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Topic: Memos Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 6/17/2008 2:16:11 PM
Title: Abrams' 15 ways to grow newspapers
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
5.b LIBERATE THE PHOTOGRAPHERS...Or at least do everything in your power to maximize this STRENGTH,

6. THROWAWAYS: 90% of the Section indexes are throwaways ...afterthoughts. Take a look. It's sort of like "Oh...incidentally, here's what's inside". These are DRIVERS. In 1958 maybe people had time to discover what's inside....today they don't. Or how about "For More...go to www.thenewspaper.com" More what??? Another throwaway. In one re-design I saw an article followed by three web comments with a pointer to the website. That was great. Gave you a TASTE. A generic "For More..." is a waste of ink. Go through EVERY page and you'll see generic throwaways that assume.

7. CONSISTENCY: At most papers, the folks show me their greatest hits. Great pages they've done. Then--I'll look at the date and it was 2004. Yes, it was an amazing piece that LOOKED right...had great graphics, compelling writing and cool support (graphs etc...). But it was 4 years old. We need to do that every page...every day. Why?

a) That's the ONLY way it'll get noticed.

b) You HAVE TO...to survive...and grow. Difficult? Yes...I know. But a
reality of competing in 2008.

EVERY PAGE...EVERY DAY needs to be amazing.

8. LIVING IN THE NEWSPAPER WORLD: Being satisfied with a good traditional looking newspaper isn't going to do it. Gotta break free. Gotta accept what's going on out there and adapt (and flourish) or tweak (and die a slow death). Don't look to other papers. (except foreign ones) YOU are in the position to re-invent. If you look at other papers...you'll continue to live in the past.

9. GETTING NOTICED: An ongoing theme. Papers DO things that'll get
noticed, but package it so it's a mystery. I already said this, but it warrants a repeat. The look...the intelligence...the 2x4...day in and day out. Tweaking will kill you. Aggressively and NOTICABLY changing the look and feel can and most likely WILL grow you.

10. MANANA: Urgency! It's a media war out there that is NOT being won...but CAN. Recipe for failure: Focus Group...evaluate the focus
group...have a committee meeting to evaluate...more focus groups.

This isn't rocket science. It's HARD logistically...but GROWING isn't
rocket science. The biggest problem is lack of urgency. Dramatic
problems require dramatic solutions.

11. HITS: That's the focus. Use the 2x4. Gas Crisis. I don't think a box
on the front page EVERY DAY with a Gas update is out of the question. I
still see stories that, well, are kind of obscure. (aka boring)...OR
worse...great stories that are SO under-packaged, they just don't get
noticed.

12. LUDDITE PENALIZATION: Don't hide cool stuff on the web. Reverse
publish to the paper when it makes sense. Can't quite figure out why we
ASSUME people will find cool stuff on the web. They may. But the
newspaper should SHARE in the often amazing web content--particularly
the graphy stuff that is pure eye stimulation and can go miles in
supporting a story.

13. FREE PUBLICATIONS: I can't help noticing that there's some very cool things being designed into Free Publications. Existing and Prototype.
Why can't some of that be in the core paper? It's almost as if the core
paper is sacred and REAL innovations have to be saved for the free
paper. Huh?

14. MAKE IT EASY: Newspapers have a habit of making things SO hard to read absorb and engage in. We're in the age of Media ease. Make it hard, and they'll go away faster than a CD buyer. You'll have to break away from instincts at times...you'll have to think like a 2008
consumer-easier said than done...

15. MAPS: We are in the GPS age. The eye candy age (and I'm not talking about Page 3)...I mean MAKE INTELLIGENT CONTENT EASY TO ENGAGE IN. There's no law that says intelligent content must be difficult.

....More to come. I realize all of this isn't easy. It's a tough,
challenging and logistically complex business...but these are, in my
opinion, a start. I'm thinking that we can, through smart and dramtic
evolutions, drive the core papers to new heights, which in turn will
drive the ENTIRE BRAND and everyone wins. I think this is all
attainable.

Oh---check WGN-AMERICA. They have blown it up and rating impact has been immediate!

Thanks.

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