BarCamp Orlando 2009 – Etan Horowitz “What Kind Of Journalism Would You Pay For?” from Jeff Peak on Vimeo.

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On Saturday, I attended the third BarCampOrlando conference, which brings together developers, bloggers, programmers, designers, artists and others with an interest in technology to share their knowledge and learn from one another. The distinctive feature of all BarCamps is that the schedule of presentations is not set until the morning of the event. So you arrive, register and then sign up to give a talk on the topic of your choice.

While I was standing in line to register, I was talking to Robert Dempsey, a local web developer. During our conversation, Robert asked me the question that I’ve been getting a lot from family members, friends and business contacts lately. It’s phrased in many different ways, but it basically boils down to this:

“So, how are newspapers dealing with the fact that they’re dying because everyone is reading them for free online and they are losing so much advertising revenue?”

The topic was on my mind more than usual, because on Friday, I took part in a really interesting exercise lead by Matt Mansfield at a Society for News Design “Quick Course,” which was held where I work, the Orlando Sentinel.

Matt is the president of SND and he’s also one of the organizers of “Revenue 2.0,” a project to create actionable solutions to the question posed to me by Robert and to countless other journalists. On March 21, Matt and Alan Jacobson of Brass Tacks Design brought together a bunch of smart people connected to journalism for a day long brainstorming session in Washington D.C. The group rejected the notion that charging for online content was the answer and pledged to come up with some new advertising models to support quality journalism by the end of the day. They divided their efforts into four areas:

1. Build an effective advertising model for news content delivered on smart phones, such as Apple’s iPhone.
2. Create a better CraigsList.
3. Show newspaper-centric companies how they can better meet the advertising needs of small- and medium-sized businesses.
4. Re-imagine the homepage and display advertising.

Ambitious goals for sure, but at the Orlando event, Matt shared some of the prototypes the group came up with and I was impressed. He also had us assemble in four groups and try to tackle the same tasks ourselves. Since we only had about 45 minutes, we didn’t come up with anything nearly as good, but as someone who works in editorial and not the advertising or business side of the company, it was a great experience to think about these issues.

Back to my conversation with Robert. I explained to him that yes, the industry is in a time of immense change, crisis and chaos, but it’s also a time of experimentation. Finally, some of the solutions that have been talked about for years will be tried for real. For example:

• An online only newspaper (Seattle P-I)
• Charging for newspaper content (Newsday, Journalism Online LLC)

After explaining some of the issues to Robert, he said “You should do a talk on this today.” I wasn’t planning on speaking, but in the spirit of BarCamp, I decided he was right. I chose to do my talk at The Globe, where there was no projector, so it was much more conducive to discussion and interaction. I called my talk “What kind of journalism would you pay to support.”

My basic goal was to see what some consumers of news and information thought about the issues that we as journalists often discuss amongst ourselves over drinks, at conferences and in workshops like the ones I attended on Friday.

About 30 people came to the discussion, including young people who get all their news through Twitter and Facebook, older people who can’t imagine starting the day with the paper and a cup of coffee in their hands, several people I’ve interviewed for stories or columns, many Twitter friends, programmers, Web developers and other local geeks.

I started by asking people to yell out print publications that they pay for. The list included:

• Orlando Sentinel
• Newsweek
• Wired
• Consumer Reports
• Florida Today
• Fast Company
• Barrons
• Time
• Entrepreneur
• Entertainment Weekly
• Business Weekly
• Runner’s World
• Orlando Business Journal
• Florida Trend

Then I asked people to shout out what online news sources they pay for. As you might expect, this list was much shorter. It included:

• ESPN
• Wall Street Journal
• Pragmatic Programmer
• E-Commerce Times
• Inman News

Finally, I asked what other types of things people paid for online. The list included:

• Lynda.com subscription
• iTunes purchases
• Flickr Pro account
• A private message board
• Rails Envy podcasts

As you can see from all of these lists, there are very few general interest, one size fits all publications that people pay for. Instead, they tend to pay for publications that are specialized and have an in depth focus on a particular subject, often one that helps them get a leg up in their careers. That being said, everyone agreed that they still value the local newspaper and would be upset if it disappeared.

From there, I told the group that since advertising revenue (in print or online), may not be able to support the kind of local journalism that they said they valued (investigative, watchdog, in-depth etc), we as an industry have to think of some new ways to make money.

The group came up with some interesting ideas and it was a spirited discussion. The session began at 12:30 p.m., and was only supposed to last until 1 p.m., when it was time for lunch. But despite the fact that lunch was being set up right behind us and we could all smell the tacos, people stayed until about 1:15 to continue talking. Danny Sanchez, an online producer extraordinaire for the Sentinel, said this “warmed his heart.”

Here are some of the most ideas/comments that came out of the session, along with some of my additional thoughts. I’m not naive enough to think that these ideas are new or that if some or all of them were implemented, we would save newspapers. I also recognize that I am commenting on things that are outside my usual area of expertise, so feel free to correct me if I get something wrong or offer additional information in the comments.

Any views expressed here are my own and do not represent the views of my employer.

IDEA: Charge for an ad-free version of newspaper.com

Several people said they hated all the ads there are on newspaper sites. Newspaper sites with lots of ads that take too long to load make people less likely to return, a few people said. As Matt Mansfield said on Friday, newspapers need to pay more attention to things like load time, usability and interface design.

The idea here is to create an alternate version of newspaper.com that is free of ads and then charge people to access it. It’s similar to the “freemium” concept you see with iPhone apps.

My thoughts: I don’t think this would be too hard to do, but I’m not sure how much demand there would be for this kind of thing. Many newspapers have created electronic editions which mirror the look and feel of a print paper, which they charge people to access. But my sense is these have not been very successful. Perhaps if, in addition to being ad-free, these sites were better designed and cleaner than normal newspaper web sites, people would be willing to pay. The New York Times’ “Article Skimmer” (pictured below) comes to mind.

IDEA: Let readers pay to get premium coupons

The idea here is to create a way for readers to pay a small fee that gives them access to special coupons from local and perhaps national retailers. The paper could also charge the businesses to be a part of it. This is similar to the Entertainment Books, which are often sold by groups for fund raising.

This idea came from a discussion of the huge role coupons play in the decision to purchase or subscribe to the Sunday paper. Several people said the only reason they pay for the Sunday print edition is for the local coupons. These people said coupons were so important to them, that they would be willing to pay to get access to even better deals.

The Sentinel does have a “Dining Deals” section of its Web site where readers can purchase gift certificates to area restaurants at a discounted price, but people suggested that they wanted more than just gift certificates.

My thoughts: The ability to distribute local coupons is one of the few advantages that newspapers still have over other media. But just as everything else is moving from a paper to digital world, so too are coupons.  The Internet is full of sites where you can print out coupons to use on groceries, toiletries and other items. But there is a dearth of sites that let you print out local coupons. Pretty soon, printing out coupons will become obsolete as the adoption of smartphones continues to grow. In the next few years, I expect to see a lot of applications and programs that allow you to access coupons on your iPhone or BlackBerry and then hand the device to the cashier to scan the coupons. There’s already an iPhone app that does this called Coupon Sherpa, but it doesn’t have a lot of participating retailers yet. In addition, the popular grocery list iPhone app Grocery IQ was purchased by coupons.com, which has led many people to believe that coupons on the iPhone will be part of the app.

Creating an online coupon club would ensure that newspaper continue to hold the upper hand in giving people access to local coupons. Since local coupons are not widely available online or on mobile phones yet, this is an opportunity for newspapers.

IDEA: Local newspaper browser plug-in

One man, who was obviously very technically savvy said he spends all day online where he is constantly reading the latest news. He said that one of the main values of a local newspaper is in being able to offer a local perspective or spin on major national news. Therefore, he suggested that the Sentinel (and other local newspapers) create a browser plugin that would detect the subject of the news article you were reading and then you could click or hover with your mouse to have the local take (from the local paper) appear on your screen.

For instance, say you were looking at a New York Times or CNN article on the latest unemployment figures. With one click (or perhaps this could happen automatically), you would see a blurb of text from the Sentinel (or your local paper), with the latest on unemployment in Central Florida (or your local area). You could click to be taken to the full version of that story.

My thoughts: This isn’t necessarily an idea for a new revenue stream, but it is a way to draw more eyeballs to your site. I think it’s a pretty clever idea and I don’t know that it would be too hard to create. There are thousands of Firefox plugins out there, so an “Orlando Sentinel browser plugin” would fit right in. One thing I like about this idea is that it acknowledges the fact that in a world with a dizzying array of media outlets, the local perspective is still important. It’s kind of the opposite of Publish 2, which lets news organizations display links to coverage of a big local or national story from around the Web to supplement its own coverage.

IDEA: Sponsored events organized by the paper

One person mentioned that a local newspaper could raise money by holding events and getting companies to pay to be sponsors. Besides generating money to cover the costs of the events, the paper would be able to raise enough to generate revenue. The person mentioned the fact that Barcamp Orlando is able to be free and give out T-shirts and free lunch because of sponsors. Although sponsors are involved, it doesn’t dilute the quality or authentic, grass roots feel of the event.

My thoughts: I’m the organizer of the “Orlando Tweetup,” which is an informal gathering of local people who are active on Twitter. We had the first gathering in February, and it was a huge success with more than 100 people coming. The next one is planned for April 30, and I could see having sponsors. Yes, there are some tricky issues here because I am a reporter and if some of the local companies that I write about want to sponsor the event, it might not be a good idea for me to coordinate the sponsorships. But I don’t see why the Sentinel, or any other local newspaper couldn’t have sponsors for an event. After all, we are able to write objectively about local companies even though many of them advertise with us.

This wouldn’t generate a huge amount of money, but it would generate goodwill and increased exposure for the newspaper.

IDEA: Add a “donate” button to the Web site

This was an idea I presented to the group, which was quickly shot down. The general consensus seemed to be that people would not want to donate to a for profit company like the Orlando Sentinel because it is owned by a out of town media congolomerate. People said they generally only like to donate to non-profits (like NPR), or small operations (such as Leo Laporte’s TWIT podcast). One person told me a big motivation for donating is the ability to get a tax write-off.

My thoughts: I’m still not sure what harm there would be in adding a “Donate” button to a newspaper Web site. Lots of people have “donate” buttons on their blogs through services like PayPal or “Smartypig.” Smartypig lets you set a goal, such as raising $200 for a new iPhone, and then gives you the ability to put a badge on your blog tracking your progress and letting people click to donate money. You’d be surprised at how many people choose to donate money this way.

So why not do this on a newspaper Web site? Yes, it’s true that it probably won’t raise a lot of money and it might anger some people, but it would be an interesting experiment, especially in a case like the Boston Globe, where the community is rallying to “save” the Globe. Adding a “donate” button would let Boston residents show just how much they care about their newspaper.

I spoke with one person at BarCamp Orlando who said he would like to give money to support the Sentinel, but he doesn’t want to subscribe because he doesn’t like the papers piling up in his house. He said he might be willing to pay for a print subscription, but not actually have the paper delivered. A donate button would give him another option.

Final thoughts

First, thanks to everyone who came and took part in this discussion. As Danny said, it was really great that so many of you care enough about your local paper that you want to help us solve our problems.

For other journalists reading this, I encourage you to try and hold similar discussions. As I said at the start, too often these conversations take place solely among people who work in newspapers. Whatever solutions newspapers come up with, they are going to have to pass muster with our local readers and community members, so it’s in your best interest to get them involved early. Here are a few tips for having a similar pow wow.

Do it at a neutral site

Inviting people to your newsroom will make the event feel too formal and it could intimidate people or prevent them from speaking freely. Look for already scheduled events that you can hold a discussion at, such as a BarCamp or unconference.

Have a community ambassador

One of the reasons I was able to have so many people come to the disussion is because I’m a familiar face at local tech gatherings and events. I’d like to think that people know me, like me and trust me, so when they saw my name on the board at BarCampOrlando, they wanted to hear what I had to say. If you have someone who is well liked in the community, use them to organize a discussion. Don’t just parachute in and expect people to come just because you are the local paper.

Don’t be defensive

As a newspaper, you know there are things you do that people love and things you do that people hate. If someone makes an off hand comment such as “there’s barely any news left in the paper” don’t get defensive and try to prove them wrong. I started off my discussion by asking people if they agreed that they would like to see the Orlando Sentinel continue in some form. Once everyone said yes, it allowed us to have an open and honest discussion. Don’t let the discussion stray into what you should or shouldn’t be covering, that’s a topic for a different kin dof gathering. The discussion here should be about “what can we do to save this thing that we all agree is worth saving.”