Because life is too short to read boring newspapers…

Juan Antonio Giner of Innovation Media speaks about how media companies can make newspapers again a necessary product for everyone

Newspapers are content providers, and the content should be reinvented. The crisis of newspapers is the crisis of content. According to Juan Antonio Giner, 99% of what we produce is news – news of yesterday, and this is the real crisis of this industry. There are not enough exlusive news in the newspapers.

Does this mean the newspapers are going to be out business? yes – if they are in the old newspaper business. No – if they are able to change the content and adapt in the new information business. The speaker proved his point by bringing the recent change in the name of INMA – the organisation that is no longer International Newspaper Marketing Association but International Newsmedia Marketing Association.

In order to survive, newspapers have to:

• diversify
• converge
• integrate (reorganize the offices)

What is needed to be kept unchanged are things newspaper should be good in: credibility, reporting, editing, design skills, presentation skills (visual, print) and profits.

A good marketing of “O Globo” (Brazil) is a great way of communicating the readers how the future of newspaper might look like. And this future is now:

A quote to remember: “On Line, On Time, Full Time”

Newspapers should not think in the category of readers only. It is hight time to obtain the new strategy, where readers, audiences, and communities come into play.

One of examples of such strategies is “The Economist” whose model is a 24/7 online operation plus a weekly print product. “The Economist” is an perfect example of the newspaper that delivers news in an advance, instead of repeating them from yesterday.

Another newspaper to follow is “Correio” (Brazil) which 6 months ago was facing bacruptcy. Now, after the implemented changes it is a 20/80 newspaper – 20% news, 80% stories. First section begins with news (24 hours section) the other sections contain stories. Each news story from the front is linked to the next pages, where readers can find stories. It is the newdynamics: when users have the news, they request stories. As theresult, the advertising income for “Correio” went 100% up.

Juan Antonio Giner presented a prototype of a new kind of high quality newspaper, that he called “a daily Economist”. It represents a 30/30 model – 30 seconds, 30 minutes. It was recommended with a catchy statement:

Goodbye long form, hello short form
Long is good, short is better
Long takes too long
Long is out
Short is in

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