Moving to new markets – Seattle Post Intelligencer
Today the Seattle Post Intelligencer printed its last newspaper. "Seattle Paper Shifts Entirely to the Web," reports The New York Times. There was no buyer for the paper, so Hearst Corp. shut down the print edition. In the process it laid off 145 of its 165 news staff. This leaves the Seattle Times alone printing in the market, but it is struggling financially. As people lament the closing, is this a good or a bad day?
The on-line paper already achieves about 4million hits/month, and it hasn't really started trying to be competitive on-line. The site (www.seattlepi.com) already has 150 bloggers – so you could make a case it has more reporters than were let go from the old newsroom. And it has made agreements to pick up content from Hearst Magazines, xconomy and TV Guide amongst other partners. In an article "Executive Producer Michelle Nicolosi talks about the new SeattlePI.com" at the site she says "We're going to focus on what readers are telling us they want and on what makes SeattlePI.com essential and unique….My staff and I are thrilled to have the chance to prove that an online-only news operation can make money and do a great job serving readers….Our strategy moving forward is to experiment a lot and fail fast…We have to reinvent how things are done on many fronts…We have a 'survival of the fittest' attitude about content that isn't working." Sounds a lot like White Space to me — White Space no longer encumbered by trying to keep open a printed edition that wasn't meeting customer needs at a profit.
You could make a case that this is a GREAT DAY for the organization, and its marketplace. Firstly, this organization is taking seriously the task of building a profitable on-line newspaper. Unlike most on-line news organizations that are backwater extensions of a print paper which doesn't care about the on-line market, this is an organization that must "sink or swim" – with leaders that are establishing new metrics and show every indication of using them to run a viable business. When you enter White Space, you prefer to be an early participant, so you gain understanding fast. Like the on-line www.HuffingtonPost.com which is blowing the doors off readership with its national coverage of news and politics (and mentioned frequently by the editor – another good sign, learning from the competition).
As an early participant, with a real commitment to succeed (no transfers back to the old organization here), it's not just about "the product" but the business model as well. Not discussed was how many ad salespeople were being kept on-board to push ad sales for the new organiztion. Hopefully as much energy will be placed on learning how to craft ad products that customers want and will pay for as is being placed in creating compelling content that attracts readers. We can't expect SeattlePI.com to rely on Google to sell all their ads – and I doubt the editors do either. Building a new Success Formula requires being open to revenue generation as well as production and delivery (don't forget that figuring out how to sell "clicks" was as successful to Xerox as inventing the copier.) My worry right now is that as good as the home page is – and it's good – I didn't see a button at the top, or bottom, or anywhere to "place an ad" – something I hope they address quickly. But for now I'll let it slide in the hopes that compulsive, obsessive competitiveness caused this slip (for if it did, that demonstrates the commitment to White Space that makes it work.)
What we all know is that the old days of newspapers is gone, and won't come back. (Hear that Sam Zell and folks at The Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times?) iPhones and Kindles are just the start of making newspapers completely obsolete – even for those who don't fancy news via computer. The faster organizations get out there to build a new Success Formula, the more likely they'll find a way to survive. And the faster they jettison old notions about what makes for "good news" and "good ad sales" the faster they'll get to that model. Those who are the first to get out there and learn have the greatest odds of becoming a winner, because they have the longest time to experiment, fail and succeed.
Here's wishing all the best to the re-energized www.SeattlePI.com. May the editors, reporters, bloggers and salespeople give us new insight to the future of news in the ubiquitously connected world.