Matt Asay of CNET writes, “the answer to media’s woes is to stop pretending to be all things to all people, and instead to significantly up investment in a limited but potent brew of original news reporting, focused in areas in which one’s staff has competitive differentiation, as well as the best commentary for this and everything else.”
As I’ve said in the past, a publisher’s own original content still matters – and needs to be better than ever. As more and more content appears online, its average value may drop – but the value of unique, differentiated content (with higher barriers of entry) become higher (especially as navigation becomes more efficient).
As Jeff Jarvis / Kinsey Wilson says, “do what you do best and outsource the rest.” Focus on your own original content, and use a service like Daylife for the 360 view, all the other pieces and additional depth.
Just as the USA Today launched their Cruise Log using one editor + Daylife.
If indeed its true (it is) that some cities may be without a daily paper in 2010 – the way I’d fill the void is to build a lean, mean local operation by bringing together a 6-10 writers focusing on original material, and use a service like Daylife for everything else. It could be local or any niche – see how bigsoccer.com went from deep to deeper thanks to thousands of daylife-powered pages, complete with photos, videos, twitter feeds, quotes, search, etc.
Exciting times to be a publisher!
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