By Michael P. Smith
Managing Director, Media Management Center

Once-feared, the Internet is becoming the newspaper's best friend
The word disintermediation once frightened editors who were told that the World Wide Web would erode readership and render ink-on-paper useless to a young generation.

Their fear may have been valid and it may come true some day, but increasingly newspapers are turning to the Internet as a tool for reporting, communications and story-telling. Around the world, the Web is helping newspapers innovate in interesting and exciting ways that include input from readers.

One of the early movers in this trend was the Chicago Tribune and its creation of a young commuter newspaper called RedEye. In 1996, the Tribune launched an entertainment portal called www.metromix.com. Over the years the site became a very powerful brand. In user analysis, the Tribune discovered that the Web site was attracting 600,000 unique users a month who were not Tribune newspaper readers. They began to research how they could attract that large audience to a print product. In the research and development phase, early prototypes were actually called MetroMix News. When RedEye was eventually launched – and still today two years later – the entertainment pages are branded as MetroMix pages. In some regards, RedEye was one of the first newspapers born of the Internet. Today others are following that lead.

A powerful medium created by citizens
On February 22, 2000, Oh Yeon Ho, former reporter turned media baron, launched www.OhMyNews.com. The theory behind the Web site was citizens creating journalism – or every citizen is a reporter. Oh's idea was to change journalism from a few-to-many distribution model to a many-to-many model. He told Jack Schofield of the Guardian in London: “In the 21 st Century, anyone can be a reporter any time they want. Everyone can write news stories and share them with others.”

Today, OhMyNews is a powerful media company. It has as many as 14 million readers and 35,000 citizen reporters. Of that number 17,000 have posted at least once and others have added comments or critiques to articles. The way it works is that the citizen reporter – sometimes called a netizen or a news guerrilla – agrees to abide by a code of behavior called “The Citizen Reporter's Agreement”. Then they receive access to the Web site. Once an article is posted, it is fair game for comments, criticism or advice. One article had 85,000 comments. Articles are rated by the number of views or downloads, and citizen reporters are paid based upon the popularity of the article. It isn't much. A top story may make only the equivalent of US$20.

Last month OhMyNews started a tipping service, according to the Financial Times. This meant that its readers could reward writers for good service, just like a waiter or hairdresser. The result? In just two days Kim Young-ok, a philosophy lecturer, earned Won22.6m -- about US$22,000 and roughly the average annual wage in South Korea.

On any given day, about 80 percent of the OhMyNews stories are written by citizen reporters. The remaining 20 percent are written by 35 staff journalists who were recruited from the ranks of the citizens and given special training. In terms of content, about 70 percent of a days reports are about everyday life; the remainder are about social issues, politics, and economic issues. The large number of eyeballs also is translated into an advertising bonanza, which accounts for about 70 percent of the OhMyNews revenue. That translates into about US$2.2 million of revenue a month.

San Jose Mercury News tech columnist Dan Gillmor wrote: “OhMyNews is transforming the 20th Century's journalism-as-lecture model – where organizations tell the audience what the news is and the audience either buys it or doesn't – into something vastly more bottom-up, interactive and democratic.” Since that report, observers have described OhMyNews as journalism-as-conversation. This approach does not auger well with traditional journalists, but Oh does not apologize that his approach does not follow the rules of objectivity (see sidebar). The production process is transparent. It is similar to the model used by most newspapers, but Web users can see and participate in the process. Story ideas are posted in discussion forums and editors and reporters comment on the merits of the idea. If it is something both parties are interested in, a citizen reporter will pick it up and run with it.

OhMyNews has become so successful, that Oh began to look for ways to extend the brand and involve more citizens. In April 2003, he launched a print newspaper with 100,000 distribution “for readers who cannot use the Internet and for the readers who look for some unique power or charm of a paper product.” The print product is also a vehicle to sell advertisers who have not yet been sold on the power of the Internet. In addition to print, OhMyNews has begun Web casting with Citizen Anchors doing both audio and video reports. This has now grown into regularly scheduled newscasts. Next up are Web photo albums and photo essays from a legion of young Koreans who carry camera phones. Oh would like to transport the model to other countries, but Korea may be well ahead of the rest of the world. It is the most-wired country in the world and 75 percent of Koreans have access to broadband.

Rockin' and rollin' in Lawrence, Kansas
Mention Kansas, and most Americans think of the movie “The Wizard of Oz” and young Dorothy telling her dog Toto “I don't think we are in Kansas anymore.” In Lawrence, a wizard named Rob Curley has created a hugely successful Web site for young people using almost nothing but smoke and mirrors. Curley is general manager of www.Lawrence.com, an entertainment super site owned by the Lawrence Journal-World newspaper. The newspaper was named this year as one of “10 That Do It Right” by the trade magazine Editor & Publisher.

The small-town newspaper has a daily circulation of 20,000, but its Web site knows no borders. It features an extensive data base of local bars, restaurants and bands. It has live Web casting, music videos and concert promotion. Visitors have a choice of more than 14,000 MP3 files of local bands that they can download. They can register to receive SMS messages about local events. And they can read youth-oriented Web logs written by local (and distant) contributors.

The little newspaper's Web site exudes energy and possibility. It is profitable, because Curley operates it on a shoestring. The bloggers, for example, have to commit to regular contributions. Once they have submitted at least five blogs, they are paid with high-speed Internet access. This is possible because the Lawrence World-Journal owns the local cable TV/broadband company. It also helps that Lawrence is home to the 25,000-student University of Kansas – a built-in audience for the local music scene. And it is a desirable audience for advertisers. The site features “Get a Job” employment advertising and “Deals and Coupons” services advertising, making it a full-service Web site.

The result has been that many online managers have followed the money – if not the Yellow Brick Road – to Lawrence to try to benchmark the success of the Web site. And despite that success, Lawrence.com also sees possibilities in print. Last year they launched a print version of the Web site, featuring the best reviews, columns, lists and Weblogs. Called the Deadwood Edition (because newsprint is made from dead wood), it is distributed for free to college students by home delivery and on racks around campus.

Personal news in smaller towns
Several other companies have begun to use the citizen-journalist approach to create print editions. In Austria, Vorarlberger Medienhaus, which owns several regional newspapers, has become a devotee of the Northwestern Readership Institute's Impact Study. The study found at www.Readership.org suggests that readership can be enhanced by focusing on a particular type of local news – most importantly go-and-do information and news about ordinary people. Vorarlberger uses its Internet site to collect that information. It also uses it to engage citizens in discussions about local issues.

In any one of the regions, citizens can post information about birthdays, weddings, and other family celebrations. They are encouraged to share photographs. In each town, a group of esteemed citizens have been recruited to monitor the town sites and give advice and encouragement to posters. Each week, the best of each Web site is re-purposed into a total-market-coverage publication bearing the URL of the site as its logo.

The Bakersfield Californian has pioneered this approach in America. Last year, it launched www.northwestvoice.com in a growing region of the city. Citizens are encouraged to write about small accomplishments, personal celebrations, trips, club and society meetings and issues of concern. The site also features classified advertising and calendars of events. Readers are encouraged to “share your voice.” At the top of the site are listed the top three most popular stories (based upon hits) and three more stories labeled editor's choice. Each week, the best of the Web site is collected and edited into a print newspaper that is distributed to 21,700 homes in the area. The print product is supported by advertising.

The approach in Bakersfield has garnered a lot of attention from other newspapers hoping to make money off their Web site. To satisfy the interest in this participatory approach, the Californian has established a Web site for newspapers who want to start their own. It can be found at www.opensourcejournalism.org.

Not all of the reader-contributed news is personal news. Vorarlberger has found readers interested in local municipal meetings. NorthwestVoice readers are very interested in school news and the proceedings of education boards. Vorarlberger offers downloads of government meeting minutes. It also offers answers and advice for dealing with local government. In effect, it is putting the information that lawmakers have in the hands of the public.

Solving the teen problem with teens
Most newspapers face the problem of declining readership among young people. This problem is increasingly apparent with teen-agers who have grown up totally socialized in new technologies, like the Internet, interactive games and the mobile phone. Working with graduate students from the Medill School of Journalism, the Quad City Times in Davenport, Iowa, decided to start with the new technology.

The graduate journalism students conducted research with teens in the Quad Cities and talked with them about the information and entertainment habits. Many said that they were interested in news – but not in their parents' newspaper. They also talked about their interest in politics, sports, entertainment and shopping. They said that they were most interested in what other teens had to say. They said that they care about national and international news, but it has to be presented in a way that they could relate to it. Using that research, the graduate students concluded that any media trying to attract teens needed to have teen correspondents, a very young editor, concise writing and many photos, graphics and charts.

Working with the teens in focus groups and on panels, a new teen-generated Internet site was born. It is called www.yourmomonline.com. Each day, teens in the Quad Cities can read commentary by teens, post photos in albums, participate in message boards, surf classified advertising and post comments about news or entertainment. The columns are generated by a panel of teen writers recruited from local high schools. The editor was hired from the class of journalism students.

Each week, the editor selects the best columns, comments, photos and stories for a free-distribution print edition. Like the Web site, the print edition features advertising relevant to young people. It is circulated in public areas where teens congregate – music shops, clothing stores, and teen clubs. One message that was relevant in the research was that smaller is better for young people. That is, if the product created is in print, it has to be small enough to fit into a busy teen's backpack. So when YourMom launched in print, it was an unusually small size: 5 inches by 8 inches, and stapled and trimmed. The small format forces compliance to the mandate to keep the articles short.

Connecting readers in times of disaster
The breaking news aspect of the Internet has long intrigued editors who viewed their Web sites as an opportunity to allow them to compete with television and radio. Many Florida newspapers, however, drew new and special insights from their Internet extensions when an unprecedented number of hurricanes hit last summer.

The Pensacola News-Journal set up message boards that allowed readers to give advice to other readers about where they could find gasoline for their cars and food for their families. When Hurricane Ivan hit there, the newspaper published dozens of photos of streets, buildings and neighborhoods so that readers could view the destruction. Said Executive Editor Randy Hammer: “The first and most important lesson I learned: photojournalism rules. It may not rule during your typical Monday to Friday online news cycle. But in a major news story like a hurricane, where there's an abundance of pictures that are indeed worth a thousand words, photojournalism becomes the online marquee. The Web is more of a visual medium than I previously realized. It's not TV, and it's not print. It's something in between.

That sounds as if I'm stating the obvious, but most online sites have not figured this out. Our pages primarily feature stories, calendars and lists that are rerun from the newspaper. Then we have our multimedia presentations. It was pure photojournalism, however, that drove our traffic. More than 80 percent of the traffic -- 8 million to 12 million page views for a single day during the first few days -- went to the photo galleries.”

When Hurricane Frances hit, Florida Today in Cocoa Beach became indispensable through its Web site. Executive editor Terry Eberle talked about the lessons learned from their coverage: “Our key lessons learned included the importance of the unfiltered connection the Web site provides to readers. The importance of photo galleries and importance of breaking news have been long recognized as key for us. But this was the first time we really used reader-to-reader communications. The photo galleries opened up the world to them. Residents couldn't get out during and after the storm. The photos let them understand what happened to their city, county and neighborhood. Most importantly, the photos allowed snowbirds to see whether their homes suffered damage. It gave them an unfiltered look at what they may face on their return.”

Ft. Myers also suffered from Hurricane Frances. Coverage of the hurricane on the Web helped the News-Press understand its mission. Executive Kate Marymount explained: “Ninety percent of our community was without power for 48 hours and residents were desperate for information. They needed information. They didn't (just) want it; they needed it. When we provided that, it affirmed very, very powerfully how important we can be to people's lives -- if we understand what readers need. Lists of where to get water become more important than columns that wax on poetically. How did it change our view of our role? We're here to help. There's a new clarity to that concept.” --Michael P. Smith