This post highlights the importance that managing data has for newspapers, and local broadcasters, as they struggle to extend their roots in the community. As local media need to maintain digital growth they will have to go beyond news delivery into satisfying further needs of the markets they serve if they want to reach new sources of traffic and revenues. In an environment more story-oriented and not so comfortable with computers, company execs need to plan on mastering the skills to extract useful content from information hidden in local databases.
Importance of managing data among top internet players
While newspaper editors and televisions rely basically on developing or acquiring good content, the Top Ten websites in the world have reached their position mostly by organizing data, i.e. other people’s work. Google, Facebook, YouTube, Blogger.com are websites which organize extremely well third parties’ content. Yahoo! (which appears twice in the list with its Japanese URL) receives big traffic from its search, both from email and from the many services it offers (news aggregator, maps, video sharing, social media web sites). Wikipedia is somehow the exception since it relies on contributions written expressly for the site by its users.
Two players, Baidu and MSN deserve special attention from the TV/papers viewpoint. The Chinese Baidu.com started in 2000 as a generic search engine and now is possibly the most comprehensive website in the world. It includes specialized search capabilities for government sources, postal codes, educational, legal, patent, country statistics, as well as services such as antivirus and safety, maps, dictionary, translation, online community…etc. It also provides links to news sources, a music service with links to top songs for easy downloading, an encyclopedia, an entertainment channel, a finance website in collaboration…etc. Finally, it even offers online shopping for businesses to sell their products and a TV/movies site to watch and download content.
Microsoft and its recently redesigned msn.com relies on plenty of links and content from other sources: MSNBC, of course, as well as Hearst, Fox sports, Hulu, PC World…etc, and is learning to open up to social connectivity giants like Twitter or Facebook. Msn.com does a remarkable job at aggregating content from different sources while pushing its own corporate interests, be it its operating system software, Bing, MSNBC, Xbox360…etc.
One could think that these players are following the steps of the likes of AOL, Terra, Lycos and other horizontal portals but the truth is that these giants (Google, Facebook, Yahoo…) want to retain users longer by offering more services while concentrating less on creating content and more on managing third parties’ content. My point is that local papers and broadcasters will be forced to master those same skills to extend their local influence. The sooner they do it and the more holistic their approach, the better.
Database editors
First they have to fight the widespread belief that because of Google, the researcher is no longer necessary. In reality, the opposite is true. Because of Google, researchers— a data base editor—will be of critical importance. Randy Covington, Head of IFRA-Newsplex, was talking to me the other day about Hyde Post, the editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s website who argues that a successful media website should be built on four pillars: -Speed , -Community, -Visual energy, -Utility. Utility is an obvious next step for media organizations in their web strategy and refers to a site that wants to be helpful and practical for its audience. Very often users look for sites in order to obtain information they need on some aspect of their lives,-- for example, how do test scores of their children’s school compare with those elsewhere—and a newspaper or broadcast website would be a logical place to find out.
As search engines have promised to organize the vast content on the internet, communities need to organize and make sense of the increasing sources of local information, and newspapers are well positioned to do that. They have local content, local businesses with local advertisers, local journalists and contributors, a local sales force, some local database information…and are in a privileged position to reap the benefits of that local connection. Managing local database content lies in the no man’s land between very large organizations and the small local agents such as bloggers and smaller websites. One may be unable to have access to many of the databases and/or extract their usefulness while the latter lacks the financial resources, at least for a certain time. It is easier for newspapers well rooted in their communities and with well connected organizations to have access to official and private databases.
The Chief Editor and his/her direct team may have to get involved in the first efforts to gain access to that information while the organization learns to do it. To facilitate this first step, the IRE, Investigative Reporters and Editors, trains journalists, even beyond the US, in “using spreadsheets and/or databases for better watchdog stories, obtaining data and public records and making sense of them, storyboarding, planning, and managing investigative stories and projects, building an effective intranet of public records to strengthen your newsroom’s reporting on deadline…etc”. It’s important to have examples to learn the tricks of the new activity.
In a newsroom environment rather experienced at building linear stories and which at the same time is not very computer savvy, getting the skills needed to use data content has to be a planned effort from top execs. Ideally a couple of journalists with that expertise could be brought on board. Alternatively a programmer can be hired and trained to search database content that could enhance regular newsroom output and be used as a new source of content. Some journals have done it and if the person has an open mind, the result can be enlightening. Diversity is hard to manage but very rewarding.
Examples of database usage
Chicagocrime was one of the best and earliest examples of data gathering and presentation (now it's contained in everyblock, recently acquired by MSNBC). Anybody interested in renting or buying a house, starting a business, choosing a school or just visiting the city, as well as the security officers and local politicians became instant users. There are many other examples the local newspaper can provide to answer the questions and needs of its audience. What new businesses have been started in the city, what new permits have been granted to build houses or buildings in general, what are the latest real estate deals, official house valuations, or general property values, home foreclosures, open houses…are clearly types of content that could attract attention immediately, especially if arranged by neighborhood. Later, if the newspaper allows free access to the information, local talent will come up with ideas to complement that information. By studying the trends, links, deviations from national or international patterns,we may shed light on our community in a unique and exclusive way.
Let me use a non local example on presenting a piece of news in a different way, starting from pure data. I refer to the article published by The New York Times on “Jackson’s Billboard Rankings Over Time”, which is just a series of interactive graphs which prove how the King of Pop had really died 20 years ago.
Other cases could attract more consumer attention, but databases are often accessible from the internet but hidden under non intuitive names, or it is hard to make sense out of them, or they are not conceived to be user friendly…etc. Rankings of hospitals and schools, student examination public records, education levels, driving tickets, air and noise pollution, police activity, accidents, fires, traffic incidences…etc, they all are useful. Lastly, there is the need for databases which do not currently exist but which audiences would appreciate if their newspaper put together. A map of gas prices in the region (see screen shot from gaspricewatch.com) or a ranking of supermarket prices based on a small basket of products may facilitate the lives of families on a tight budget who undoubtedly will appreciate the help of “their” newspaper (there may be local projects offering that content, often ready to establish an alliance). In these cases the information gathering may be in the form of a wiki, something the younger audience may appreciate. In any case, those price-maps have to be open to permanent inputs from users.
In all the above cases it’s important that the information is geolocated as precisely as possible if it is to unveil relevant information as well as trends and correlations between apparently unrelated series of data. The community will literally see how their neighborhood follows or deviates from national patterns, or how the official version fits their reality. Those trends and patterns may be discovered by the newsroom and/or by the users themselves. (End of Part 1)
You are free to use this article in your publication as long as you credit the author Fernando Samaniego.
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