Inventing the Future in Iowa

The news about the newspaper business is bad. Circulation is sliding. Revenue is plummeting. Papers are closing. Layoffs abound.

Amid the chaos, far too many in the industry are paralyzed by fear. Their idea of innovation is a token, tentative project here or there. Or a foolhardy call to charge for content nobody will pay for. Mostly, they're cutting to—and past—the bone, chasing harebrained schemes, and generally praying that some miracle will happen, that the hundred-year-floodwaters will recede, the skies will brighten, and somehow the newspaper industry will be saved. 

It's not going to happen. They're simply rearranging the deck chairs on the newsprint Titanic. 

But not in Cedar Rapids. There, the Gazette (along with its associated TV station, KCRG) is trying something different. Radically different. Probably five years too late, but in an industry where not much of anything innovative is being tried, the Gazette's plan feels like a much-needed revolution.

The Gazette's leaders are talking about radical change for the newspaper and what it can be, in all forms—complete reinvention. I've mentioned this Iowa experiment before, but Steve Buttry, the former editor who is now the paper's "information content conductor" and leader of the transformation (along with publisher Chuck Peters), has now posted a detailed, multipart blueprint of what they're up to. It's heady stuff: a real manifesto for change.

You should dig in and read the whole thing (it's going to take some time). But I'll try to give you a Cliffs Notes version. Let's start with what amounts to the mission statement:

For consumers, we will be their essential connection to community life—news, information, commerce, social life. Like many Internet users turn first to Google, whatever their need, we want Eastern Iowans to turn first to Gazette Communications, whatever their need. For businesses, we will be their essential connection to customers, often making the sale and collecting the money. We will  become the Complete Community Connection.

Our company will provide an interactive, well-organized, easily searched, ever-growing, always updated wealth of community news,  information and opportunities on multiple platforms. We need to become the connection to everything people and businesses need to know and do to live and do business in Eastern Iowa. We need to change from producing new material for one-day consumption in the print product or half-hour consumption in the broadcast product to producing new content for this growing community network of information and opportunities.

Yes, that sounds at first blush like boilerplate from every newspaper's plan for change. And "Complete Community Connection" (aka C3) doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. But it's just the starting point for Buttry's vision:

We will reach some people who never read The Gazette and watch KCRG by doing important jobs such as connecting them with people of common interests or helping them find the products and services that help them live their lives. We will serve other people in multiple ways, producing and delivering their morning paper and their evening newscast, providing text news alerts during the day and networking them in the community in a variety of ways.

That still sounds a bit too print-centric, but wait:

We need to look at mobile opportunities and email opportunities as well as print and web. And we should watch for new opportunities as new technology presents new ways to connect. We should explore every possibility for providing people the news and information they want when they want it, whether that means email, text message, RSS feed, Twitter feed, social media, iPod, game device, GPS device or some other way of interaction. And, of course, print and broadcast will remain key platforms for some of this content for the foreseeable future.

...

C3 will be “my” web site, “my” email alert, “my” podcast, “my” text buddy, “my” shopping solution, “my” connection to customers, “my” solution for lots of life’s little and big jobs for individuals and businesses alike. (And yes, still, “my” newspaper.)

The entirety of Buttry's vision is a big departure from the usual newspaper model. It takes as a given that the audience—and its needs—are important. It posits that readers and viewers must be truly equal partners in the conversation about what's going on around town, rather than just being passive audiences. Above all, it proposes that the paper and TV station reclaim their roles as backbones of local life—and commerce. That's a position many papers imagine they have, but haven't really held for years. You can only get there by doing things very, very differently than papers are doing things now. That's where the Gazette proposes to go.

Most importantly, Buttry isn't just talking about editorial product change. Yes, he talks about bold plans for social networks, databases, local information, calendars and "enriched" community news coverage. He also has some very interesting and innovative things to say about providing coverage, information, guidance and services to every possible phase of a reader's life, from birth to school to marriage (and divorce) to retirement to death.

But he goes much further. He wants everybody at the paper—even journalists—to be thinking about new ways to make money:

Revenue generation traditionally isn’t a journalist’s job, but helping develop a business model for the future of journalism is every journalist’s job today. The job cuts throughout our industry (including here) have done too much damage to journalism to cling to our long-nurtured disdain for the economic facts of life. Journalists can protect our integrity and still collaborate in developing a new business model.

Content and revenue must be planned together, so any innovation plan must address both needs. While I know big parts of the solutions here will and should come from colleagues in other departments, revenue generation must be part of the vision and I discuss it extensively throughout this blueprint.

Seen a lot of newspapers that truly think that way? I doubt it. But it's critical. And some of the ideas that spring from this shared journalism-business vision are very good (and very simple). For instance, he doesn't want the paper just to be a venue for people to buy and sell things like cars and homes (very occasional businesses for most readers, when you think of it); he wants the paper to provide a whole raft of useful (and monetizable) tools and services to drivers and homeowners, to be a critical part of their lives when at home or in the car. 

But the Cedar Rapids vision for new revenue streams goes beyond that, and even farther beyond the usual display, search, video and classified ads:

I will cite specific examples as I explain details of this blueprint, but those examples are only a start of the model I envision for C3 to move toward results-based performance of jobs for businesses, including conducting transactions for business customers. We need to connect the business with the customer and collect the money, taking a reasonable cut for ourselves.

That's good stuff, and long overdue. I'm going to take the liberty of breaking the next excerpt into bullets—you're welcome, Steve!—for better digestion:

• Gift registries for weddings, anniversaries, graduations, babies, retirements and holidays are important opportunities. 
• Obituaries offer chances to send flowers and contribute to memorial funds. 
• Our products and content relating to the arts and entertainment must include opportunities to buy tickets to movies, concerts and other events online or to buy books or download songs. 
• Sports sites will offer chances to buy tickets, clothing, memorabilia, etc. 
• The calendar will offer registration for events and classes, ticket sales and so on. 
• Dining content will include opportunities to make reservations or buy gift certificates. 
• For Hawkeye sporting events, community festivals and University of Iowa events such as graduation and orientation, we will offer chances to make reservations online for lodging, meals and entertainment. 
• Our iGuide business directory needs to include options for coupons, gift certificates, direct purchases, making reservations, placing orders, requesting information. 
• When we use traditional ads priced by how many thousand people see them, we should seek to include options to click to download a coupon, buy a gift certificate or order a product, delivering more value for the business and a bigger pay-for-performance cut for us.

Some newspapers have dabbled in this sort of transactional business, here and there, as a possible alternative to classic display advertising revenue streams. But what Buttry is suggesting, correctly, is that the newspaper should strive to be an active, aggressive participant in any sort of business transaction that it touches or causes to happen. Or, as he writes, "We need to connect the business with the customer and collect the money, taking a reasonable cut for ourselves." 

Editorial purists will shudder—it seems so...dirty. But it's not, if the right protections are in place, and these are obvious revenue—and hell, reader-service—opportunities that papers have been foolishly ignoring for years, or paying little more than lip service. The Gazette is actually trying to do all these things. How radical.

With online advertising rates low and print advertising revenue declining precipitously and local broadcast revenue also in decline, newspapers need to broaden our vision of serving business customers and move swiftly into direct sales and other business services such as lead-generation and email marketing. This may be a phased process, where we start with lead generation, coupons, inquiries and links to business web sites as we work out the technology challenges of interfacing with the inventory and ordering software of other companies or find a vendor who has already figured that out. Of course, as we work those challenges out, we will have tremendous economic opportunities in selling our solutions throughout the industry.

Note that last line. Buttry understands the big differences between what he's proposing and what the rest of the industry is doing—and how his plan, if successful, can be propagated throughout the industry for fun and profit. Indeed, what makes the Gazette's vision so much different from those of other, far more timid newspaper companies is beautifully elucidated by Buttry:

As you read this blueprint, don’t assume anything based on how media companies have traditionally operated or how we currently operate. That economic model is collapsing and this is a blueprint for a new way of doing business — new relationships with the community, new relationships with business customers, new relationships with business partners and competitors, new tools and technology for doing business, new structure and organization for doing business.

...

Don’t assume anything based on the past. We are proud of our past and cherish our heritage, but we want to honor that heritage by pursuing a future that isn’t limited by assumptions from the past.

And Buttry fires another well-aimed shot across the bow of the rest of the newspaper business:

Our industry seems to be clinging to Darwin’s theory of evolution, hoping that gradual adaptation to changing environment will be enough to help us survive. That works in biology, but in today’s disruptive business world, survival of the fittest is a matter of revolution, not evolution.

This series of blog posts is my call for revolution in media companies, starting at Gazette Communications.

Everyone in the newspaper industry should heed this call for revolution and respond to it with real action of their own. Complacency is death. The Cedar Rapids Gazette is trying to find a different path to a different future, and offering to share what it's doing with its peers. That's leadership in an industry that's absolutely starved for some. Bravo.

Comments

[Paul Baron]

Kudos to Iowa .. but reinvention and leveraging is, as you state, neither new nor rocket science these days. But it does take initiative. At Hometowntimes.com, our initiative is to not only provide and deliver the platform for hyper-local news, events, advertising, and community information .. but more significantly, make an impact on the professional career paths of the tens of thousands of quality journalists, writers, reporters, ad salespersonse being displaced by the print establishment.

What’s next for newspapers and journalists?

At the heart of the Hometowntimes.com mission is our desire to support the professional path of our city/community publishers, and to also better understand what journalists, reporters, advertising salespersons are thinking when their thoughts drift to "what's next for me?" Here at www.hometowntimes.com, we want to hear from people in or out of the news field, or soon to be out of school, or who want to be out of the established print/news outlets and are searching for a way to connect with those in their local communities - the people, the businesses, the events - the issues of local importance that appear to be less and less covered by the incumbent media outlets. And leverage available social and online technologies for the benefit of their communities. If we can help anyone in the industry, journalism school, or graduating class, or you just want to share your thoughts, I welcome your input.

At Hometowntimes.com, we chose the franchise business model as a path to financial success and to offer a home-based opportunity to support the growth of America’s smaller communities, cities, and counties. Those underserved by the available news and advertising sources. We leverage social networking and traditional and online solutions to present the greatest value to residents and advertisers. A hometowntimes.com franchisee is a stakeholder in the community, directly supports the growth of their local small business universe, and connects information, events, and topics of relevance in these neighborhoods, as it acts as the social network hub for communications within America's small towns, mid-sized cities, and suburban counties underserved by the print media.

About HomeTownTimes.com
HomeTownTimes.com is a national online news and community publications franchisor, currently operating more than 500 internet-based news sites across the United States. The mission of the Georgia-headquartered business is to bring local communities together via a convenient portal that provides free access to local news, information exchange, community forums and advertising. Each individual HomeTownTimes.com online news publication is a community hub for home town events, Internet forums, classified ads, business directories, photo galleries, sports, health news, coupons and feature stories about local events, people and businesses. Independent small businesses, large franchisors, and companies with a national footprint will all find their hyper-local targeted audience for their products or services through HomeTownTimes.com ad placements, videos, original content articles of interest, and news of local events associated with their business. Franchise opportunities are available in every state and county throughout the USA. For more information, visit www.hometowntimes.com or e-mail info@hometowntimes.com.

[Neill Watson]

Heavy going, Mark, but worth the read.

What are your thoughts on the same fate affecting monthly lifestyle mags such as car titles, my main market??

[Mark Potts]

Neill: Thanks for the note. Magazines in general are having a lot of the same troubles as newspapers, in terms of declining ad revenue. The closing this week of Portfolio is just the latest example of titles and staff being trimmed in that industry--which also has been much less savvy, for the most part, about using the Web.

I'm a car magazine fan, but I think it's going to be especially heavy going in that category, particularly in the U.S., given the problems the automakers are having. The reductions in ad pages in the car magazines are already striking, and this week the publisher of Motor Trend and Automobile filed for bankruptcy protection. I suspect we'll see some titles fold or be consolidated before long. I know you're in Britain, where things may be a bit different, but there's a similar glut of car mags there. I'd watch for an industry shakeout.

[Paul Vetter]

Mark,
Thanks for this insightful and in-depth post. What do you think about the AP's recent spat with Google? I wrote a post about it recently (www.fahlgrenmortine.com)and am interested in what others are thinking. Interesting to note the recent LA Times report that young people are flocking to J-schools -- there must be a viable business model out there somewhere.

[John Thornton]

Uhhhhh....this isn't going to work.

Here's why.

Do a google search for "cedar rapids nail salon."

Go to the gazette web site and see if you can learn anything about a nail salon. You can't.

For small ticket stuff, paid search wins (and lead gen doesn't work because there's no practical way to get into the transaction stream). For big ticket transactions, lead gen works, but more specialized sites (auto, real estate jobs) will win, because there's more liquidity there. And there are already entire industries built up around lead gen verticals. NEWS AND JOURNALISM DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH A TRANSACTIONAL MODEL. They just don't

Local dailies are too late even if they could execute, and if they could execute they wouldn't be in this spot to begin with.

To accomplish everything this guy talks about, why wouldn't I just:

-buy cedarrapids.com
-do a rev sharing deal with mojopages (yes, an AV company) that instantly gives me thousands of listings and high goog page rank
-do similar deals with sites in auto, jobs, and real estate
-count my money and leave all those pesky reporters to find new careers?

NEWS AND JOURNALISM DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH A TRANSACTIONAL MODEL. They just don't.

[kb]

I don't know if I think providing everything to everyone is going to be the way to go for most. It's far too difficult and expensive to do everything well. And if you don't do it well, there's a heavy price to pay.

I think people may go to places like news aggregate sites, but ultimately they go to a site that serves a niche audience when they want something more in depth. When I want cycling news I go to a site like velonews.com, and when I want design news I go somewhere like designobserver.com.

Trying to be everything to everyone is only going to work for a very few select sites.

Interesting, but most likely to short sighted is this: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/01/future.online.news.hyperlocal/index.html?iref=t2test_techtues&eref=rss_topstories

[Account Deleted]

This is indeed impressive and exciting, but it really makes me nervous to see a company aspiring to do everything well.

My reason for not betting on their success is as simple as that, unfortunately.

[profit lance]

Unfortunately, I don't think that re-inventing newspaper will do much.

With the growth of internet, people find what they need straight from their home and most of times they don't need even to pay.

To succeed, newspaper must do something that online information can't do... and this will not be as easy as one might think.

[Christine Young]

Kudos to Chuck Peters and the Gazette. Finally, in a world of whining weenies, a journalism executive with guts and imagination.