FIVE QUESTIONS
By Carl Sullivan AUGUST 05, 2003 - Editor and Publisher
The Pied Piper of Blogging
Spokane's Ken Sands Predicts You'll Be Doing It Too
Blog, blog, blog. Everyone's talking about Web logs lately and speculating on their long-term impact on traditional journalism.
At The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., the managing editor of online and new media isn't just babbling about blogs. Ken Sands' site, Spokesman-Review.com, started experimenting with the blog format some time ago.
Here's what he's learned, and what he thinks about the future of newspapers and online journalism.
1. Tells us about blogs at The Spokesman-Review. How have readers reacted?
Sands: In the past 18 months or so, we've had two kinds of blogs: columns tied to specific events that have a beginning and an end; and ongoing "reporter's notebook" kinds of columns. Our first blog, tied to a four-day small-school basketball tournament, created incredible buzz in a community that didn't previously have a home on the Web. The second one, on an important (but boring) local election created a sense of fun that attracted readers. We've done six of those special events blogs, including a war blog that was very well-received.
Since January, we've launched nine of the ongoing blogs. The first one, by our movie and book critic, Dan Webster, has attracted quite a following -- he regularly gets 400-500 visits a day. That's a lot for us. Our restaurant critic, Leslie Kelly, and health writer, Carla Johnson, also are building quite a following. The others are still fairly new.
(For links to all the site's blogs, visit spokesmanreview.com/blogs/. And check out the site's recently reactivated Washington State University football blog.)
None of this is terribly creative or innovative but it has been necessary to get where we want to go next. I'm not sure exactly where that is, but I do believe the "amateur" warbloggers showed us professional journalists the power of numbers on the Web. That is, if an army of "reporters" scour the Web to "aggregate" the news, why can't we use our local readers to help us aggregate the news of our communities? How about an army of local bloggers?
The best of their work might even show up in print! At the very least, by tapping into readers as sources, we will be in better touch with our communities and will get better stories.
2. Is this the future of journalism? Will most daily papers have at least one blog in five years?
KS: Steve Outing said a year ago in an E&P Online column that every reporter, editor, and photographer ought to have a blog. He knew that statement sounded outlandish at the time (and maybe still is), but I believe he had a pretty good vision about where journalism is headed.
At The Spokesman-Review, we think of a "blog" as a template, really, for publishing on the Web in various forms. The template allows frequent posting in reverse-chronological order with the ability to link. Sounds pretty simple, and it is very flexible. Our entire war coverage on the Web, for example, was handled with a blog template.
In the past couple of weeks, I've given presentations on interactivity at two metro dailies. The staffs of both papers were excited about the potential for blogs, and both immediately began making plans for their own. I feel a little bit like the Pied Piper of blogging. I think that in the future, you will see that either: 1. Everyone starts blogging; or, 2. They will blog but call it something else.
3. How does your position on the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) board advance online journalism? What do you hope to accomplish in the position?
KS: I love newspapers, and that's why I'm on the APME board. That board is filled primarily with -- sorry, pals -- middle-aged print publication managers who don't seem to know yet what to make of online journalism. Many of them, individually, seem so stressed trying to put out a quality print product in tough economic times that they don't think much about the Web.
But what's great about APME is that, as an organization, it realized the importance of the Web to the future of newspaper journalism. So it created a spot on the board for an online position, and this year is creating a second position.
I don't intend to be too critical of print editors. In truth, Web editors at many newspapers are in silos away from the print operation and frustratingly distant from print editors who want to collaborate with the Web. My goal is to help both print and online editors understand how much they need each other, and to argue for the elimination of Web silos. In other words, I hope to advance both print AND online journalism by advocating for better collaboration. I know that's a tall order, but you might as well aim high!
4. What's the biggest challenge facing newspapers today? Newspaper Web sites?
KS: Newspapers are resistant to change despite decades of evidence that they are increasingly irrelevant. To me, a perfect example is the way many metro papers cover elections. They assign one reporter to every race, and election stories are strung together in a seemingly endless parade in the months leading up to an election. Today, the county treasurer, tomorrow the county prosecutor, the next day city council position 1, blah, blah, blah.
No one reads that crap. Even worse, it's the kind of stuff that turns people off to the newspaper entirely. And what about the 40% of people -- in our state -- who get their absentee ballots three weeks before election day? Oops.
Instead, we should bundle print election coverage in special sections, once when absentee ballots go out, and again before election day, and spend the rest of the print space and TV airtime promoting the searchable, sortable, complete information on the Web. It's one-stop shopping for voters, and fits much better for how people actually use information. In fact, I envision a time when a print edition is more of a guide, or index, to information that's available everywhere else. We print TV guides in the paper. Why not print Web guides to news, entertainment, etc.?
The biggest challenge for newspaper Web sites is figuring out how to monetize -- I feel oily even writing that word -- the Web audience. Traditional advertising won't work on the Web. Selling subscriptions is tough. Once we figure out how to pay for more Web staff, the creativity will explode. For a glimpse at the future, look at what cool stuff they're already doing at LJWorld.com in Lawrence, Kan.
5. How will your job change during the next five years?
The only thing I'm certain of is that virtually every day I will confront something totally new. To me, that's exciting. I will share one anecdote that might illustrate the five-year plan: One of our bloggers came into my office after hosting a live Q&A discussion with a newsmaker and remarked that the electronic edition of the newspaper was very slowly taking over the newsroom.
"That's right," I replied. "It might seem ridiculous now, but the electronic edition will eventually become the center of the newsroom universe, with print and television the orbiting planets." Just don't tell my buddies at APME ... they might have coronaries.
Carl Sullivan (csullivan@editorandpublisher.com) is editor of E&P Online.
Links referenced within this article
Spokesman-Review.com
spokesmanreview.com
first one, by our movie and book critic, Dan Webster,
spokesmanreview.com
restaurant critic, Leslie Kelly,
spokesmanreview.com
health writer, Carla Johnson,
spokesmanreview.com
spokesmanreview.com/blogs/
spokesmanreview.com
Washington State University football blog
spokesmanreview.com
an E&P Online column
editorandpublisher.com
LJWorld.com
ljworld.com
csullivan@editorandpublisher.com
mailto:csullivan@editorandpublisher.com
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