View email in your browser
[link removed]
.
[link removed]
Something cool is happening in Little Rock, Arkansas. Subscribers of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette are getting iPads pre-loaded with the paper’s app so they can read a replica of the actual print newspaper. Those papers are no longer delivered, except on Sunday.
Mark Jacob wrote
[link removed]
about the experiment for Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative, and Poynter co-published an abridged version
[link removed]
of that story. In June, Lindsay Millar wrote about it for the Arkansas Times
[link removed]
. And in May, Hannah Grabenstein wrote about it for the Associated Press
[link removed]
.
I love Grabenstein’s lead:
HOPE, Ark. (AP) — Over a lunch of hamburger steaks, mashed potatoes and green beans, Walter Hussman delivered his pitch to the dozen or so attendees of the Hope, Arkansas, Rotary Club meeting. He promised that if they keep paying their current rate of $36 a month for subscription to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper, even though it will no longer be printed daily or delivered to their door, they’ll get a free iPad to view a digital version.
So far, Jacob reported, Hussman has given out 27,000 iPads, “with an overall subscriber retention rate of 78 percent.”
There are questions, of course, about whether or not this is replicable and sustainable. But even if you can’t convince your newsroom to invest in iPads, it offers a good reminder.
Change is really rough. I think of this every time my phone or Twitter or Gmail auto update and I have to get reoriented. Jacob reports in his story that Democrat-Gazette readers aren’t deprived of their papers and expected to figure their way around the site or app. The site offers an e-newspaper. Whatever kind of newsroom you’re in, change is always easier when it comes in teeny, tiny baby steps.
But have you moved past those teeny, tiny baby steps yet? Do you still talk in newspaper inches while writing for the web? Or write print headlines (word word semicolon sentence)? Or feel like your job is done once you hit publish? My writing changed when I realized I didn’t write the way I read. I started to focus on headlines that caught my eye. I paid attention to the mushy middle of long stories that I easily clicked away from. And I started building in time to share that story and engage with readers.
If you’re still reading in print or on your desktop, how about a challenge? Read everything this week just on your phone. Let me know what you notice. I will not reward you with an iPad. But I would love to hear from you.
The cover of the iPads issued to subscribers features the logo of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. (Mark Jacob/Medill Local News Initiative)
While you’re here:
In my first job, I remember listening to writing advice from Des Moines Register reporter Ken Fuson at journalism conferences. His obit
[link removed]
is yet another master class.
The Native American Journalists Association and Report for America have teamed up
[link removed]
to cover indigenous communities.
Joshua Chang spent a year covering hate crimes in Los Angeles for Crosstown, a nonprofit site that covers crime, traffic and health. Here’s what he learned
[link removed]
.
Check out this directory
[link removed]
on getting grants for journalism from the Raleigh, North Carolina, News & Observer.
This project is expanding
[link removed]
statehouse reporting.
I’ve featured local investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell a few times, and his newest book
[link removed]
, “Race Against Time,” shows a career of covering cold cases from the Civil Rights era.
You have until Valentine’s Day
[link removed]
to apply for Poynter’s Leadership Academy for Diversity in Digital Media.
That’s it for me! See you next week!
[link removed] on social
[link removed] on social
[link removed] on social
The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute & News University
801 Third Street South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
© All rights reserved Poynter Institute 2020
unsubscribe from all emails
[link removed]
update subscription preferences
[link removed]
