On July 9, 1998, after an uninterrupted run of monochrome glory spanning more than a century and half, the Old Grey Lady of Canadian newspapers - The Globe and Mail - responded to competitive pressures by belatedly embracing full-colour editorial content.
Ten years later, stylistic decisions that handcuffed Canada's largest daily in the nineties seem pretty straightforward in retrospect. While the large-scale shift of advertising dollars from print to online media is crippling American newspapers, north of the 49th parallel newspaper revenues are pretty stable overall due in part to "robust growth in online ad sales".
Last week, on the anniversary of the Old Grey Lady's makeover, Kamloops This Week and its parent Black Press provided a local example of how some Canadian newspapers are meeting the Internet challenge, by unveiling a variety of stylistic and content changes to the newspaper's web site instead of its paper manifestation. In this case, rather than signaling a concession to the marketplace, these incremental and ongoing changes instead demonstrate a wholesale commitment to becoming a different kind of news delivery vehicle.
The previous format of the KamloopsThisWeek.com / BCLocalNews.com web site (pictured below), was first introduced about a year ago. That presentation was very similar to the newspaper, but unfortunately that strength was also a weakness, as it boxed the highly visual, highly interactive potential of the Internet within the confines of a more traditional and static display.
In addition to a new layout and colour scheme, a variety of menu options have been introduced or expanded upon within the new design (below),
including ticker tape news headlines, a community calendar (currently
empty, but with a crowd-pleasing RSS feed), weather (complete with a
global warming blog), horoscopes, lotteries, comics, and a renewed
focus on Blogs written by Black Press staff.
Visitors are now treated to a much more visually-oriented experience, including the very nice touch of pictures within local obituaries. The "Videos from Around BC" tile on the home page is quite tactile, practically inviting the viewer to click and view (in this case, a short unannounced recording of fire fighting efforts in Dallas over the weekend, shot by Editor Christopher Foulds). Getting visitors to click is the trick; news and media web sites have some of the highest bounce rates among industries, so retaining visitors for a couple more page views (and ad impressions) is a solid good outcome.
My favorite feature? I can start a video, then continue to click n' browse on the home page while the video news item plays uninterrupted. Very nice!
The Black Press Internet platform appears to be managed corporately, rather than by any Kamloops-based developers. I personally like the results; the KTW news team is acquiring new skills (video reporting, near-time news delivery, etc.) which remain focused on the existing core competency, news. Meanwhile, the mother ship manages critical, but non-core functions like the technology platform.
These changes will undoubtedly help Kamloops This Week and Black Press retain and grow online revenues. But in some markets critics have expressed the concern that centralized corporate control could displace local editorial independence.
What do you think?
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