Newspapers Should Understand Social Media…But Do They?

In a moment of 4 a.m. clarity, I realized newspapers were social media long before social media was cool.

Think about it: A reporter uncovers a piece of information and “forwards” it to his “network” of readers by publishing it in article form. He gets the community to help create the content by quoting stakeholders and everyday Joes. And after the story prints, readers “comment” by sending letters to the editor.

About the only thing newspapers lacked was a digital sandbox for the social experiment to play in, and even that’s changing.

So why are newspapers so slow to get social media? Why are reporters — arguably the most enterprising of individuals, and often the most progressive — still reporting news 6 hours after everyone in the Twitterverse already knows about it?

Why Newspapers Don’t Get Social Media

The answer is complicated (isn’t it always?). In part, it’s an economic one. The media industry has been conglomerated, consolidated and incorporated. And like any behemoth, the news business is slow to change directions. Factor in advertiser influence, demanding shareholders and the mythical pursuit of objectivity, and you can see why newspapers have enough on their plates.

The answer is also a demographic one. While it’s easy to picture a New York Times reporter or Anderson Cooper (is he really a journalist?) sporting an iPhone and blogging wirelessly, that’s just not how it’s done in Duluth, Minnesota. Sure, they’ve got access to most of the gadgets and gizmos we do, but Middle America is more salt-of-the-earth than Steve Jobs and Kevin Rose. And as go the readers, so go the papers.

The answer is also a psychological one. Specifically, it’s a problem of fear. From the Austin American-Statesman to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, reporters and editors are staring wide-eyed at the inevitable death of their industry. Paralyzed by fear, they cling to old ways of doing things, desperately hoping to remain relevant by virtue of experience. But in the world of YouTube and newsbreaking bloggers, old school experience gets you a layoff.

New Media Hope for Old Media Empires

This isn’t to say all journalists are blind to social media’s potential. Look to Ryan Squire at NBC4 in Columbus as an example. He’s made social media a centerpiece of a home makeover at the station. In Austin, new managing editor Debbie Hiott is trying to save the American-Statesman by embracing new media.

But by and large, newspapers have been slow to transplant their social medium roots into the new media landscape. Peter Shankman says we should “Help a Reporter Out,” but if the titans of the newsroom don’t start helping themselves by embracing social media, there may soon be no reporters left to help.

Matt McGinnis

Good post on an important topic. The media landscape is evolving and I’ll bet we’ll see lots of new twists over the next few years.

Some newspapers are embracing social media while others are slower to jump in. You make an important point here – not all newspaper readers want their information in a social media format. There is still an audience for the trusted print paper on the kitchen table. I for one love to get my local, the NY Times and the FT all in glorious print to spread out, dissect and compare the relative importance editors put on various stories across papers as measured by location and real estate. Newspapers have a challenge of keeping this audience growing and demanding this great product.

The long-form journalism format still published in the big national papers and the local Sunday papers is something missing from social media. The ability to analyze, report and opine on subjects in a thorough way is lacking in blog posts and certainly in micro-blogging. Papers have the market cornered on the daily publishing of this form of information and have some of the best journalists to do it. With that luxury comes a reluctance by some to jump into the lighter online fare. A NYT reporter once commented to me, “I have a blog. Its called the New York Times. You can read it every day.”

Even for the upsides of the print issues, its clear that newspapers have to embrace elements of social media to engage new audiences. You call out the Austin American Statesman as one example of a paper giving it a go. I applaud them for having multiple writers on Twitter, for using digital video on their Website and for keeping the content relevant. I hope it inspires other papers to do the same. And, more importantly, I hope the social media hooks inspire lots of people to subscribe to the old fashioned print issues.