Investigative journalism online?
Posted by Lindsay Berrigan on March 20, 2007 at 4:45 PM
Mark Glaser of MediaShift says that serious, even investigative, journalism doesn’t have to die as news moves online; instead, he says, newspapers should look at what is rising - online readership and advertising revenue – and consider how to make their websites work in the new economy.
Glaser calls out newsprint faithfuls who view the loss of newspaper profits and readership as doom for the news industry.
First, Glaser says, newspapers need not worry about news aggregators and blogs linking to their content, instead, newspapers can advertise around that content to bring in revenue. “Charging licensing fees to bloggers for citing your story or charging people to read your stories online is not going to save newspapers from some sort of doomsday scenario,” he says.
Further, newspapers should consider how to make serious online journalism work in their newsrooms. Glaser cites the Pulitzer Prize winning work of the New Orleans Times-Picayune during Hurricane Katrina, when the paper could not physically print for several days and relied on online forums and blogs to “be” the paper. The website helped guide emergency workers to stranded citizens.
Glaser also takes interest in pro-am journalism websites like NewAssignment.net and TPMmuckraker that pair professional reporters and editors with readers who act as amateur researchers and tipsters.
“Rather than looking at ways of trying to squeeze out more money by charging for content online or creating a consortium,” Glaser says, “journalists should start opening themselves up to new ways of newsgathering, hybrid pro-am efforts, and get readers involved.”
Source: MediaShift through Ifra Executive News Service
First, Glaser says, newspapers need not worry about news aggregators and blogs linking to their content, instead, newspapers can advertise around that content to bring in revenue. “Charging licensing fees to bloggers for citing your story or charging people to read your stories online is not going to save newspapers from some sort of doomsday scenario,” he says.
Further, newspapers should consider how to make serious online journalism work in their newsrooms. Glaser cites the Pulitzer Prize winning work of the New Orleans Times-Picayune during Hurricane Katrina, when the paper could not physically print for several days and relied on online forums and blogs to “be” the paper. The website helped guide emergency workers to stranded citizens.
Glaser also takes interest in pro-am journalism websites like NewAssignment.net and TPMmuckraker that pair professional reporters and editors with readers who act as amateur researchers and tipsters.
“Rather than looking at ways of trying to squeeze out more money by charging for content online or creating a consortium,” Glaser says, “journalists should start opening themselves up to new ways of newsgathering, hybrid pro-am efforts, and get readers involved.”
Source: MediaShift through Ifra Executive News Service
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This is a great project. I am a publisher and I know this will work, but not with most publications. The only way this will be successful is with publications that are personalized. My publication is personalized and this would work perfectly. Personalized publications use digital printing and a technology called variable data printing (VDP). VDP allows the ads to be personalized according to categories (keywords), demographics, etc. Basically Google is taking the online to offline in print. Great idea! I'm all for it.