I consume online news in four different ways. And I think any news site should make sure their content is good for all of them.
Being a long-time journalist and dedicated to online media trends I consume a lot of news during the day. But I do it in very different ways, depending on what I am looking for. Here are my four ways of picking up news:
1. Going directly to the news site of my choice
This is the classical model of consuming news and the philosophy behind any newspaper. I choose the media site I trust, click my way to the front page and study the content the editors have chosen for me.
In my case this means going to Aftenposten.no - the leading news site in Norway (in quality at least) and maybe BBC and The New York Times. In Aftenposten’s case (I work there) two thirds of visitors still arrive in this way.
Some notes:
- This model depends on my trust in the brand and old media habits. I know Aftenposten is the most credible news source in Norway – so I go there to get their edited view of the world
- But it also limits how many sources I can follow. In the past you had no choice. You subscribed to one or two newspapers and watched a couple of television channels. Today options are in abundance.
- Editors may be dreaming that I am happy only with their site for all my needs, but it just isn’t so.
2. Aggregation of news from many sources
The web has given me unlimited choices. But there is no way I can visit every site I might be interested in every day. So I use aggregation, services which automatically pick up news from numerous different sources, either selected by me or by the aggregator.
There are a lot of different aggregation services – with varying models. Let us take Google as an example. They provide Google News, in which Google chooses the sources, and personalized services like iGoogle or Google Reader, in which the user herself chooses the sources.
I use Google Reader – and follow about 120 different sources through this service.
Some notes:
- Aggregation offers users the choice of following many more news sources than before, scanning through their headlines and quickly deciding whether they want to go to the actual source
- This is a major benefit if you are following news from a particular niche. And most of us are, really.
- Yet the amount of stories quickly becomes too much. The biggest challenge is what to do with the stories you did not have the time to scan through
- You are also missing out on sources that might be very valuable for you, but which you did not know about
3. Search
Search has become so convenient. By autopilot we hit Google.com and type our search word, expecting to get relevant results right away. This even works for news, as Google is updated almost immediately. We also have the option of a tailored news search.
Some notes:
- Seach is very good when you look for specific information – but does not work as well when you just want to follow the latest news as such
- There are some great opportunities with tailored search alerts, for instance if you are following the news about one particular company.
- For news content providers users from search offer additional ad value, as they come to your site with a very particular purpose in mind. Unfortunately few news site take advantage of this information today.
4. Peer-edited news stream
Social communities like Twitter and Facebook as well as bookmark sites like Digg, Reddit and Delicious let users recommend news content to their peers. Instead of depending on the sources of the news, the users leave their trust with who is recommending the content. Basically this means that your peers take the role as editors.
Personally I have found myself increasingly depended on the 700 people I follow on Twitter. I have chosen these people either because I know them or because they have a position which invites trust in the areas I follow.
These people provide an increasing number of the news stories I have the time to consume during the day, especially in the niche areas of my interest. And guess what? They are so much quicker than the professional journalists!
Some notes:
- A major benefit is that you are exposed to content from sources you did not even know about!
- It requires you to think about which people you trust to recomment content to you
- For content providers it becomes important to be able to engage your readers as they are becoming your major distribution channel in this alternative.
Considering these fours ways of consuming news: Here are a couple of predictions:
- A smaller portion of news consumptions in the future will be from people who actively visit the front page of particular news sites
- Peer-edited news streams will be more important. As more and more sources become available to users, they will decide to trust their peers or selected professional sources to recommend them stories. And they will actively share content themselves as well. This may happen on Twitter, Facebook or on a completely different platform.
What should news sites do then? Here are five recommendations:
1. Build your brand!
I think this is this most important issue to be concerned about for news sites. Your content depends on users perceptions that you are a trusted source.
But this is important: Building your brand does not only happen by having good journalists and editing your front page in a professional way. You also have to engage with your readers. They need to be enthusiastic about you and your content. And you need to make them your missionaries, readers who do not only consume your news, but also spread it to all their peers. Engagement is the key word for building your brand in the digital world.
This means that you need to spend time to communicate with your readers. Talk to them! Listen to their thoughts! And bring these thoughts back into your content.
This cannot just be a left hand task – it need to be an important task for every journalist in your staff.
2. Encourage and make it easy for your users to share your content
Most important, of course: Create great content! Make it so good that your readers want to share it with their peers. And then: Make it extremely easy for them to do so! One click – and the story should be off at Facebook or Twitter. And remember to show that you appreciate that they do so, for instance by including Twitter-feeds into your articles.
Also: Follow closely to what extent and how your content is being shared by your readers.
3. Optimize your site for search
Sounds obvious? The truth is that editorial departments tend are mostly concerned about today’s stories, and don’t think enough about creating the structure for long tail use of their stories.
But search is increasingly becoming a more important source of traffic for news sites. You need to be professional about how to optimize your content for search.
4. Provide RSS and other means that make it easy for readers to pick up your content in aggregation services
Provide feeds for everything. A lot of readers are interested in very small niche subjects. Make it easy for them to follow that from your site. Think distribution of your content. Make it available wherever your readers might pick it up, so be it an aggregation service, other sites, etc.
And even better: Open up your API so that external developers can create applications based on your content.
5. Think of your article template as a portal
An increasing portion of your readers will not come through your front page, but will instead arrive directly on a specific article. This means that you need to think about each article as a way of selling the rest of your content.
Eventually I think your article template will become much more important than your front page. This will become the major arena of displaying other relevant content to your readers. And please make it relevant! Make sure you utilize whatever you know about why the reader came to your site.
Did they arrive at your site after searching for Rome? Present other articles about Rome in the article! Are they subscribing to your sports feed? Give them other relevant sports articles.
In the future your article template will become you front page!
Read in other blogs:
- “Meta-reading”: The generational differences in consuming news
- The rebirth of news
- Outlook for newspapers: Moving into multiple business models
- Why journalists deserve low pay
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