Kiyoshi Martinez - nerdlusus blog the geek wants out

How I know that print isn’t dead

Newspapers might be dying, but that doesn’t mean print is dead.

Each week, I spend between $15-25 on comic books, which range from $3-4 per issue.

Each month I probably spend $10-25 on books that probably will just sit on my shelf for years unread.

Yet, each day I refuse to spend even 25 cents on a newspaper.

I support printed products, just not newspapers. Why is this? I think it’s very simple: newspapers have no value.

Newspapers are what I’d consider disposable products. The price is too expensive, even if it is relatively cheap. They range from 50 cents to $1.50 on average (Sunday prices obviously being higher).

I’m never going to read an entire paper. Based on those prices, I probably need about a nickel’s worth of news a day from the paper. And even then, it’s a gamble picking up the paper, because it might not have anything I wanted to read. In fact, I’m probably better off going online at work and Googling the news I need and care about.

Instead, what I will do as a consumer is take that money I’m not spending and purchase a magazine for the week to read (especially if I’m a commuter) that focuses in a niche interest I have. I get a bunch of quick bits and also some longer articles as well. I’m also more likely to get more vibrant design, glossy photo spreads and a more reader friendly format versus the terrible concept of the broadsheet. This only cost me $3-5, and I’ll have it around for quite some time until I’ve read it cover to cover. It’s a more economical buy.

Books are even better. I’ll have to pay a higher price, but when I’m done I can pretentiously store them on my book shelf. And talk about a quality printed material. This stuff is built to last, with the hardcover binding and thick pages.

And with comic books, you have the collectible factor to go with cool visuals and writing. Best of all, this medium continues for several months in a series. The idea of periodical storytelling is far from dead.

So, what can newspapers learn from all of this? Frankly, a whole lot.

+ Kill the newspaper format
Newspapers have to stop printing their product in a format that’s terrible. Forget the broadsheet. Forget the tabloid even. Give me a glossy magazine once a week with analysis and charge me a premium for it. People who want print will pay for it. Those who don’t are already reading it online. Milk your print subscribers for more money, but give them something that’s not so damned disposable.

+ Serialize your coverage
I might skim over the Iraq coverage each day, but imagine if you sold me a month’s worth of Iraq coverage with compelling photographs and fantastic storytelling. And what if you sold me The New York Times: Iraq War Coverage each month as a magazine. Use periodical storytelling. Do multiple part stories over the course of a year. Do photo essays. I may not have time to read about Iraq each day from the NYT, but I might be in the mood for it once in a while and want to read about it for a few hours on my bed, sofa, office, etc. Give me a format to digest the big topics.

+ Be more visual
While I’ll read the Wall Street Journal and the NYT, I loathe their frontpages. In fact, I hate most newspapers’ design. It’s boring. No wonder no one my age wants to read it. It’s bland, has no color and has so much text without an equal amount of visuals to balance it. Now, take a look at your favorite magazines — that’s how news design should be done. And, no, doing your newspaper’s design like the Tribune’s RedEye isn’t what I mean by design that’s appealing to younger readers. There’s a reason why the RedEye is free.

+ Let writers be writers, DAMMIT!
Why is it that every news story I read (and used to have to write) follows the inverted pyramid? Or even the WSJ lede? Boring. Novels aren’t all written the same. Neither are comic books. Writers do what’s best for the story. They tell it in a way that’s most compelling for a reader. Why do newspapers force every reporter to writer like we’d expect a reporter to write? The journalism police aren’t going to give you a ticket if you let them write in first person on a city council story. Experiment and let your writers actually practice a craft. Think I’m crazy? Take a look at the blogosphere. They’re not worried about having fun and using a little bit of their personal voice.

Those are just a few ideas off the top of my head how to add value to printed products. Like I said, print isn’t dead. You just have to provide me with incentives to pay for what you produce. Until that happens, expect me to spend more money on comics in a week than I do on newspapers in a year.

Technorati Tags: newspaper, journalism, media, print, books, comics, magazine, money, utility, value, writing, photography, design

I love the niche glossy magazine concept. Now how the heck do we sell ads in a monthly compendium of Iraq coverage?

I’ve got to disagree with you on the newspaper format being dead. Take, for example, the WSJ. It costs $79/year for just the print edition, which comes out to about 25 cents/day for each of the week’s six issues (WSJ has no Sunday). Are you telling me there isn’t 25 cents worth of news in the WSJ? I would have to disagree. Also, newspapers print more than news — comics, entertainment. I probably wouldn’t google them to find them at work, but I definitely read and enjoy them in the paper.

I wholeheartedly agree with you on basically everything else you said. I will add to the point about writers — people aren’t reading newspapers anymore to get the quickest form of news — that’s been taken by online. People also aren’t reading them to get 5,000 word stories on everything — that’s been taken by magazines. But newspapers can fill the middle quite well if they, as you said, let the writers write. If I read a 250 word article in a newspaper, I generally feel cheated, unless there is absolutely nothing left to say about the topic.