(Michael P. Smith)
In Santiago for our third annual presentation on change and progress in newspapers for the Associacion Nacional de la Prensa (ANP), we caught up with Agustin J. Edwards, director responsable de Las Ultimas Noticias.
Edwards is doing what MMC recommends -- using the Web site
www.lun.com as a laboratory.
We first
wrote about Las Ultimas Noticias in 2004 when we were compiling the book
50 Great Ideas. At the time, Edwards was using the Web site as a guide to see what kinds of stories drew the most interest and then used that interest to guide story selection and play in the print edition. That method was very helpful. Circulation climbed from zero to 149,451. Edwards calls this the "click system" of customer intelligence.
What? They are letting readers tell them what to put into the newspaper? Well, not exactly. LUN journalist Jorge Santis explains: "The data serves as a reference to test the content we are publishing and to see if we're going the right way..."
Not satisfied with that, Edwards has decided on another gamble. He has decided to put the entire 32-page newspaper -- ads and all -- online. This not only allows him to see which stories get accessed but also which pages and which ads. This experiment has not been without a problem. Circulation has slipped to 144,575. Some readers prefer to see the entire newspaper online and therefore bypass the print edition. Edwards calls this the introduction of the free online daily. It suggests that in the future the print edition may not exist.
Even while print circulation is down, advertising is up this year. Advertisers appear to be fascinated about the intelligence a free online paper can provide -- real-time data on when their ad is read. When Edwards told the LUN story at the World Association of Newspapers this year in Moscow, there was skepticism about the business model. Edwards himself is not convinced there is one. Online usage in the United States builds slowly in the morning and peaks around lunch time. LUN peaks at 9 a.m. and declines from there. So, in effect, LUN is a morning newspaper online.
The guiding idea behind Las Ultimas Noticias is rooted in the Readership Institute's
reader experiences study. The experience that LUN wants to own in Chile is "the newspaper gives me something to talk about with my family and friends." Edwards wants LUN to be the launching pad for a daily national conversation -- not what readers should be talking about, but what they are talking about. If it is sports or something that was on TV, it could be the cover story.
In the modern concentric-circles of desks that make up the LUN newsroom, that conversation begins by looking at the top 5 downloaded stories and thinking about how to advance the story in print and online. A sample single image cover with headlines is electronically posted and staffers add comments. The paper is published and the readers react. Then the process starts over again.
It's an interesting experiment. One we will continue to watch.
