Two developments which show that newspapers might still have life in them:
The Chicago Tribune is hosting a local site for bloggers called Chicago Now. Why don’t more newspapers do this? Local content has always been one of the leading reasons to read a newspaper – why wouldn’t they leverage that credibility to corner the online market for local news and commentary? (Via Poynter)
The New York Times looks at the London Daily Telegraph’s scoops that generated the British Parliament’s “expenses scandal” and concludes that this has brought a spotlight to a new approach at the UK’s leading newspaper: focusing on news and fresh content.
One of the most interesting aspects of the scandal is the revelation that old-fashioned scoops can still sell papers. Many publishers have assumed that in the Internet era, “exclusives” stay that way for about three seconds, so they are not worth pursuing. Instead, they have shifted the emphasis of their papers toward analysis or opinion.
The Daily Telegraph’s approach also is a reminder that there is an old marketing adage that still applies to newspapers: be different than your competitors. (By the way, one of my favorite headlines from the expenses scandal: “MP claimed interest on mortgage paid from Swiss bank account.”
