Interesting interview in Talking Biz News blog with BusinessWeek.com editor-in-chief John Byrne that ran on last Friday (May 30). John talks about his view that consumers of news are getting their information from multiple sources, and that the key to attracting and keeping readers is not the stories alone but the community that is created around the stories.
I hear that a lot, and on its face it's an interesting proposition. I know in a digital world it's probably heresy to admit this, but going to news sources for "community" doesn't ring true for me. Where I'm at in my life right now, my "community" is my work and family. I do source information from multiple sources -- print: Financial Times (my fave), The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek and Time; online: Google reader for RSS feeds and Yahoo home page with wire feeds (AP, Reuters) and MarketWatch. I get what I need and go. No time for online "community."
Still, the shift in media can not be overstated. Editor & Publisher released a study May 29 that says the top 30 newspaper websites were up in April. The Dallas Morning News online readership was up 88%. Wonder what was going down in Texas in April ... maybe tornadoes. But, what's attracting the readers? Community, compelling news, major events, all the above? Not sure.
So, that's good news. Of course translating Web eyeballs into online ad dollars at the same rate (or faster, even better) as print ad dollars are leaving for Google is another issue.
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