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Friday, August 24, 2007
Newspapers' Online Flops and Failures
Posted
By Cathy Resmer
on Fri, Aug 24, 2007 at 11:50 AM
Here's an interesting article from Editor and Publisher, for all you Vermont media types who tell me you read my blog.
Joe Strupp does an informative survey of pitfalls for newspapers to avoid online.
Lesson One? Blogs can backfire.
At The Roanoke (Va.) Times, editors noted thatreaders are not always that interested in what their fellow readers aresaying, at least not on a regular basis. Online Editor John Jackson setup 10 online columns by local residents in 2003, finding maybe threegot any real reaction. "They weren't writing about things that a wholelot of people were interested in," he says, citing a graphic artist whodescribed life in that job. "One guy wrote about stuff he saw on theside of the road, and he would hand-write it and we would scan it in."
This reminds me of the RH/TA Reader Roundtable experiment. And of our own Jazz Mafia blog. It's more difficult than you might think to train people to blog. And to figure out what's interesting. Hard to know what will work until you try it!
UPDATE: Here's a few thoughts on how CNN is getting online news right.
Comments
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About The Author
Cathy Resmer
Bio:
Deputy publisher Cathy Resmer is an organizer of the Vermont Tech Jam. She also oversees Seven Days' parenting publication, Kids VT, and created the Good Citizen Challenge, a youth civics initiative. Resmer began her career at Seven Days as a freelance writer in 2001. Hired as a staff writer in 2005, she became the publication's first online editor in 2007.
Deputy publisher Cathy Resmer is an organizer of the Vermont Tech Jam. She also oversees Seven Days' parenting publication, Kids VT, and created the Good Citizen Challenge, a youth civics initiative. Resmer began her career at Seven Days as a freelance writer in 2001. Hired as a staff writer in 2005, she became the publication's first online editor in 2007.
