Cheap, massive hard drive space gives newspapers more digital freedom to build massive local databases and archives.Photo by Courtney Farr
Much of what newspapers do - restaurant reviews, crime reports, high school and college sports stats, movie reviews - are valuable long after publication.
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It's more like being in the database business than the news business, which is why papers don't get it.
Yes sir! It is like being in the database business. The deeper your content goes, the more useful it is, the more users will come and the longer they'll stick around your site. News organizations that act as their community databases add value to their sites beyond the news. People want databases.
Don't believe me? Let's look at some of the most popular American Web sites according to alexa.com:
2. Google: the database miner.
3. MySpace: a database of people.
5. eBay: a database of worthless crap merchandise (full disclosure, I make part of my living from selling stuff on eBay, so I feel perfectly justified making the worthless crap joke).
6. YouTube: a database of video.
7. Facebook: see MySpace description.
8. Wikipedia: Professors warn that this database is run by the Imp of the Perverse.
9. Craigslist: a database of worthless crap, but cheaper to use than eBay.
10. Windows Live: Bill's answer to Google.
11. Amazon.com: I use Amazon as a reference tool more than I use it to buy crap.
16. CNN: the highest rated pure news site.
18. The Internet Movie Database: do I need to give a description for this one?
19. Flickr: A photo database.
See a trend? Again, people like databases. Newspapers are positioned better than anyone else to build local databases. Beyond Mr. Hancock's list, add biographies of prominent (and maybe not so prominent) locals; local history; video tours; photographs of everything anyone might want to see in town; public documents. A city has plenty in it that can be documented.
Sure, you might say, that's great. But that doesn't explain how we make money. For both advertising and subscription dollars, you have to have a product worth selling. News, all by itself, isn't enough. The world has plenty of news. Build a hyperlocal database, fed by a quality news organization, and no one else will have that. You've created something different and valuable.
1) I love that you have that many hard drives laying around.
2) You could not be more correct, as we have discussed. It's almost as if success in the marketplace requires differentiation in the marketplace? Ceci n'est pas une free market.
But Courtney, you still didn't answer the "how do we make money" question. I completely agree that databases, data aggregation, mashups and all the like are valuable to the user, and would probably draw a decent amount of traffic... but you wouldn't suggest supporting that with banner ads, would you? Or *gulp* up sells for business directory listings. This is where we, in the newspaper industry, are stuck. We don't need more ways to serve content, we need better ways to make money.
Patrick,
The funny thing is that those are a bunch of old 20GB drives, not exactly cutting edge technology. But they do illustrate the point and look pretty stacked on top of one another.
Staci, thanks for commenting!
You're right, in that I didn't answer the question about making money, but I disagree in that the industry does need more ways of serving more content.
I used to do a lot of mechanic type work when I worked for my family's farm, fixing trucks, tractors, combines, etc. Something you learn while fixing a broken machine is that the right tool can save you hours of labor. Even a tool that is very, very close to the right one makes you work much harder than you need to. The content of online news sites is like that now. Gathering eyeballs and revenue is harder than it needs to be because the content tools just aren't quite right yet.
So, what is the tool for revenue? Convincing advertisers you are worth it. I advertise in multiple places for my business. I have never given a dime to traditional media for an ad, nor have I ever advertised with someone who solicited me. I've analyzed my market and judged where my money will most effectively drive people to my web site, earning me sales. News sites need to look so attractive to advertisers, that they will want to come and give newspapers their money. That requires content.
Nice to know that Stac is out there still looking in once in awhile. This has been a good blogging semester with more comments than in the past.