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There are so many lessons which came out of our recent Futureproofing local news podcast series that it’s been hard to know where to start with writing them up. But I wanted to begin with looking at what some of the experts said about what good local news could and should look like because I think it cements why local news is vital and worth preserving – beyond simply holding power to account.
I may not be 40+, but I was certainly nodding along with Jonathan Heawood’s summary that many older people remember seeing themselves (literally) in the paper, whether that be from sports matches, music concerts or charity events. My mum has kept every single one we were in as kids, including a TERRIBLE picture from A-level results day, preserved in a way that digital simply can’t replicate.
Print nostalgia aside for a moment, there are some really interesting thoughts shared here about the importance of connecting people to their communities. If you haven’t had chance to give the series a listen yet, I hope this will tempt you.
For Nieman Reports, Laura Krantz McNeill spoke to 26 of the smartest innovators and changemakers in the industry about the skills and mindsets that will be needed to create and maintain better workplaces. My favourite quote is from Houston Chronicle exec editor Kelly Ann Scott, who said, “You have to shift this mindset that our industry is in decline, and you’re managing decline, to the place of ‘I am building the future.’”
This is an absolutely brutal look at how private investors have ‘overharvested’ newspapers in the US. “Conventional wisdom notes basically a two-step process as it relates to newspapers. There was a loss of internet advertising, and then newspapers fell apart,” author Margot Susca said. “What I did with my research was use 20 years of SEC records and bankruptcy documents to map more about what was happening in the boardrooms, calling the shots before, during and after that loss of advertising revenue crunch hit the newspaper industry.”
We often see crowdfunding campaigns for publications, but some publishers have even crowdfunded specific features like apps. Let us know what you think in our community forum.
POLITICO Europe is the European edition of the Axel Springer-owned news organization POLITICO, reporting on politics and policy in Europe and beyond. Their team relaunched its POLITICO.eu site in preparation for the EU, UK, and US elections later this year. The Audiencers’ Marion Wyss spoke to Max Leroy, VP for Product and Design, who explained how this huge project was handled in less than 3 months.
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