What ever happened to the news on the front page of your newspaper?
Have you noticed it is mostly gone?
“Features” which used to be on the back pages are now front page news. The Front Page is devoted to storytelling.
Michele Weldon, the author of a new book, Everyman News – The Changing American Front Page, says “Logistically, the newspaper is the last to cross the finish line on news.”
And then adds, “If it is breaking news and hot, it has already been in a video on line, on TV, radio and blogged about on countless sites.”
Hard news has been replaced by “storytelling” and what she calls “Chicken Little Journalism” accounts that are not particularly backed up by the reliable sources that hard news used to demand. Pay attention to your daily newspaper and you will see she is right.
She ought to know. She is an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism – a former columnist and reporter for the Dallas Times Herald and a freelance op-ed and feature contributor to the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times.
Her chapter, What’s Blogging Got To Do With It? is worth the price of the book. She says we have helped to replace the front page.
To prove our importance, she mentions that the 2007 YearlyKos blogging convention was attended by seven out of the eight presidential candidates.
A few other comments from her book -
- Did you know that 54% of bloggers are men and 46% are women?
- And over 50% of all these are under 30?
- In 2006, Technorati.com reported there were close to thirty one million blogs on their roster – and that was two years ago.
We can only guess what has happened since.
Although this is an important book for Journalism, Michele Weldon has never lost her ability to write in a breezy, engaging, entertaining way.
I like the way she ended the chapter on blogging -
“Each form of media influences the other and attempts to steal the reader’s time and attention. It is now a crowded dance floor …. with partners eager to cut in and grab the reader for a twirl”
Hey! She’s talking about us!
And we are dancing as fast as we can.
For more information on Michele – her book and her new blog – click here
Michele Weldon – Everyman News
{ 1 trackback }
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Major Newspapers didn’t understand online marketing – which IS taking their market share from them. So headlines change, as business changes… but the Internet HAS dominated the News Market for some time!
Hello Lori -
You are so right. I don’t think the newpapers saw online marketing coming.
Now they are reduced to either telling us yesterday’s news – or as Michele said – storytelling!
Thanks for chiming in here!
Dear Corinne,
I came across your website and felt impelled to pass on the news that I find very fascinating. News about health and true medicine that is not common knowledge, yet!
Please visit my website and would you pass it to a few of your friends. Thank you. Roy Hewitt
http://www.e-ssentialnews.com
YOUNG LIVING ~ THE WORLD LEADER IN ESSENTIAL OILS
Hi Corinne,
I think most major newspapers have “woken up” from their slumber. Some offer free online version of their newspapers while others charge a fee.
In Malaysia, the newspapers have free online version which gets updated quite frequently throughout the day. So the printed version is actually “old news”.
I think one day will come when printed newspapers may become obsolete. Its probably when everyone is wired to the internet. Ha ha maybe that can save some trees since we don’t need so much papers
Rgds,
Hai Liang
Hai Liangs last blog post..Secret Wealth Files 1-2 (Week 1)
The worrying aspect in journalism at the moment is that too much moment has crept in to what should be hard new stories. All manner of writers feel compelled to foist their opinions on the reader and frankly their opinions have no more merit than yours or mine.
Where newspapers score over more immediate media like TV and the internet is in their ability to provide balanced, well researched articles which include background. The press is also regulated so it may not print any old tale just because someone believes it to be true.
Dear Hai Liang -
re: Your comment -
“I think one day will come when printed newspapers may become obsolete. Its probably when everyone is wired to the internet.”
Gee, I hope not. I still enjoy reading my daily paper while drinking my morning coffee.
Thanks for letting me know about your name!
Hi Chris – As you said -
“Where newspapers score over more immediate media like TV and the internet is in their ability to provide balanced, well researched articles which include background. The press is also regulated so it may not print any old tale just because someone believes it to be true.”
You are right of course. Unfortunatly, we news junkies want the latest NOW. So as Michele said in her book, that news is a day late (and a dollar short, as they say) by the time it hits the Chicago Tribune!
Too bad. We have to be more discriminating about what we see in print! Or anywhere.
Great review Corinne.
I hadn’t really paid attention but now I do and Michelle is totally correct.
I think it’s a good thing that newspapers are reinventing their reason for being in the face of the changing world. It’s reinvention that prevents you from becoming a dodo.
Corinne:
I enjoyed learning about the shift taking place among the nation’s newspapers from hard news to storytelling features.
This shift sounds like great news for people who need to get their stories out for PR purposes! Whereas in 2001, our stories, while inspiring, might have been regulated to the back pages but now it could very well make its way to the front pages (or close to them!).
It’s an interesting phenoma to watch. I’ll bet the changing of the guard had the media people scratching their heads on ways to keep their newspapers alive now that everything is reported first online and shifted the balance of information power to bloggers and others like them.
The Internet has dramatically changed the reporting landscape. It’ll be interesting to see what happens over the next ten years. Will newspapers become obsolete? I doubt it but will its impact lessne more? Probably.
Nice, thought provoking article. I found it immeasurably interesting.
Stephen Hopsons last blog post..You are a Divine Teacher – Whether You or Others Are Aware of It or Not
I stopped reading the newspaper years ago unless there is a particular article that someone has told me about. I start the day with my coffee sitting in front of my computer reading emails. When we visit my mother-in-law, I will sit and read all of her weekly small town newspapers that she has collected since the last time we visited. I like the friendliness of small town newspapers. Their stories are about small town USA and not all of the horrors that are happening around the world every day.
Patricia – Spiritual Journey Of A Lightworkers last blog post..True Independence Comes From In-dependence
Dear Stephen -
This comment of yours is a central part of Michele’s book.
“This shift sounds like great news for people who need to get their stories out for PR purposes! Whereas in 2001, our stories, while inspiring, might have been regulated to the back pages but now it could very well make its way to the front pages (or close to them!”
Interesting you should pick up on it. – She claims that is when the shift started. Instead of concentration on the event – the focus changed to reporting on the survivors and their families.
Dear Patricia -
When I go to any other town or city, the first thing I do is buy the local newspaper.
I especially look at the ads in the real estate section. it tells you a lot about what is going on!
Dear Karooch -
It is a changing world – and we bloggers are at the cutting edge of it. Even scrapbookers!
I bet you did not know how many were out there when you started blogging about it!
You even have me interested. I read all your articles. No action yet. But who knows?
Maybe when I get old which is any minute.
What’s a newspaper? I quit reading the darn things years ago. I get most of my news from… gasp… bloggers! They do a dang good job.
Tom. I get most of my news from the internet as well. I hardly watch TV (although I love Larry King and also Jon Stewart,but rarely catch them) I”m proud to be in blog territory with Corinne and Tom!
Michelle Vandepass last blog post..Soft Sell – Heart Marketing Podcast
Dear Michelle and Tom -
I could not live without my coffee and my newpaper in the morning – although there is not longer a lot of news on the front page. It is a ritual.
Or – without MSNBC and CNN. I am a political junkie!
True confessions today!