thenewnewmedia.com

Ray Hartley, Editor of The Times, has finally penned some logical thoughts about the “newspapers are dying” mania that resurfaces every few months/weeks/days.

The concise summaries of the arguments everyone has an opinion about:
“They’ll be gone in five years.”
“They’ll exist forever.”

It cannot be this simplictic. Nor will it ever be.

All of the evidence so far comes from very established newspaper groups in the US and (western) Europe. Most of these companies run dozens of newspapers across multiple states and countries, with massively inflated staff numbers, vice presidents of all sorts of things, and very badly managed editorial processes (bureaux all over the place). Layoffs, pension fund mismanagement and employee buyouts have meant a massive financial overhang for these companies.

Of course the financial, auto industry and real estate slump in the US and UK isn’t helping at all.

Hartley offers three thoughts on how newspapers can survive/flourish:

• The first is that they must speak to the growing visual intelligence of their readers by giving pictures the same status as words in presentation. This is not an easy battle to win in an industry where words have always dominated. Words that do not attract and retain the attention of readers through presentation will be ignored.
• The second rule is that newspapers must offer interactivity. They must do so within their pages, but this will always be limited by space. The internet has no such limitation. A close relationship with a news website opens the way for much greater participation by a newspaper’s readers.
• The third is that newspapers must chart a course through the sea of information. If they add to the clutter, they will have no place in a world where attention is in short supply.

Couldn’t have said it much better…

And they shouldn’t even try…

The Herald (not a bad paper, not a great one), is… wait for it… now part of the online world. Yes they’ve got a website and had one for a while. But now they’re actually writing about Facebook and (gasp) YouTube.

I noticed this story today… I couldn’t have come up with a cheesier headline, even if I had two weeks to try… “Miss PE finalists queens of dotcom world”. CHEESE.

But the actual story is hilarious… and I quote…

THE Herald Greenacres Miss Port Elizabeth 2008 finalists are not confined by geographical boundaries as they are proving to be a big hit in the “dotcom” world.

When their slideshows were posted on The Herald‘s website, www.theherald.co.za, they attracted a lot of attention from web users, receiving 1573 “visitors” in just two days.

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So there I had it. Perched on the corner of my bed at 5:30 this morning… Yesterday’s ‘first’ (or rather first test) edition of The Times. Some might say that flipping through a (new) paper and forming an opinion of it during the morning getting-ready-for-work routine may not be the best way to go about it. But hey, that’s how we consume media now… isn’t it? I’m sure Ray wrote about attention spans as well… Just battled to find it.

I like the front page.

Strong identity.

I’m hoping the Page 2 content about online and multimedia doesn’t feel as static when the team start producing.

Can we stop with all the Bullard?

Pictures. Pictures. Pictures. The Times has brilliant ones. And they’re used well. Mostly. Not too sure about the big ones at the bottom of pages.

The Star and The Citizen need better pics.

What’s with The Times‘ (and Sunday Times‘) obsession with Facebook?

An op-ed piece about Facebook???

Are four pages of business sustainable?

Nice to see integration of CareerJunction in job supplement. Very good move. People are thinking.

Dr Carr on the motoring page?!

Readers are going to want a condensed TV guide. Surely.

Why the L-shaped ads everywhere? Yellow pages a la This Day soon?

The news hole on pages with L-shaped ads looks like its exactly that. An afterthought.

BBK rocks.

Relatively bland sport section. Good photos though.

Where’s all the promised integration with online? Rip page two out and suddenly you’re left with a newspaper. Nothing more. Nothing less.

A different newspaper. But somehow not that different.

The New York Times Sunday Magazine offers this interesting, but incredibly long-winded, feature on blogging and the indie rocker lifestyle. An interesting story, especially the parts which focus on Jonathan Coulton. Go on. Read it. Now.

Also, you couldn’t hope for a better headline.

“An opinion more deadly than a thousand bullets. Beware the blogger looms. To spew crap and made-up facts.”

Stirring the pot. See it on Loud.

Wow. 40 whole mentions on Amatomu-linked blogs yesterday. http://www.amatomu.com/search/david bullard

Or a massive 180 if you use Technorati. 180 mentions. Probably about half as many unique blogs. At a stretch. “Bloggers unite”, woohoo, self-congratulatory pats-on-the-back all round.

David Bullard knew what would happen. And he’s pretty much said as much in the video clips the Sunday Times team have put together.

Unless you believe the conspiracy theories. Right… and Brett Kebble’s alive on some Caribbean island…

Ray Hartley hits it on the head once again with this well-thought out, clever post. The local blogosphere has erupted into some sort of sycophantic, self-defensive murmur after David Bullard wrote what he did on Sunday. It was to be expected, though.

What most bloggers, spitting their hatred combined with some sort of self-proclaimed God-given rights to condemn any opinion they don’t agree with, forget is that this is what Bullard does. And he does it well. Every week, he manages to insult and take task with some or other sector of society. Metro Cops. Jacob Zuma. Poor people. More often than not though, we’re not on the receiving end. And even if we are, we tend to pat ourselves on the back and find comfort in the fact that “you know, we’re not really poor/white/supporters of Jacob Zuma…”

I’d bet that Bullard is a far craftier writer (blogger?) than everyone gives him credit for. What if those self-styled valiant protectors of the bloggers were in the position of power that Bullard is in? Would they not use it to provoke and poke fun at certain sectors of society?

The fact is we all read Bullard. And we’ll continue to do so. And here’s the clincher: he knows that.

Bullardgate? Vincent, give me a break.

Take it with a pinch of salt, move on and next Sunday you’ll find yourself chuckling at Bullard’s description of Helen Zille. Or French cars. Or whatever.

Plus the Sunday Times website suddenly gets a crapload of linklove… ever think of that?

UPDATE: Here’s a funny look at this whole contrived war. Our thoughts on David Bullard, blogs, bloggers and opinions

This is what the New York Times home page looked like yesterday morning (SA time).

• Two interactive flash graphics
• A gallery
• Three videos
• Audio (built-in player)
• Nearly a dozen articles (including backgrounders)

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Wits Journ Professor Anton Harber has more details (and dummy pages) from soon-to-be-launched newspaper, The Times.

I agree with his point about the Berlin-type format:

Pity they have not been able to go for the new compact size (somewhere between tabloid and broadsheet, like The Weekender).

Their choice of the two columnists who appear in the dummy (Justice Malala and David Shapiro), is impressive. Ray Hartley (el editoristo) has confirmed they are part of the line-up. I know David, and it’ll be interesting to read what he writes about.

There’s some comment around advertising, the business model behind the new paper, as well as more thoughts around the production process:

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Ok. You’re a biggish news-type site in a developing country like South Africa. Video is everywhere on US news sites, and the future does seem to be headed that way. You need video. Don’t you?

The problem with video and multimedia, especially in this country, is its cost. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking around this lately, and the main questions I can’t answer are:
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