Manifesto of niche newspapers

From translator

Reference: Umair Haque, Director of Havas Media Lab , a recognized expert in the field of media and consumption, his company advises major industry players, investors, entrepreneurs, offering unique business models, strategies and radical innovations for the development of their business. Publications on his Bubblegeneration blog have been noted by Wired, The Red Herring, Business 2.0 and BusinessWeek magazines. Yumeyr was one of the co-authors of The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. He received an MBA degree under the direction of Gary Hamel (Gary Hamel), a major modern researcher in the field of media economics. He was a writer, banker, consultant, traded derivatives on the stock exchange. He currently lives in London. [His blog , schedule , tweet ].


Further, the translation uses the term "news". In English, including the professional language of journalists and the media industry, it has several meanings. In this article, the term "news" refers to the practice of communicating to the society something in general, and not a specific genre or specialization of the publication. That is, news refers to news, analytical articles, reports, information agencies, weeklies, etc., etc.
You should also pay attention to the term "newspaper". The author refers primarily to the newspaper industry, so this word is translated literally. In fact, the reader can easily extrapolate the content of the manifesto to the field of new media, namely mobile technologies, Internet media, content projects, news services, etc., which were created by newspapers . This is due to the fact that many old companies have made and continue to make big mistakes, trying to master the new environment.

Manifesto of niche newspapers

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Dear newspaper magnates! So, you're trying to get people to pay for the news again. Wake up

It was not the journalists who made the newspapers of the 20th century profitable, but the readers. Newspapers of the 20th century have never been particularly profitable because of their content . The source of huge newspaper profits is a natural monopoly on the ads printed in them.

In the 21st century, the time has come to once again learn how to be useful to consumers, instead of inventing ways to wrest money from them . The main problem is not how to sell the old “product” better, but how to make radically better products. Here's how to do the newspaper of the XXI century.

News of the XX century does not meet the needs of the society of the XXI century. Yesterday’s approaches cannot really cover, educate or inform. The fourth power is beyond repair. And the news industry itself is to blame for the crash of a race. It's time for a better kind of news.

A new generation of experimenters is already creating newspapers of the XXI century. These are niche newspapers. Future journalism is growing right under the nose of old gates. Niche newspapers are micronish.

They are different because they firmly settled in the clearly defined boundaries of their possessions - finance, politics, even entertainment - and offer their audience the deepest, not needing additional reinforcement knowledge in their field.

Niche newspapers are not a product, not a service, not a business model. This is a new type of organization. They are a vivid example of innovation, which is key to the business of the 21st century. These are not old newspapers that sell in new ways. These are the newspapers of the XXI century, created by the new rules, which redefine what “news” is.

Here are the eight most important of these rules.

• Knowledge, not news. Newspapers are aimed at telling people news. The next stop is a warehouse of valuable information. Niche newspapers instead of news aimed at providing meaningful, comprehensive knowledge.
• Comments, not a comment. Newspapers define what is news and what is not. Whose opinions to give, and whose not. Niche newspapers create knowledge with readers through commenting (commentage). Kommentazh - brother of the story. This is the art of using comments to build a dialogue with the audience, because the audience can fill gaps, eliminate lacunae and strengthen the foundation of knowledge. Many newspapers have comments, so what? Almost no one builds a dialogue with commentators who are thus as if stuck in the twilight zone, having the opportunity to speak only among themselves. In contrast, niche newspapers always have the most active dialogue with readers.
• Topics, not articles. That is why niche newspapers develop topics instead of breaking the news and forgetting about it. When Talking Points Memo covered a series of political dismissals in the Bush administration, she did this in a series of publications that could follow the events. Articles are for awareness. Themes are for understanding.
• Shortage, not circulation. Newspapers chase copies, retelling the same thing in the same way only in several different places. Niche newspapers pursue shortages, hunger, and what readers will lack from competitors.
• Now, not after. Newspapers give you news after an event has occurred. Niche newspapers give you the knowledge now. Why start weekly columns and daily reports if all this disappears into the depths of the archive? This is a meaningless way to produce content. Niche newspapers develop topics from discussion, rather than individual articles, and then give them the opportunity to develop together with readers.
• Provocation, not perfection. Newspapers strive for perfection: perfect grammar, brilliant headlines, great priming. Niche newspapers tend to provoke. Yes, sometimes it is just a tickle. But more often this is a real provocation, they make us think, perplex us, make us like the newspapers have long since ceased to form.
• Snowball, not a sale. A long time ago, newspapers were sold to advertisers, PR managers, important “sources” and lobbyists. When did Wall Street Journal bite the hand that fed him the last time? Why is the editorial page Post so bland? Niche newspapers are not yet sold out. And if their business model takes place, then they will not have to do that. They are not sold, but sold. They raise topics and make it possible to grow like a snowball to those who will cause the greatest interest, creating a flurry of comments, hints, criticism, corrections.
• Tasks, not technology. Niche newspapers are not a question of technology. They use blogs, blogs, podcasts, wikis, tweets or large articles, or all of the above, but this is not the main thing. They do not care what technologies to use, so long as they solve the problem in the best way.
  

Here are four models for niche newspapers that apply these rules differently. Each model is named after the old newspapers, because to create the best, you need to go back to the fundamentals.

1. Sentinel - Talking Points Memo . With no one comparable TPM this is the gold standard of a niche newspaper. And this is a special type. The guard is always on guard, watching the political arena, broken promises, inappropriate behavior. Combining reportage, commentary, opinions, revelations, TPM demonstrates the most face-to-face, fearless political journalism in America today.
   
2. Chronicle - Perez Hilton . Perez Hilton - columnist of the XXI century. He writes down all the slutty, podnagotnoe and potentially interesting in the world of entertainment in such heart-rending details that the result is amazing - sensations become commonplace. Like TPM, Perez is not afraid to violate the status quo with his constancy, methodical approach and humor.
3. Informant - Business Insider . Henry Blodget was once a stock analyst, so it’s not surprising that his new enterprise, Business Insider, blurs the line that separates news from in-depth investigation. Although the newspaper often interprets events in a very specific way, the analysis itself is important. It gives readers more food for thought than news version 1.0.
4. Pioneer - The Huffington Post . The Huffington Post is probably a classic niche newspaper. What sets it apart is pioneering in themes, concepts, ideas, and points of view. The newspaper has liberal political views, this is its element. But it is the pioneering spirit that distinguishes her. It gives a course to any ideas from almost any side, of course, if they are at least of some interest.

These rules and models are not the only and not the best. These are the directions in which radical innovators have already moved in order to find news for the 21st century. And they are already planning how this will end. Organizing news of the 21st century is a whole set of different types of niche newspapers. Health care informer? Pioneer of education? Chronicle of finance and entertainment? What will be the news? Why?

Niche newspapers are our future because they have the best economic model. All the above newspapers are real companies with employees, offices, expenses. Niche newspapers use capital more efficiently, giving more for much less cost. Readers get more content, better, faster, and publishers spend less on distribution, marketing, production, and less risk. The difference is that they find new ways to grow and rediscover the lost art of being profitable due to its popularity.

That's the thing.

You can not make a profit twice from one raw material. Yesterday newspapers were the most profitable industry. Warren Buffett was lucky to invest in newspapers yesterday. And today, innovation called “monetization” is the surest and fastest for self-destruction. If you take money again for the same “content”, then you can finish where the investment banks and the auto industry are now.

To organize the purchase and sale of news, you must first rethink their production. The last attempt by the AP to improve the business model , for example, is a heavy “rights management” system for all the same old junk. It was precisely the protection of yesterday's "product" that did not let the music industry and Hollywood understand the art of creating additional value.

In addition, niche newspapers are organizations of the generation M. Already today, radical innovators refute the postulate that, contrary to well-established logic, tomorrow's news is only tomorrow's news. Contrary to the postulates, niche newspapers are already functioning as many would like . The greatest mistake of the news industry of the 20th century was the assurance that monopoly would eliminate the need to create added value. The lesson given to newspapers is so difficult.

With love,
Yumeir and Edge Economy Community