A 20-Something Gives Specifics To Newspaper Publishers Why He Doesn’t Read Print Any More, And Suggests What Editors Need To Do To Get Him Back

What he wants is “instant” state, national and international news plus hyper local news on his particular “community”. If it was all there on the newspaper’s web site then he would give up print permanently – it is the smart publisher who figures out the right combination to converge the newspaper and web site together so that both platforms are necessary.

ftm asked Kevan Stone to tell in his own words why, as a long-time resident in Orlando, Florida, he stopped reading print. While what he says is directed at his metropolitan Orlando Sentinel the fact is that one could replace that newspaper’s name by most metropolitan newspapers in the US and the same would be true.

“I am a 28 year-old who has a genuine interest in national news and current events, as well as a profound interest in the local and national sports scene. I am what could be considered a typical male in his upper 20’s,” Kevan says.

“It is no secret that the internet is an immediate and plentiful source of news and information that has no deadline. Here are some specific examples of why I believe that my local daily newspaper is not competitive:

“First, take national, international, even state news and current events. When I pick up the paper delivered to me in early morning, I find myself reading outdated news. While the presses were running new news or updated news was breaking, but once beyond press deadline it will take another 24 hours for that news in print to reach my front porch and by then am I still interested?

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“There are a plethora of credible online sources that constantly update news. No matter one’s political affiliation or personal beliefs, there is a news outlet, whether it be from a national broadcasting outlet or from a smaller but credible website. In other words, news is readily available in an online form at any time, and it is ever-changing.

“Now the logical response to that is that the newspaper has its own web site, so one should read there the updated news that outdates the print edition. That would be fine if newspapers did that right, but for the most part they don’t’. Some newspapers are now saying that filing online comes first before print, but for many that is still not so, and it shows in their web product. That is why most newspaper web sites don’t satisfy my national and international news needs. They rely on AP updates and that’s it.

“Let me use the tragic events of this past week at Virginia Tech as a prime example. As the story unfolded, national and regional TV outlets were broadcasting well into the night information that was constantly evolving and developing, as were their web sites. I could simply turn on my television or go to my PC and see news that was fresh. There is no way that print can compete with that, but newspapers should have been competitive on their web sites. From what I saw they were not – many relying just on AP updates unless they could find some local angle. Online the updates available via such sites as MSNBC.com were much more complete and seemed to be filed far more often than newspaper web sites were updating.”

(editor’s note: Organizations such as the Newspaper Association of Newspapers are fond of telling us that about one in three web users go to a newspaper web site. But for the tragic happenings at Virginia Tech it was NOT newspaper web sites that people first flocked to, but rather to broadcast news sites, according to Hitwise. While broadcast web sites saw large increases in visits -- MSNBC was second only to Yahoo! News as the most frequented web news site on the day of the shooting, with traffic up 161% over the day before. CNN was the third most visited site, Fox news was sixth, and ABC News was 11th. Yet for the New York Times, the most popular US newspaper web site, traffic was actually down 2% from the day before. Why? Maybe, it’s because a broadcast web site gives the impression of frequent updates, but maybe it is more than just perception. Did the broadcast sites update their news far more often than newspaper sites?)

“As a graduate of the University of Central Florida (UCF), I am obviously a Knights fan and an avid Orlando Magic supporter as well. When I am not in town, I initially would look at your website to see recent events and news only to find that your UCF stories would only be updated a handful of times per week!! In addition, I could simply go to ESPN.com and click on the Orlando Magic or UCF Knight homepages and find a wealth of knowledge. This includes news, statistics, and information that are provided perhaps only once or twice a week in your print edition. In addition, I can even see the stories your newspaper has written on ESPN!! To me, this seems to completely and convincingly make the argument that a newspaper subscription is not necessary.

“Finally, let me touch on your classified section, namely jobs. I have perused your employment classifieds with keen interest over the past year. It was my thought that a local paper would have a leg up on local job openings; I was wrong. When compared to the major and even local and regional job websites, the Sentinel simply cannot keep pace. While online job sites are constantly being updated, your outlet does not provide as many job opportunities as can be found elsewhere. Countless jobs a day are being added to those online sites daily with detailed information, not just vague descriptions and a phone or e-mail address. The Sentinel’s jobs are restricted itself to its own circulation area, which is understandable, but with the web if I can’t find what I want in Orlando it is easy to look up other Florida cities – Tampa, Palm Beach etc., where perhaps they do have the type of job I am interested in. I understand that Craigslist and Monster and others have taken much of a newspaper’s classified business, but publishers really need to get that business back – not just for the lost advertising monies, but also for lost readers. Run a contest or something on your in your classified section; Anything to get people reading there again.

“Put all of this together and I believe the Internet has decimated print’s ability to provide the information I want quickly and relevantly, but it should be able to do it on the Internet. My generation does not know what it means not to have the internet. High speed internet can be bought in some cases for less than a subscription to your paper.

“Now while I realize that you run your own web site, I challenge you to compare it to the most popular Internet news outlets across the country. Our world has become a global one, and it is my feeling that you have remained content to localize your audience. Sure we want the local news, even hyper-local news, but you have to be compettitve on the state, national and international coverage, too. Web stories are not updated as often as they should be, and thus newspaper sites fall far behind in my list of websites to check as I go on my quest of information.

“In closing, it is my feeling that your paper, while meeting very basic needs of information, falls far short of my expectations and the expectations of my generation. I might as well take the price of a subscription and put it towards a faster bandwidth internet subscription, enabling me to get my information even faster!”

For those of us with a love for newspaper a lot of that hurts, and indeed many newspapers will argue some of his points. But one should not lose site of the big picture Kevan paints. Most of his generation is gone for the reasons he has given, and if newspapers want these people back then their web efforts in particular need to change. Newspaper web sites need to become the web site of choice for not just hyper local web news, but for the breaking state, national and international news, too. Newspapers just do not need readership eyes drifting elsewhere on a big story.

Kevan is saying that it is not good enough for a newspaper to say it has an Internet site, rather that site really needs to be competitive. If its national and international, even state news is not as updated as often as it should be then that viewer is gone elsewhere. For many newspapers, print still comes first, because that is where the money is, but online readers are not stupid. They understand how much effort is put into a web site and when they find web sites that do the job better then that is where they will go.

Perhaps the most distressing news from the Q1 newspaper reports that were just plain awful is that some publishers are saying that digital growth is slowing from the expected 30% growth expected this year.

Is that because digital is just plain slowing down all over the Internet, or is it because the competition out there for news readership eyes is hotting up. If the latter, and if newspapers don’t provide the best up-to-date product that they can, then the likes of Kevan Stone will be lost forever – in print and the print’s web site.