Same message repeated
A former editor at the Spokane Spokesman-Review who has just spent six months as a reader after a stint as an assistant managing editor says that she looks at newspapers differently now.
She would edit differently now, she says, mentioning a number of things I have suggested as well over the past few months. Carla Savilli gave these ideas as to what she would change:
“- Move away from commodity news, the news that people can find all over the place
- Drop national and international news, which people can find online or on television.
- Redefine the newspaper niche product for local news. “Focus on what’s intensely local.”
- Reshape newsroom thinking about what people need to know. “Change the notion that we know what people should know.”
- Redefine the role of gatekeeper to one of a guide to information online.”
What she doesn’t mention is that moves in this direction (I would add social media) should also help ad sales as well by making the content more attractive. Businesses will want to be a part of a paper like that. Her comments are found here.
