Can bloggers help save the Globe?

It seems like multiple sources that I have seen think Adam should take over the blogs at least!

I'm happy to participate by posting this on my own LJ, but who is going to collect all of the resulting comments and suggestions from all the different blogs that are doing this?

it's failing because when the whole world went left, the Globe continued to go arrogantly to the right and continues to this day.

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All of these developments -- the Blog Rally, the behind-closed-doors meetings, the Globe's self-coverage, the Herald's coverage, pieces by folks like Eileen McNamara (thank you for pointing out this isn't about greedy unions), and criticisms of the Globe itself -- are part of a long-overdue reckoning that may have the effect of saving the paper in a form that works for Greater Boston.

I'll repeat my two cents:

1. News -- Emphasize first-rate news and investigative coverage of Greater Boston. That's the singular, indispensable contribution of the Globe, above all else.

2. Opinion -- Embrace Boston's mythology as the Athens of America: turn your op-ed, cultural, and sports pages into the city's town square. The paper badly need fresh perspectives. (My guess is that a lot of folks in the 02138 zip code don't even read the paper regularly, so why keep kissing up to them?)

3. Be the First -- Boston and Massachusetts pride themselves on being places of Firsts, so take the lead and become the first major daily to master a high-quality, economically viable hybrid approach between print and web-based delivery of the news.

4. Consider a Globe-Herald Merger -- I'd rather have one very feisty daily than two that take turns being on the brink of extinction as they eviscerate their newsrooms. If Boston cannot support two dailies, then perhaps it can support one that attempts to represent the many tribes here.

Sadly, I see very little "can do" spirit in the current situation; it appears to be more like treating a patient in the late stages of a seemingly incurable, horrible disease, removing body parts 'till there's nothing left to save. Maybe all of this civic reaction is what is needed to turn things around.

http://visionsofcody.net/2009/04/blog-rally-to-sav...

Part of the problem with being a humorist is that people don’t take you seriously when you have legitimate ideas. Now I’m not really complaining, as I produce at least 100 high-larious jokes for each legitimate idea that I have. But as a lover of newspapers I felt compelled to sincerely participate in Paul Levy’s blog rally to save The Boston Globe.

Your first question is probably “what’s a blog rally,” which is an excellent question that I have no answer for. Then again, I suspect that any respectable blog rally would not require me to leave my blog-cave, change out of my sweatpants or pass on the grilled cheese that Mom cooked for lunch, so I’m in.

The core problem with The Globe (and my household) is that it spends much more money each week than it makes. And unlike the various Ponzi schemes on Wall Street, there’s apparently no bailout money from Uncle Sucker for the newspaper industry. So the following things are going to have to happen to save The Globe:

1) They'll probably have to declare bankruptcy so they can renegotiate their existing contracts.
2) They'll probably need to be sold (preferably to local ownership) so that they can focus on the core business – journalism – and nothing else. No baseball teams, no jai alai leagues – just journalism.

Assuming those two things happen here’s what I would do next:

Print edition:

Monday through Saturday: Turn the Metro (or sell stake in Metro and create new version) into The Boston Globe Express. Free distribution model within 128 only. Merely provide synopses of stories and drive readers to web to read the full article. Make it a little smarter and better written than the Metro but continue to position it as a 20-minute read for commuters. Also offer BGE as a daily download that can be read on your handheld device on- or off-line.

Sunday: Restore the Sunday Globe to its former glory. Capitalize on the consumer's latent desire to wake up on Sunday with a coffee and a real paper. Focus on regional and local stories and sports. Provide efficient delivery service (i.e. guaranteed delivery by 7 a.m.)

Boston.com:

Completely integrate The Boston Globe online into Boston.com. Truly leverage the social networking powers of the web and foster a two-way conversation between readers and journalists. Redesign the site so that it’s a compelling web experience rather than a newspaper reproduced online. Allow users to have more creative input and interaction. Make Boston.com a destination on the web for all things Boston. Create exclusive content (i.e. Globe 10.0) in the form of videos and podcasts and don’t bury content under 5 layers of links. Turn the blog aggregation function over to Adam Gaffin’s Universal Hub.

So that’s my basic plan: free mini-paper during the week, best-in-class Sunday paper and next generation web experience. Now, how do we make the money?

1) Print advertising: ads in the BGE and the Sunday Globe.
2) Web advertising: contextual search ads and banner ad on the new (higher traffic) Boston.com
3) Subscriptions: on the Sunday Globe only, plus reward subscribers with member-only benefits, i.e. exclusive online chats, meet and greets, additional content, cross-promotional discounts, etc.
4) Donations: Follow the NPR model and request donations from readers. Emphasize transparency and show exactly where the money is going – i.e. to journalism and not to luxury boxes at Fenway.

Obviously it’s going to take a while for The Globe to get back into the black but I believe that if they focus on the core mission – providing compelling news content – they might just get there.

People want investigative journalism. You can only afford to pay reporters to investigate when you have money to pay them.

Some software companies have setup methods for receiving input from their users as to what features come next. Users suggest feature improvements, users also then rate which features that have been suggested they would like to support (using a small points system..."I add 3 points to blogger123's idea of having an eraser on your new pencil design!").

Now, back to the paper, let the users drive your investigations. Let users suggest what stories or aspects of life they need more information on that they're not getting elsewhere. The recent interesting MBTA train on-time analysis was driven by readers writing in complaining about how they feel like they're being lied to about the current train schedules. Small fee to list an item, small cost to purchase the "points" that let you support other ideas already listed. If the people want to hear more about a potential story on the MBTA, then they'll be directly funding the reporter who will be doing that story by paying to bump up that specific story. You could also list all of the reporters and if a particular reporter/columnist is doing better or worse, then they can put their money-backed points behind him or her, giving an instant read out (sorta like an American Idol of journalism) as to whose stories are driving readership. Hell, let them pay to put points AGAINST someone whose reporting they really hate in the hopes of getting their contributions removed or substantially reduced from the paper (I'd easily pay $20 if it meant less Shaugnessy in my sports section). Users will war with each other (spending money all the way) to keep their favorites in the Plus column while others who absolutely detest the writer will (spending money all the way) try to put the guy in the gutter in the Minus column.

Any story (and/or reporter) who reaches a specific threshold of "fundability" then gets acted upon and shows up in a paper soon after. If you want to drive more points being put into the system, you can do something like kick back half of the points to the users who make a story reach its fundability threshold. If a story idea doesn't reach fundability after a specific amount of time, it expires. You either take that money or do something like refund half of it again. Any points unspent are still money in the bank to work with as invested capital.

Win-win: Public drives the news they want to read (thus boosting readership) and the paper learns how to satisfy the readership while getting paid directly to the point of doing it.

PS - You can also let people use their points as a "tip jar" on articles that you might write that don't come from this system but that the public appreciated after it was written anyways. This will give columnists and other reporters/photogs independence to keep doing what they want to do instead of being directly driven by the users and yet still reap points out of the system and drive investment by the users.