Priorities

Last week Seth Godin asked: "When newspapers are gone, what will you miss?" His conclusion was that most of what's in a newspaper (comics, weather, sports, etc.) can be done "better" online, while newspapers are better-suited to actual local newsgathering, an act that allegedly only makes up 2% of newspapers' budget. While I respectfully disagree with the cost analysis, the question of where a local newspaper's priorities should lie -- during a time of financial peril -- is a fascinating one.

There are two common, competing visions of the future of news. In one, daily newspapers die, and semi-professional bloggers pick up the slack. In another, newspapers survive as shrunken online versions of their print selves. Leaving the online vs. print debate for the next post, let's discuss a middle ground between these two visions.

Bloggers do opinion exceptionally well. Politics, pop culture and celebrities, sports, and so on. You can find a blogger opining on just about any topic if you look hard enough. What bloggers don't do much of is actual original news reporting. How many blogs actually break news or make calls to follow up on a story? Very few. Instead, there is a lot of linking to professional news organizations.

Newspapers also pay professionals to opine. An incomplete list include editorial boards, TV and movie critics, fashion critics, book reviewers, and sports columnists. These individuals provide an authoritative local voice on topics that matter to lots of people, but their public service is no longer unique. On the other hand, a city hall beat reporter may not be writing articles with as much general interest, but he or she providing a service to the community that largely does not exist in the blogosphere.

Newspapers have to make tough decisions. It's inevitable that many more jobs will be lost. When those cuts need to be made, it would be folly to let go of experienced local news reporters. Instead, newspapers should think about creating a branded blog network. Seek out the best local voices on the local arts scene, on local politics, and on national topics like politics and pop culture. Pitch bloggers on the local advertising leverage your newspaper possesses. Host the blog on your server, and sell ad space on it. The Washington Post is doing this, more or less, for the Capital Weather Gang. Split ad revenues 50/50 or 60/40, and offer bonuses (and publicity) for material that makes it to the print edition. Encourage your bloggers to increase their visibility by appearing on local TV and by promoting their blog posts through news aggregators and on other blogs.

Here are some positions that could be outsourced to exceptional local bloggers:

• TV critic
• Movie critic
• Fashion critic
• Theater critic
• Music critic
• Art critic
• Book critic
• Pop culture commentary
• Weather commentary
• Sports columnist
• Editorial cartoonist
• Editorial board (advocated for long ago by Michael Kinsley)
• Local politics commentary
• National politics commentary
• Ombudsman (may be outsourced to a local journalism professor, for instance)

I don't revel in the potential loss of these well-paying jobs within a newspaper. Some of the new pro-am bloggers may be able to make a decent part-time income through their blogs. Through their newly-minted affiliation, they will also be able to gain notoriety and access to screenings, press kits, sporting events, etc. But most will not be able to match the secure living wage and level of expertise of their former professional counterparts. When times are tough, however, tough decisions must be made about how to allocate precious resources.

Here are some topics that local newspapers should continue to cover in-house. In some cases, coverage of these topics has suffered as of late. These are very sparsely covered, if at all, by local bloggers, partially because things like weddings are difficult to cover outside the context of a trusted, centralized news organization. Newspapers may want to consider ramping-up their coverage of these topics.

• Local K-12 schools and school sports
• Local colleges and college sports
• Local pro sports
• Local business
• Local government
• State government
• Local U.S. congressional delegation in Washington
• Crimes/fires/serious traffic accidents/etc.
• Local happenings/events/calendar
• Obituaries
• Weddings

The mission is simple: focus on providing readers with local content that they can't get anywhere else