Washington Post vs. Patch.com and Examiner.com
The Patch neighborhood news network—the screenshot’s from a New Jersey site—is coming soon to some Virginia and Maryland suburbs. Yet another sign that the Washington Post needs to get more serious about hyperlocal? And how about the growth of another hyperlocal network, Examiner.com? Or the latest book on the Post, which, although a “valentine” on the whole, also portrays some disturbing vulnerabilities?
Among the first Virginia suburbs to be Patched in are Annandale, Burke, Reston and Woodbridge. In Maryland the initial targets are College Park, Hyattsville and Riverdale Park-University Park.
Should the Post be worried, especially with AOL as a Patch investor? Page views per Patch visitor have shot up in recent months, according to Alexa.com statistics, and the company is aiming for kudzu-fast growth. But the sites tend to be bland, and the network’s traffic is still a speck of that for Washingtonpost.com, even with all of Patch included from eight states. In the place of the Post, I’d worry more about the TBD.com local news startup and the Examiner.com network.
TBD and its blogging network can leverage its connections with its corporate parent, Allbritton Communications, the owners of NewsChannel 8, while Examiner.com is controlled by Philip Anschutz, the same billionaire behind the dead-tree Washington Examiner. He has yet to tap all the possible synergies. Although most of the writing on Examiner.com doesn’t awe me, the network is drawing some nice numbers and uses a formula similar to the one planned for TBD—a mix of geography and an appeal to readers’ passion for sports or hobbies. The chart is apples and oranges since it pits the entire network against the Washingtonpost.com and doesn’t factor in the Post site’s advantages as a prestigious setting for ads, but keep in mind that most of the Post’s Web visitors are from outside the D.C. area anyway.
In a related vein, I’ll soon be publishing my ideas on how established newspapers and broadcast operations can use the hyperlocal approach to grow closer to their hometown readers, both directly and through their offshoots. Making the topic all the timelier is Morning Miracle, Dave Kindred’s insidery new book on the Post. Washington Post Company CEO Donald Graham in the past has noted the importance of local readers to the Post’s sustainability. At one point, says Kindred, a former Post sports columnist, Graham observed that two thirds of the Post’s ad revenue came from the approximately 15 percent of its readers who were local. So what happens if hyperlocal networks start draining off some potential revenue? Not the best news for L Street.
If the Post’s coverage keeps dissing Alexandria, VA, and nearby areas, I myself will drastically cut back the time I spend at Washingtonpost.com and probably make up for it by way of the sites of local and hyperlocal rivals. And for me to keep up with the world beyond Washington, there’s always the New York Times.
While the Post has closed domestic bureaus, the Times just keeps chugging along with national and international coverage that is more thorough and better organized than the Morning Miracle’s. Maybe the Alexa.com comparison with the Times won’t be so disappointing after a Web-site makeover, perhaps aided by the NYT’s forthcoming pay wall, a surefire way to drive off readers. But for now, national and international are much iffier than local for the Post, given such strong competition. Beware of the Madonna Effect, the tendency of the stars to crowd out the rest. I’d like to see the Post regroup locally and use the revenue to be more competitive at all levels. Donald Graham and others at the top have made it clear they’ll use only so much money from the profitable Kaplan division to prop up the Post.
The Post is still very, very repairable if the will exists; L Street just needs to get more serious about local coverage, among other things. That means good journalism daily (as opposed to the flashy but oft-problematic contest kind), not merely revenue growth. I want actionable information on local and hyperlocal issues such as taxes and zoning. I won’t buy the argument that the Post is around just to cover Metro-area highlights. Technology and skillful crowd-sourcing can take care of that. Besides, Kindred notes that in 2009 the Post’s “shrunken newsroom…still had two hundred more people than in the Watergate years.”
If the Post can’t improve locally, perhaps the Washington Post Company may want to consider selling off the first two words in its name. Keep in mind the investment preferences of Post Company board member Warren Buffett for companies with moats (PDF). Could the Post build a new-style moat in the D.C. area to deal with the TBDs and Patches? I believe so, just as I can also think of strategies that competitors could use against the Post. The Post shouldn’t wave good-bye to national and international coverage. But hasn’t the company already backed off somewhat by shutting down the domestic bureaus? A mixed message? Why is coverage of Alexandria so skimpy despite this supposed change in priorities, complete with a reminder from Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli that “we are not the national news organization of record serving a general audience”?
For a somewhat cheerier assessment of the Post than mine, check out Peter Osnos’s thoughts, at TheAtlantic.com, on both the newspaper and the Kindred book. An ex-Post reporter who became a book publisher, he notes that the Post is reconfiguring its Web site, has reduced the newspaper’s financial losses and just published the Top Secret America series. I hope he is right. But tell me, Peter, isn’t there something wrong when on certain days the front page of the Post metro section doesn’t mention the word “Virginia,” or at least not in a newsstand edition I picked up in my hometown of Alexandria? Donald Graham, check out “DC MD VA M2” (Metro section identifier) in the paper edition for July 21. The only “VA” I see is in the identifier. By contrast, NewsChannel 8 always runs prominent home page links to Virginia stories, and I haven’t the slight doubt that Allbritton Communications will be as conscientious when the cable channel rebrands itself as TBD and uses a new format to boost its now-anemic numbers. Will the Post be up to the challenge if TBD catches on?
I even wonder about the Post’s Coffeehouse Newsroom experiment, which has its place but which is no substitute for stories that arise more naturally; because the newspeople should already be representative of the geo and demographical communities covered.
But what to do, in more detail, to grow closer to readers? My forthcoming commentary will offer some ideas for both newspapers and broadcast operations. This growing-closer issue is no small matter. I wrote The Solomon Scandals, my D.C. newspaper novel, to tell a story rather than preach. But along the way, Scandals is about disconnects, not just within a fictitious newspaper but between it and the rest of the planet, especially at the neighborhood level. Hyperlocal journalism, done well, could be at least a partial cure, and as a reader I want both the Post and rivals to succeed with it.
Related: Rim Rieder’s review of Morning Miracle in the Post.
Daniel Schorr’s death: Why a mystery? Wouldn’t he have wanted obituaries to report the exact cause?
Daniel Schorr’s acuity seemed to grow with age, perhaps because he had that much extra history stored in his brain to compare with the news of the day. Sympathy to his family and friends. The photo is of Mr. Schorr with Scott Simon, his colleague at National Public Radio.
Now a question for the media. Few reporters were more dedicated to the full story than Mr. Schorr was. Didn’t that trait help earn him the honor of a place on Nixon’s enemies list? Wouldn’t it serve the Schorr memory, then, for the press to report the cause of death at age 93 beyond the words “short illness”? I did not see the full facts in obits in the Washington Post and in the New York Times or on the Web site of National Public Radio. Is there a reason for the omission, beyond the family’s apparent preference not to provide the information?
In the past at least—I don’t know about now—Washington Post may not even have published a news obit if the subject was obscure and the obit writer did not know why the subject died. The Post even tried to print the cause of death of people with AIDS. An obituary of J.Y. Smith, head of the Post obit desk, said: “He suggested that those wishing to conceal information or have entire control over content could buy a paid death notice.” The “specific medical cause of death” is at least among the recommended items listed in 2007 for families to include in obituary submissions; also see a current form, partly reproduced here. Has Post policy changed since J.Y. Smith’s retirement from obits?
So what’s the importance of printing the cause? Well, beyond the probability that Mr. Schorr would have wanted the full story reported, suppose he died of a little-known disease that could benefit from more publicity for more money for more research. And if the cause happened to be something common like prostate cancer (probably not the cause of the Schorr death if we go by “short illness,” the Times’ phrase), then reporting it would also have served society. We’ve long gotten past the point where “prostate” is among the unmentionables.
Readers, what do you think? No, I won’t ask for a death certificate or disturb the family—worthy of compassion no matter how they feel about the reporting of the cause. I am just curious why we’re left without an almost certainly innocent fact that I suspect Mr. Schorr himself would have very much wanted revealed. He was a witness to and student of history, after all, not just a reporter. Did the Post gently try such an argument on the Schorr family?
It can be strange, what goes into an obituary and what doesn’t—an issue that arises in The Solomon Scandals—or even whether there is an obituary, period. My late father wanted one in the Post or at least didn’t object. My privacy-obsessed mother—in this respect the inspiration for the like-minded Margo character in Scandals—asked us not to submit an obit to the Post. She declined despite her community activities and her brief career with a business newsletter; so I remembered her on the Web instead, with the approval of my sister.
Pondering these matters, I also think of my friend the late Herman Holtz, a former newspaper reporter from Philadelphia who ended up in the D.C. area and wrote more than 70 books on business. I tipped off the Post, where the obit desk couldn’t have been nicer. Then, in a curious twist, I learned that Herm’s obit would not make the paper after all because his family didn’t want it in. Why? A newspaperman pens dozens of books, including at least one best-seller, and then just vanishes into the mist? I won’t even bother to speculate here; the ways of both families and newspapers can be mysterious.
That said, I’ll email the Post to see if it can enlighten us about its precise policies on “cause” (any factor in whether an obit makes it, at least in the case of nonVIPs?) and about the handling of its otherwise excellent Schorr obit. (Schorr photo credit.)
Update: Adam Bernstein, obituaries editor at the Post, sent a prompt and helpful reply, which I’ll reproduce ahead in its entirety. The gist is that the Post prefers to include the cause of death but does not require it, even in nonVIP obits. One reason appears to be time. The Post publishes 4,000 local obits each year, according to him—more than another other daily paper. That, as I see it, is a major positive, even outweighing the completeness factor. Still, I myself would have appreciated the full story in the case of someone as prominent as Daniel Schorr.
How the iPad-related stimulus plan could help the news business—plus a brief update on the plan
My thoughts on hyperlocal news—prompted by the forthcoming launch of TBD, the Web and TV combo for the D.C. area—have drawn visits from some powerful news organizations.
While they’re at it, perhaps they can check out A national information stimulus plan: How iPad-style tablets could help educate millions and trim bureaucracy—not just be techno toys for the D.C. élite, which appeared in James Fallows’ Atlantic blog. For a quick overview within my own blog, read An iPad Stimulus Plan: it’s about books, jobs, lower healthcare costs and fewer paperwork hassles.
So how could the plan help the besieged news business? iPad-style tablets make it simpler to read e-newspapers and other news sites in an immersive way, as opposed to just hopping around from link to link. It’s more tempting to laze back on the couch or your favorite armchair rather than having to tether yourself to your desktop computer, and the technology is less scary for nongeeks than is the usual kind associated with laptops and desktops. I’ve suggested tax breaks and other inducements to speed the popularization of iPads and similar machines while giving many vendors a chance to compete, not merely Apple. Far from benefitting just the news business, the stimulus plan would help in other areas ranging from mental stimulation of the elderly to job-training, education and libraries. The YouTube video shows a 99-year-old woman befriending her new iPad.
For reactions to the plan, read:
–The Voice of the Doctor blog, where Dr. Nick van Terheyden (photo), a leading healthcare technology expert now working for Nuance, discusses the possibilities the stimulus plan raises.
–A post and related Tweet (also pointing to an article on new healthcare regulations) from medical librarian Eric Rumsey at the University of Iowa.
–Comments from Steve Rubel, a prominent public relations man in the tech community. He regards the plan as “compelling in that Rothman sees the iPad as a way to help media and education in one fell swoop. It would be great to see tablets become a pivotal way we retrain the workforce.”
Meanwhile I’ve read with interest A new America through broadband, by Blair Levin and J. Erik Garr, in the Washington Post Outlook section. “Why are we still using ink-on-paper textbooks, when digital technology offers a much better way?” they ask—a sensible question. I myself have been saying the same since the early 1990s, and many of their thoughts jibe with my 1996 TeleRead op-ed in the Post. One difference is that I’m not certain we could automate grading to the extent that Levin and Garr suggest. Still, it’s good to see my e-book craziness from eons ago actually reach the cusp of mainstream thought.
On June 29, I sent an email about the iPad-related plan to an aide to Vivek Kundra, President Obama’s chief information offcer, but so far I have not received a reply. I’ll shop the plan around elsewhere—to Republicans and Democrats alike—if the White House isn’t more responsive. Actually I may do so either way. I’ve always been nonpartisan about the plan, and, in fact, the late William F. Buckley, Jr., was a big supporter of the earlier TeleRead proposal despite our being political opposites: “Andrew Carnegie, if he were alive, would probably buy TeleRead from Mr. Rothman for $1, develop the whole idea at his own expense, and then make a gift of it to the American people.”
Advocacy of the iPad-related plan would help President Obama—for whom I voted—make up to the tech community for his disparaging remarks about the effects of the iPad and other gizmos on young people. The biggest problem isn’t iPad-style technology per se—it’s society’s failure to use it better. To the White House’s credit, many top staffers are now toting Pads. Time to make it easier for the masses to benefit as well, especially if an e-savvy government can lead the way?
Smile! You’re on TBD TV—at least if you’re an affiliated blogger with Skype and the news gods beckon
A little birdie with tiny rabbit ears growing out of its head—-an older cousin of the Twitter mascot—tells me that the new TBD blog network is encouraging members to get Skype video going.
Then the bloggers can appear on TBD cable TV, not just online, at the request of the news gods.
No, the Skype won’t be mandatory, but since video cams sell for less than $50 and many laptops come with ‘em, I suspect that a number of TBD network bloggers will oblige. TBD may also bring bloggers into the studio.
So much for the stereotype of bloggers just typing away in their underwear. Of course a blogger could put on just a nice shirt at home and trust the camera angle, opening up all kinds of comic possibilities if the vidcam slips and points too far South during a live broadcast.
In a related move, “TBD” will be the new name for “News Channel 8” as the new operation melds with the existing cable one. That makes sense, especially if you consider the rise of net.TV and all the related linking and on-demand possibilities. I’ll also be curious to see if the Skype initiative encourages local bloggers to be more video-oriented on their own sites.
Still unclear is another matter—the extent to which TBD’s bloggers will be genuinely neighborhood– and community-oriented, as opposed to just sports– or hobby-oriented. TBD remains a work in progress, with both bloggers and staff people involved; and I’ll hope that it can succeed at this, just as I am rooting for the Post to come up with a good formula for hyperlocal coverage.
I wonder, by the way, what the Post will do with video. Aim for a D.C.-area cable channel? Or forge an alliance with, say, an existing cable broadcaster? If TBD can get the neighborhood angles right, the cable broadcasts could seem awesomely omniscient.
Meanwhile stay tuned in the next few days for a post directed at both the Post and TBD—with ideas to help them grow closer to their readers. And if the Examiner wants to borrow a few concepts, fine.
Details: I’ve invited TBD’s Steve Buttry—not the rabbit-eared one—to add details. Via a quick Tweet, he confirms the above and says staffers will also have video equipment. TBD hopes to launch later this summer. Skype screenshot is from the Internet phone company’s site but doesn’t necessarily show the latest interface.