It’s a challenge and an exercise, posed by Good, a new magazine “for people who give a damn.” You’ll find it in the March/April “Media Issue” on the back page. Couldn’t resist, of course. Since I give a damn, I gave it my best, putting together all sorts of my ideas on a single page. Especially, the one about teasing stories … Make people buy it, open it and read! (Sure it’s tacky, but so are people who’ll read that Page One story and not fork over 50 cents.) Since you probably can’t read the thumbnail image posted here, click here to see a full-blown .pdf of my “New Paper” front page.
TV-related ideas
Innovate More Immediacy: Cellphone Extras
You’re relaxing on the couch or in your easy chair, reading a story about … a politician ranting … a great new song … the world’s worst snorer. Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to move to see or hear a clip? Just hear or see it on your cell. Maybe the story has a number to dial. For each clip. Or, better yet, to download all the clips at once. Then you pick the ones you want. Might have some sort of instant access if cellphone cameras could be used as barcode-readers. Just point at some scanner code, and, voila, you get the clip. Could make newspapers much more immediate and fun … and get people saying to friends and fellow commuters, “Hey, did you see this?”
Drama Lessons Taken From TV
Steve Lovelady, an ex-Inquirer editor, once made the memorable remark that newspaper’s biggest threat wasn’t TV news, but TV dramas like L.A. Law. The ability of TV to captivate is a big reason Americans have less time to read. So meet the challenge by embracing dramatic storytelling. Instead of inching multiple crime stories along day by day, adding this ID and that blind investigative alley, patiently flesh out the full story until it can recreated in full, suspenseful narrative fashion. Make it a must-read, like must-see TV. And schedule such stories regularly. Perhaps even do reruns. (Book collections of such cases?) Document the day-to-day details online, to stay competitive with radio and TV, but reserve the dramatic epic exclusively for print.
Reality Shows in Type
The needed newspaper revolution could learn from one on TV: Faltering ratings were boosted, temporarily at least, with the surge in reality TV. Basically, such shows were (a) cheap to produce, and (b) based on providing contrived vicarious thrills. How do real people behave? In a way, isn’t that one reason we read newspapers? To find out about ourselves? So why not (remember we’re talking the life or death of a business, a medium here) brainstorm ways to find out some of those answers using real people? Create a serial that runs every day, hooking readers to find out what comes next …
Help for the Helpless. Go to a halfway house or hospital and find people in need of a little support, a hand up. Tell their stories. Arrange sessions with experts. Chart progress. Appeal for help finding the people a job.
The Biggest Loser. There’s no reason a weight-loss group / contest can’t be a continuing saga.
Read Dating. Why not chronicle attempts by singles to meet a mate? Follow the tales of a small group as they try this service, these ads, this author’s advice, that online service.
The Apprentice. Again, why not a print version? A local business personality gets publicity in exchange for conducting an in-print talent search. With A-to-Z tips on finding jobs. Maybe run this in your Help Wanted section, to attract more attention to those ads.
Columnist for President. Sure, put your most lovable grassroots-stained wretch on the ballot. Then let him conduct the campaign in print. Offer equal time, of course, to the real candidates. Stupid? Subversive of the election process? Hey, maybe it would actually get people to pay attention to politics and even vote.
This is just a sample of the possibilities. In small towns where the local news is yawn-inducing and the national news has already been coopted by TV and CNN.com, sure could bring a little fun and life back to pulp.
Maybe coordinate this with a local TV news or radio talk show, boosting both parties on the Buzz Meter.
See what happens when you suspend focus on “news” and instead just think about what else can go on “paper”?
A Gossip Column About Our Fictional Celebrities
Gossip columns are popular, and so are TV series. Doesn’t it seem sometimes that people are almost as interested in TV characters as they are in real people? Aha! Do a newspaper column called “Character References” that’s “gossip” about what happened last night on TV. Write it up in chatty mock-shock-schlocky style. Boldface the unreal names. Only the wildest, wickedest, newsiest fictional events make the cut. Could broaden it to include famous characters from books and movies, too.