Not that it should come as any surprise, but
Rob Curley is at it again -- and I hope newspapers are paying attention. Curley, whose career reflects his love of local news and leading the evolution of traditional media, has come up with the perfect innovation as Director of New Media and Convergence for the Naples, Fla.,
Daily News.
Curley tells me that on Apr. 3, the Daily News (in collaboration with Comcast) will debut a 15-minute Internet and TV news program, "Studio 55." For more about this "vodcast," see this
March 5 story by
Tim Richardson.
Readers of the 69,000-daily circulation E.W. Scripps newspaper, like in most small communities, get their TV news from stations that cover larger communities -- in this case, Fort Myers. Now Daily News readers will get the top VERY local news, sports, entertainment, traffic and weather headlines on a variety of platforms including TV, Web, podcast, PSP and mobile phone.
The program will air live at 4 p.m. and again with updates at 6 p.m., with rebroadcasts at 4:15 and 6:15 p.m. The Daily News already offers news and sports podcasts. But, as Curley explains, "Naples needs its own
newscast. If you were going to grow a newscast from scratch, you might not do it the way it's been done for decades because you can take into account that the technology has changed and will continue to evolve."
This will not be a traditional local newscast. Richardson writes, "The production value, according to Curley, will be on par with programming from national networks. The newspaper has hired a team of graphic artists, producers and journalists, including multimedia journalist Denise Spidle, who will anchor the program." Also, programs will be available on demand and will be archived.
The great strength of newspapers is their local news-gathering resources. Yet newspapers continue to lose audience to other media and platforms that are timelier and portable. It doesn't have to be that way once the newspaper focuses on the news rather than the paper. Nobody covers Collier and south Lee counties better than its local newspaper -- and now, local coverage will be available to readers when they want it, where they want it and how they want it.
"The show will introduce a new type of newscast on the Internet and a unique partnership with Comcast. We are also very excited because 'Studio 55' will provide more news and content about Collier County through video than any other source in our region," says John Fish, the Daily News' publisher.
The subject may be Naples, but everyone should be watching.
