Newspaper Next Transformation Project

I can save The American Press Institute two million dollars and 12 months or so easy. Here's my take on the API initiative.

The project has the following goals:
I have the same goals since I am a editor and publisher of a start-up personalized, newspaper. Minus two million in capital and the who's-who of journalism thinkers API has assembled.

Assess the threat to newspapers in the next decade, including emerging competition

There are two basic threats to newspapers, period:

1. Internet (Distribution Platform)

2. Broadband, Wireless People (Citizen Journalism)

Here's why:

The Internet Threat - Very Real.
Internet is instant-on-demand and allows personalization of advertising and editorial. (MSN's AdCenter concept will make geo-targeting a reality for online marketers, it's currently in beta). Also can integrate not just print, but video, audio and multimedia elements (Flash Animations, etc).

Print is just ink on newspaper delivered a day later or later that day. Because of these characteristics, and the fact that advertisers and media buyers are shifting budgets online, the Internet is a major threat.

The Threat of People with Broadband and Wireless
Citizens with always-on, portable Internet connections carry with them an ability to connect and translate the news as it happens wherever they are. For instance, a simple mobile phone with a camera can post instantly to blogs, photo websites such as Flickr and even mainstream news outlets that accept such content.

This threatens the very core element of newspapers' franchise - it's ability to gather and disseminate information. Citizen Journalism is a already happening. Examples are everywhere (Pajamas Media, Craiglists' Craig Newmark is working on something new, etc). What's fueling the emergence is broadband and wireless connectivity to the Internet, coupled with a peer-to-peer social networking distribution model that entangles and engages users time and again each day. And this is only the beginning.

Determine opportunities for newspapers, including implementation of available new technology

Opportunities for Newspapers

Internet
Pretty easy. Internet distribution of editorial and advertising that's personalized and relevant, using citizen media who are readers and subscribers of the newspaper is a starting point. The opportunity here for the newspaper is really to exert its role as editor, fact-checker and add credibility to the citizen media content distributed over the Internet and other media platforms (mobile, podcasts, video, audio, dvd, etc).

In the advertising arena, newspapers move people to buy. A secondary opportunity is to personalize and target readers down to the IP level and zip code much the way cable television is employing addressability in their systems (using Visible World's technology).

Digital Printing of Tabloid Newspapers

Variable data printing (VDP) technology has been around for quite some time. Newspapers must deploy this technology or risk becoming extinct. For those who are not bold enough to forgo traditional offset for digital, they can select a hybrid solution (Kodak Versamark offers one perfect for newspapers and I already tested it). Combining offset and digital into a finished publication.

Clearly digital printing is the future. Manufacturers such as Kodak Versamark, which just introduced a Newspaper Printing System at IFRA in October are one option. There are others such as Punch Graphix's Xeikon division. Both can print tabloid newspapers using VPD technology.

Suggest executable new business initiatives – products, services and strategies – with detailed rationales

Initiatives to Consider: Technology, Community, People

1. Technology: On-Demand, Digital Printing Retail Store. This would be similar to retails outlets newspapers make available to sell merchandise, back editions and other memorabilia. The setup would be similar to a Kinko's, where users could either send in a personalized newspaper request using a Web-to-Print Internet website, or walk in and use a desktop workstation and place there order onsite.

Newspaper's could be picked up at the store, mailed or delivered. For busy people who are mobile and traveling they can get a PDF version and read it on their laptop. The option of customizing the method of delivery of personalized newspapers in print or electronic is where newspapers need to be right now. Technology exists to do this today.

2. Community: Newspapers must rebrand themselves in the community by engaging people to get out and interact face-to-face. Whether these are technology related events or sponsored activities unrelated to the newspaper, more of this must be done immediately. Newspapers have lost their luster in the community and they can get it back through increased sponsorship of events. Events allow newspaper advertisers a direct contact with readers and subscribers. A win-win situation for everyone.

3. People: Does it really take that many staffers to produce the news? Why can't some of them be community people? Trimming the fat on staffs should be a major consideration. This includes executive management as well.

Provide implementation guides for these business plans, addressing the management of change and risk.

Well, I guess that's why API hired Innosight and not me to figure this out. I say "just do it." No need for 12 months of "planning."

E. Dante Hamilton, Editor & Publisher
Internet Webpages Newspaper, Inc