates thinking etc. Just the same way we've become accustomed to tipping other people in society for providing services, maybe we should become accustomed to tipping for information.
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