Now that the conversation has shifted from “Can traditional media be saved?” to “What’s next?” many of us are suggesting ideas. Not surprisingly, some-tried-and-true basics are returning to the forefront.
For example, generations of editors have ordered writers to “tell a story” when they report an article and to “use people” as examples in their tale. And for generations, reporters have flaunted that advice because they ran out of time before deadline or were not talented or were lazy.
Now, however, that story-telling admonition is being pushed to suit the 21st century. New York Times writer Nicholas Kristoff wrote a column last month in which he revealed that he consciously seeks out the most heart-rending “victims” when he writes about disasters, in part to encourage financial support for the cause he is reporting on. The Kristoff stories that get the best response in terms of donations all concentrate on a single victim of whatever calamity he is exploring. He always tries to find a girl to write about because they elicit more response than boys who face the same plight.
I think that, along the same lines, the writers who involve themselves in the story, who reveal some of their history and personality, may be the best suited to write for the Internet. With all the sorting that readers must do for themselves when they no longer rely on traditional media to choose the best reads for them, it may be that a personal connection to the writer will help readers decide what to read.
Oprah has done this successfully for years, and Kristoff does it, too. He has the advantage of traveling around the world to write first-hand about some of the most interesting issues in the world. But he also tweets and updates his 147,000 Facebook fans with daily anecdotes that will never get into The New York Times. (Most of us aren’t Kristoff. We’re more likely to be middle-aged middle managers, but there are other ways to entice readers besides traveling to Darfur.)
Kristoff is taking a well-worn tact with modern twists. Think of all the columnists who made names for themselves and syndicated their work in newspapers around the country. There was Erma Bombeck (who based an entire lucrative career based on one great book title: “The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank); and on the other end of the spectrum, people like Russell Baker, who was pretty much a genius. Television newsman Walter Cronkite seemed to care about us, and we bonded with him. Each gave us a reason to seek him or her for humor or insight.
Today, personality or experience-based blogs give young journalists a route to publication that most would not have in this era of shrinking newsrooms. (Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, includes blogs among his list of writing and reporting activities that might comprise journalism in the near future.)
But an aspect that hasn’t been fully explored, and that might be the key to saving journalism, is how to apply this concept to advertising. (Traditional media are not fading away because people are less interested in journalism. It’s that the cash from advertising is drying up, starving the mass media model.)
So perhaps advertising on the Internet should look something like a blog, with advertisers talking to us directly about their wares — as they entertain us and inform us. Again, the roots of this concept already exist. We are all familiar with the overly loud and obnoxious pitchman (who gives us the creeps but, on the other hand, is a millionaire). This is not the only successful advertising model, but it might be especially suited to the Internet, where we all are trying to attract eyeballs in a fragmented marketplace.
Every morning the local grocer might offer advice on what to prepare for dinner tonight as a way to make you look at his web advertisement. It might also be another opportunity for writers to make a living, because most of these businesspeople don’t have the time, talent or inclination to pitch themselves. They would hire ghostwriters.
And any news organization, existing or new, could take advantage of it.
Finally, the efficiency of the Internet might bring a smile to all those old editors who have been talking about telling stories for all those years.
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Write to Steinmetz at Steinmetzp@wcsu.edu and find him on Facebook and Twitter.
