Social Networks: A Leading Place For News

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Social Media, Twitter, Young People

It does not shock me to find out that one-third of adults get their news on social networks now. It is just the way our society is shifting. It is hard to go a long time without giving Facebook or Twitter or Google+ a check. And when I say a long time, I am only talking about a few hours. What constitutes a “long-time” has changed and so have the people. News is 24 hours now and going more than a few hours without checking something, anything, can lead to feeling helpless and lost.

Thankfully, there is social media nowadays, so we can constantly check the news, while interacting with the participants. It is so easy to connect to everyone and feel involved in the news process. You can even feel newsworthy by posting a video or a comment about a grand occurrence happening in the news.

News is a community now, and there is nothing young people love more than feeling like they are a part of something. So, connecting with the news doesn’t only keep you informed, but it can be fun at the same time.

So, back to the article, it is no surprise that young people are getting the bulk of their news from social media sites instead of actual newspapers. This is a trend that may likely continue to grow as the years go on and more and more people abandon the “old ways” of getting news.

A large part of this trend is also due to the emergence of smartphones. Many people have them use them for everything, like checking the news apps and using the social media apps installed on the phone. I will admit, I am one of these people. Whenever I have a few seconds, I whip out my phone and check the latest headlines or scroll down my Twitter feed for breaking news and more and more people are doing the same thing.

I don’t want to speak for everyone, but this trend is likely to only increase, as the technologies for these smartphones get better and, at the same time, older versions become more affordable to people who can’t afford them now. Also, I think this trend is good. Our society is, for the most part, uniformed, and a lot of that is mostly due to these new phones. People just don’t care about the news like they used to. However, if news organizations can find ways to increase their popularity on these social media sites, they could be helped drastically. But, I won’t complain too much, because I’m just happy that some young people are interested in actually getting the news from somewhere, albeit a social media site.

Online Radio For Newspapers – The New Thing?

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Boston Globe, Online Radio Station, RadioBDC

For the Boston Globe, online radio may actually be the “new thing.” They created RadioBDC, which has been streaming from Boston.com, and they created it with a touch of local flavor. Recently, a popular alternative station was bought out, but the Boston Globe quickly scooped up some of their popular DJs and these DJs are now part of this new format.

As the article points out though, this may only be a regional trend and not a national trend, as this web radio station has momentum from the DJs, who already had a fan base. It was convenient for The Globe to get these popular DJs to help with the launch of this station, but I think this could be a winning formula.

Online ad revenue is cheaper, so perhaps if more newspapers create a similar platform, more advertisers will try get their ads on it, thus creating more profits for the paper. The Globe has already gained a few more sponsors and has expanded it’s male demographic from 21-34 (i.e. men at work), according to the article.

Another possible plus is getting journalists on the air to speak about the news, which, honestly, is a huge plus. A newspaper being able to speak to their audience as news breaks? That sounds pretty cool to me.

But yes, there are inherent costs to starting a web radio station, “like constructing a new studio, obtaining music rights and paying staff salaries.” These costs could cause some hesitation, but I already got into the pluses, which could pay off in a huge way.

Unfortunately, even if this is successful for The Boston Globe, it may not be a trend that catches on, due to the fact that they caught a break with the DJs, which helped jump start the site. However, as I’ve said before in this blog, I love risk takers and this is a risk by The Globe. No paper has done what they are doing, according to the article, and no one may want to do what The Globe is doing until they see if this can be successful or not. One thing we do know, however, is that if this online radio station does work out, there will be plenty of copy cats waiting in the wings to begin their own station.

A Craigslist for Journalists

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Aggregator, Contently, Freelance Journalism

Jobs are hard to come by for everybody, no matter what profession you are seeking. Journalists are obviously no exception and with the job market being thin  in the newspaper industry, good journalists are being left on the sidelines, just waiting to find a job. However, a new platform is being created to help freelance journalists aggregate their work and this platform is called Contently, which “aims to help journalists to build their personal brand online and connect them with publishers looking for writers.”

This fascinates me. This is going to be a website that is “dedicated exclusively to journalists and publishers.” I think is a great idea that helps both sides of the equation. It allows a much easier mode for connection between these freelance journalists and the publishers. As Shane Snow, conceiver of Contently, said in the article, “We thought if we could connect good professionals who are now out of work with publishers who care about professional quality work, not SEO, content-farm stuff, then we could create a business out of that.” This model by Snow has a business side to it as he hopes to eventually include workflow and payments, “which Contently streamlines through PayPal.” So, this is not only a place to aggregate, it is also a place to possibly profit.

Another positive of this site is the personalization by the freelancer, who can provide his work, so the publisher can see what kind of style this journalist has. It seems pretty convenient for all involved and I will be interested to see if this website has a lasting impact on the journalist landscape.

A Future for Ad Efficiency?

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Ad revenues, ESPN, marketing.

When it comes to being ahead of the curve, ESPN is one of the leaders. They began as a modest cable network and have evolved into much more, being adept at reaching out to a rabid base of sports fans through various means and have become the most recognizable name for sports. They have a successful magazine, multiple channels, a easy-to-use website, and tons of live sports on various platforms. They have even been very adept at using Twitter too, taking it to levels that news organizations wish they could. Back to my main point about ESPN though, they are at it again.

According to this article, ESPN is going to be the first media company to use the service of Arbitron and comScore, two services that will “try to measure the media consumption patterns of consumers across five platforms: radio, television, mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers.” This is a very interesting development in my mind. Newspapers have struggled with ad revenue due to the emergence of the internet. Ad agencies are having a difficult time determining the effectiveness of their internet ads compared to television or radio ads. If these services work, this technology can be a game changer for newspapers. It would allow them to gain a service that they were so accustomed to getting before (in respect to ad revenues), because there would finally be a way to determine how effective some ads are and where improvement can be made. There would no longer be a reluctance for internet advertising if there was a way we could accurately, or somewhat accurately, determine the effectiveness of ads.

If this experiment fails or is determined inconclusive, well, I still respect ESPN for attempting to solve an issue that is very pressing in today’s society for media outlets. And maybe newspapers should try news things more often, because, as ESPN has shown, this can be a profitable time for media outlets.

The Changing Landscape of Newspapers

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Innovations., Slingshot, Speakeasy, The Dallas Morning News

Saying that the newspaper industry is struggling would be a huge understatement. It is a dying platform to present the news as today’s society is constantly moving towards a web-based outlook, and newspapers are no exception. How do you fix it? Well, becoming more involved in the social media landscape can’t hurt and The Dallas Morning News is taking an initiative. They are teaming up with Slingshot LCC to create “a new social content marketing company called Speakeasy.” Their idea is to increase their productivity with the social media aspects of their company. They don’t want to be able to simply “use” it, they want to perfect it and make it a valuable asset of the company.

This is very interesting to me and I can this this being a trend. Newspapers are struggling and it is mainly due to their underwhelming influence on the internet. If newspapers can change how the general public views them by becoming more innovative and influential on social media sites, then we may see a breakthrough in the industry. I am very interested to see the impact that this change has on The Dallas Morning News. If it is positive, then expect to see copy cats.

Where Did The Analysis Go?

As I watched the Republican and Democratic conventions, I noticed something was missing. The analysis. I heard opinion after opinion about what people “felt” about a speaker, and depending on what channel I was watching, that could have even been subjective (I’m looking at you Fox News). On the whole though, every network lacked an appropriate amount of analysis. I am not someone who knows the issues inside and out, so I wanted to hear the meaning behind all these words that these politicians were saying, but I was disappointed when I did not get that on a consistent basis. Instead, I heard subjective feelings of gushing or dismay over the speeches these politicians gave.

So, when I came across this story I was immediately hooked. Thankfully, someone realized this egregious abuse of power by these pundits on television and wrote about it. Then, as I read, I found something else very interesting. David Bauder, writer for The Miami Herald, put some of the blame on Twitter and I’ll tell you what: I couldn’t agree more. It is tough to multi-task and with all this emphasis on social media and sending out tweets during the speeches, less time is being devoted to analyzing the words being said by these powerful politicians and more time is being devoted to sending out interesting tweets. This is a problem. I love Twitter as much as the next person, but if it is negatively affected the coverage of important events, such as who our next president might be, than maybe a change is in need.

I wish I had the answer to this problem, but with the emergence and impact of Twitter, not tweeting during significant events is out of the equation. So, I guess the real question in this rapidly changing world is: How fast can we learn to multi-task?