THBT: Local Media, Built From Scratch

One of the things I enjoy the most when traveling is reading and watching the local news. On last week’s Tar Heel Bus Tour, I had a chance to pick up a couple of papers and wonder to myself what local media in the state would look like if it were starting from scratch today.

What if the question at newspapers with (literally) dying readerships were not “How do save the newspaper?” but instead “How do we start today serving our communities with the most accurate, relevant and efficient package of news and information?”

Continue reading “THBT: Local Media, Built From Scratch”

THBT: Is Journalism Good for N.C.?

Tuesday’s stops on the Tar Heel Bus Tour had us looking at different ways that private industry is partnering with Carolina, but Wednesday provided examples of partnerships that UNC is creating with public agencies in efforts to improve the lives of North Carolinians.

The stops left me wondering: Are there (and should there be) similar partnerships available in the field of journalism, and what would they look like?

It seemed to me that the first question we need to ask is, is journalism good for North Carolina?

Continue reading “THBT: Is Journalism Good for N.C.?”

THBT: Academy-Industry Partnerships

One of the reasons I decided to make the move from newsroom to classroom is because there’s a need for journalism schools to be a source of applied research and development of products and processes that can help journalism be more memorable, relevant and inclusive. Today on the Tar Heel Bus Tour I had a chance to see how some of those partnerships are constructed between UNC and private business in other fields, and to think about how they might work in journalism.

Continue reading “THBT: Academy-Industry Partnerships”

Newspaper Academy Follow-up: “Scooping Ourselves…”

The old question about cannibalization came up last week at the NCPA Newspaper Academy at UNC-Chapel Hill. I found two links that I wanted to share with you. I like them, perhaps because they support my prejudices.

Do you have other anecdotes or data on this question? Send them my way.

Research Question: Teaser Heads Online

Although I don’t hear this as often as I once did, the claim that online heads shouldn’t give away the whole story is one that pops up now and again in my conversations with editors. The editors — addled by increasing pressure to increase revenue by increasing ad inventory by increasing page views — surmise (rightly) that some readers come to their homepages simply for a quick nibble of news headlines, and that online news editors should, therefore, write teaser heads that don’t give away the milk.

On one hand, maybe they’re right. After all, teasers have been a feature of broadcast news for years.

On the other hand, this mentality flies in the face of just giving the customer what he or she wants. And, as we all know, the customer is always right.

So, how much of a tease will the online audience tolerate? Are younger readers, who are more likely to quickly click links in search of the information they want, more likely than older readers, who often carefully assess their choices before clicking on a link, more tolerant of teaser heads? Does the perceived urgency or relevancy of a headline cause readers to be more or less likely to click on teaser heads? Is there some measurement of vagueness that would allow us to find the right balance between serving our reader customers and serving our advertising customers?

Research Question: Curious or Influential?

Over at his blog, Under the Dome, at NewsObserver.com, Ryan Teague Beckwith points out another interesting online political communication question: What’s the relationship between candidate messages in paid media, free media coverage of those messages and Google searches related to those messages?

And who are the Google searchers on political terms? Are they The Influentials? Young People? Newspaper readers? Non-voters? All of the above?