The Modern Journalist

4 Steps to Create A Modern News Story

(The) “big successes” on the Internet, Web sites such as YouTube, have content that’s 95 percent generated by the public. Content on the Tribune’s site is 97 percent house generated, just 3 percent public — the comment boards and photos. (June 18, 2008, Chicago Reader: Will Newspapers Survive?)

There is a disturbing construct I’ve noticed in my discussions about journalism: the distinction between professional journalism and citizen journalism.

My brethren are rightly nervous about the transitional period happening with ad revenues. Jobs are disappearing quicker than most in the industry imagined. Readers are finding their ways to new outlets. Emerging skill sets are replacing traditional skills sets.

That has rationally led to the bunker mentality. Lock the doors. Get out the guns. Ain’t nobody coming in this house without a fight.

They’re fighting a war with people who, at best, regard them with the same emotional level as a pedestrian walking down a busy street, which is to say not at all.

They have signaled the masses to help them save the venerable institution of traditional journalism. The problem: many people don’t care. They are moving on to other outlets, ones more in tune with how they experience and interact with data and information on a daily basis.

They have, like the recording industry, alienated the very people who should be their closest allies: the readers.

Over all, ad revenue fell almost 8 percent last year. This year, it is running about 12 percent below that dismal performance, and company reports issued last week suggested a 14 percent to 15 percent decline in May. (June 23, 2008, NYT: Papers Facing Worst Ad Year For Revenue)

Once the readers leave, it’s hard to convince advertisers that they will get a return on their investment.

Advertisers are not silly. They know — or even worse, they perceive — a fundamental shift in how we use data these days. We all do, even if we can’t quite put our finger on it. We love Google. We do not love our newspaper.

It’s hard to close a deal when there is a lingering voice in the back of the clients brain telling them something doesn’t feel right. And that voice isn’t just talking about a decline in readers. It’s talking about the things the reader can’t do, the very value that we expect to get in almost every online endeavor we have.

Interactivity.

The database-driven Web has ushered in a new form of storytelling, one that has several components to it and involves something more than any one person — or one team — could ever hope to do.

Step 1, Data: Stories should first and foremost be built upon raw data, which is parsed up in ways that enable people to use drop-downs, drag-and-drops, maps and APIs to download and play with data.

I was discussing how a story should be constructed with a former reporter today and he gave me a real-life example. Newport, Kentucky is putting together an early childhood educational plan to help students succeed in school. The only data available is the data done by the group that launched the program.

Where does the data for that story come?

My response: you find every test score from the city, region and state; the Census data; the educational budget and create a database for spending and population that people can breakdown by school district, city, region and state — then open the API and allow people to create new forms.

Then you have a real framework for your story.

South Dakota’s weekly and daily newspapers have created a free, text-searchable Web site that includes thousands of government public notices from across the state. The site www.sdpublicnotices .com is a database of public notices such as the minutes of school boards, city councils and county commissions. (June 21, 2008: Brookings Register Online: Newspapers Create Public Notices Site)

Step 2, Crowds: Readers need to get value from the sites they visit, otherwise, they will not return on any regular basis. You return to Google repeatedly because the search engine gives you answers. You return to Wikipedia because there is something that answers a question.

What is that magic bullet for newspapers? The readers.

There are simple ways to engage readers that allow them to build software applications, to deliver usable and parsable content and to develop a sense of belonging and investment.

These are tantamount to any successful Web operation.

In the educational story, I told my colleague that I would have set up a “scavenger hunt” of sorts. I would have created a series of tasks, each with point totals, and put them on the site — and approached the marketing department for some good prizes (a family of 4 Kings Island pass, for instance). The tasks (off the top of my head):

1. take a picture of your child’s early childhood classes at school and upload them to Flickr tagged “Enquirer”, “EarlyChildhood” for 3 points;
2. upload your school district’s budget for all of its after school activities for 10 points;
3. scan in and upload 5 activities accomplished by your child during one of these school days for 30 points;
4. input a daily schedule of activities from your children’s classes for 8 points.
5. hold an informal gathering of at least 3 other parents to discuss  the classes; take a picture (with tags) and input 3 complaints and 3 benefits for 50 points
6. contact your local school and get a detailed answer that explains either what they are doing for early childhood education or why they are not doing anything with early childhood education. Upload the answer for 75 points.

Of course, you’ll need a community manager to organize, promote and oversee the various engagement activities you have. Some of them will work. Some of them won’t. You’ll figure that out as you go.

From there, you can organize sit-downs or Town Hall to discuss the matter, which can be recorded and parsed up. Suddenly, you are developing a dynamic information section around a topic area of interest.

These types of games, called Alternate Reality Games, have started to pop up around the country, mostly run by non-media companies.

The video game industry is expected to shoot from $41.9 billion in global sales last year to $68.3 billion in 2012, a compound annual growth rate of 10.3 percent and better than all other media sectors except for online advertising and access. (June 18, 2008, Reuters: Video Game Sales on Winning Streak, Study Projects)

Step 3, Story: Once you have that, you can write a compelling story that puts some perspective on the data and community involvement. Your reporters are creating a truly functional section that enables people to find answers to questions they have, created interest around that area (and if there is none, you will have some gauge of that ahead of time) and then given expert perspective.

But you’ll notice that each is integral to the part — and the story doesn’t come until the end. Each part is necessary to create a modern story.

Step 4, Monetize: But you don’t end there. You created a crowd, a database where people can find answers — and the smart newspaper will have an up-to-data database of all the representatives and government officials in the city, region and state. Then you open up that database so that people can update — or make changes to — any outdated information.

You begin to migrate that into other stories, building databases and information sources that do those three things:

1. give people tools to answer their own questions
2. engage the crowd to contribute
3. give perspective

With the right planning and implementation, newspapers can create thriving sections that have both user-generated content and reporter-created content working simultaneously to build audio, video, database and other areas that will both draw an interactive crowd and open up other business and revenue opportunities.

Earlier estimates pegged YouTube’s 2008 revenue around the $100 million range, but last month Forbes floated a $200 million estimate for this year, and $350 million for next year. Now Citi’s Mark Mahaney says YouTube could generate up to $500 million in net revenue next year. (June 19, 2008: Silicon Valley Inside: Citi: YouTube Can Generate $500M In 2009)