Leader Newspaper - Who actually reads it?
Over the weekend, I was having breakfast at a cafe on Bridport Street in Albert Park, and decided to grab a newspaper. I walked into a newsagent a bought The Age for the first time in as long as I can remember. It made me realise that I rarely read newspapers in their paper form. While I am a regular on www.theage.com.au I religiously read my morning RSS feeds of my favourite news portals, an aggregation of sorts.
So I started thinking about the news industry and how it is really starting to crumble under the weight of user generated media and the power of news syndication. And my thought FINALLY led me to think about the local newspaper...Leader.
Does anyone know how the local newspapers are doing in the light of slowing economic times, and dropping advertisers? I NEVER read Leader, but it's incredibly local. Does anyone go out of their way to read the local Leader?
What are your thoughts on the local news industry?
AJ
11 Comments
Arent these papers just glorified real estate magazines?
The Melbourne Times at least has lots of glossy colour pictures of the real estate!
Well a few people I know consider the Leader to contain too many ads and not enough local content? Having not read the Leader in a little while, I think I might give it a scan this weekend and see how it fares to online media portals. Perhaps the proliferation of ads in these local newspapers is a sign that they are somewhat struggling?
AJ
Maybe they are struggling. I don't know about their profits. I think it's more that their niche has been surpassed by the internet. The local paper used to be the only source of local news but it's not any more. Now you can go to http://www.localhero.biz or http://melbourne.metblogs.com/ and get lots of local info. This competition should make the local papers try harder!
It is more a matter of page turning rather than really reading the local newspaper. Very occasionally there is something of interest, but on the hole I tend to read it for the real estate.
Not sure about localhero.biz (they don't seem to be doing so well, and I know most people have never heard of them). Metroblogging on the other hand is a very interesting concept, and seems to be doing quite well globally. I like it, but I'm not sure this is competition for leader? Doesn't really feel the same? Perhaps I need to dig deeper.
AJ,
Pete from LocalHero.biz here. Not sure why you say we aren't doing so well?
Its still in beta but have you actually used the site. I think you'll find it a great way (maybe the best) to discover local content created by local people.
As for the new features that will come on line soon.....
Pete
http://localhero.biz
Hi shawfactor,
Thanks for joining the conversation! I did use localhero and while the concept it fantastic, I wasn't too taken with the design and lack of community involvement? I might be missing something, but there doesn't seem to be much you can do on the site apart from browse the news?
I do love the concept though, best of luck with everything!!
AJ
AJ,
Most of the work is on the backend which will enable many more features very shortly as well as an API.
A few points however about the current site:
- Interface is deliberately simple. ie drag the map and watch the articles and tagcloud change. I generally think simpler is better (but i could be wrong) although I certainly need to document it more.
- LocalHero currently, indexes, tags, standardises, geolocates etc more than just news. It has reference articles and opinion. I will add reviews this weekend and will add events in the next month or so (bit more work on that as events are in the fourth dimension).
Although LocalHero does have capacity to publish articles directly and comment on those articles that is not my current emphasis. My longer term plan is not to be an island of data it is to tie that information together. Hard to do as LocalHero is not my main job, more like a hobby/obsession
Enough from me though I am actually interested in your thoughts rather than my own....
Hi shawfactor,
In regards to design, yes simpler is always better...HOWEVER...while trying to maintain this mantra, you will always come to the point where you have to weigh up the issue of "too much information" versus "too little information" This is a tough one that we struggled with in the early days of StreetAdvisor. We simply had a search box on the home page, trying to "Keep It Simple Stupid". But as the site grew, we realised we had so much more information to offer. So you are constantly battling with having a simple design, yet trying to give the user as much information as possible. Remember that people in general have very short attention spans, especially online, and you need to get them the information they want as fast as possible.
Good to see you are adding more functionality, the more things people have to do on your site the better. It is always best to have the information flow both ways (not only give information, but allow users to share it as well)
Fantastic to see you are doing localhero in your spare time, that's how some of the best sites on the net came about!
AJ
The other great thing about the new technologies is that it encourages more people to CREATE news and information at the local level.