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Windsor Digital

Handmade digital strategy from the heartland.

Shopping for readers: a proposal for local news

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As she often does, Amy Gahran got me thinking today, this time about the average-at-best job local news organizations do covering consumer news. She asks whether news orgs could focus on shopping year-round, and not just on Black Friday, to do a better job of offering utility to readers.

The short answer: yes. The long answer, though, needs to also address the nagging question of why newspapers aren’t doing this already.

Ultimately, I think the problem is how we define what journalism is. And under currently-accepted definitions, helping shoppers find deals isn’t up there with Comforting the Afflicted and Afflicting the Comfortable. The irony is – especially in our current economy – data-driven consumer reporting could be of incredible value to local communities.

To figure why this is – why What’s On Sale is relegated to the commercial side of the house – let’s step back for a second and look at what newspaper do cover.

Is this journalism?

I think we’d all agree that covering the intricacies of local government counts as journalism. Certainly tallying the numbers and types of crimes – whether through narrative journalism or in a database – is journalism as well. Grading a movie? Tracking baseball stats? Charting the financial performance of local companies? All journalism.

But what about sales and deals? What if news organizations reported on that? Where are the best shoe sales? Which grocery chain has the cheapest milk? Which stores have the worst parking lots or the shortest check-out times? Is this journalism?

And what about auto mechanics? Who can you trust? Who specializes in Mini Cooper repair? What’s the going rate for an oil change? Is this journalism?

These examples may not read like dream assignments, even for someone fresh out of J-school. But they could very well be exactly the information that people in our market are looking for, but can’t find. Anywhere.

So, if it is journalism, why not do it?

So the question is simple, but provocative: if it’s just as difficult to report on the machinations of a complex government bureaucracy as it is to scope out the best deals this week at Big Box Mall (both can’t be effectively automated and both require reporting) why do news organizations choose to do one and not the other? And are we sure that readers would agree with that choice?

I’d argue that if newspapers want to grow readership and revenue, they to do both. They need to think even more broadly about what they mean when they talk about “reporting.” And they need to think of new and more useful ways to deliver that information that gets to the user when she wants it and needs it. This flips the existing reporting hierarchy upside-down:

Imagine a team of reporters whose job it is to cover consumer spending – arguably one of the most important drivers of our local economies and something all of our readers spend many hours doing – from the point-of-view of the consumer. And not in the traditional way, through columns and slice-of-life narratives, but with real-world data that will make it easier for people in our markets to live their lives. How surprising and welcome would that be?

And imagine a structure that would allow for data to come from multiple sources – reporting shoe-leather, data-feeds from participating retailers, reports submitted by readers – and distributed at the moment of greatest need: when a reader is at the mall, in the supermarket or in the car.

For a significant portion of the local audience, this is exactly the kind of high-utility, relevant information they need and that a large, organized newsroom is uniquely qualified to provide.

If only we’d agree that it’s journalism.

Who’s doing this well? Any examples of any US newspapers marshalling significant forces against retail data reporting?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Actually I would argue that hyperlocal small news organizations are better positioned to cover such things because it's already in our DNA. I'm currently working on our Christmas tree price survey; we launched a forum section some weeks back “Freebies, Deals, Sales” and I find myself posting in it more than anyone, because I'm coming up with info about sales and other deals. We also post business news that is reader-relevant – which restaurant added Sunday brunch, that type of thing. We still don't do enough of it but reading your post here makes me realize it's probably because I still have some leftover squeamishness from my 25-plus years in old media and we could stand to step it up further.

  3. Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Whether it's a major metro (which you correctly note may be a tough stretch), a community paper, an online-only hyperlocal organization or other, the idea is that this information exists and the first organization that does a good job of organizing it stands to benefit from audience and associated revenue growth.

    What's your site? I'd love to take a look.

  4. Justin,

    I like these kinds of blogs which are good baby steps, but I'm also wondering who will start to think about organizing all the data points into a usable mobile tool. I'd use it, and, at the right price, I'd pay for it. Maybe even a hybrid pay model, where you can mitigate the subscription cost by submitting a certain number of data points every week.

  5. A staple of the first papers published in this country was a listing of the ships arriving in harbor and what cargo they carried. Readers wanted to know that nails, linen, tea or wine soon would be in the local shops or available at the dock. Maybe someone should experiment with a Twitter feed or something like it, reporting posted sales. Two websites have built quite a following with little more than gasoline prices. I liked that consumer-news blog that one of you pointed out at the Raleigh N&O.

  6. Tim,

    I think your ideas are excellent, but I also think it is the kind of undertaking that the business side of newspapers should take the lead on experimenting with, with newsrooms choosing their involvement more carefully. How about a Digg-like interface for advertisers who are willing to pitch their best deals to our readers? great deals get voted up by our readers, poor deals drift to the bottom.

    Maybe we have to focus on serving the needs of one master — the consumer, the reader — over the ever-elusive “advertiser” in order to build an audience with staying power that's addicted to our information.

    Check out http://www.crowdsprout.com — a new site that operates on the principle of collective buying power. Why couldn't a newspaper company build something like this for its readers — a site that acts like a fluid, virtual marketplace?

    Anyhow, I like your ideas. I think some will become reality, if not for newspapers, than for other bizes that traffic in news and information.

  7. How about even the basics of making a story of practical use to the reader. Our “Food” section every week is full of recipes — but often one or more ingredients aren't available in town. Or, if they are, maybe only at a few small ethnic groceries. Why not take a few minutes to call around and include where such ingredients can be found (or not bother printing the recipe if they're not available here)?

    Same with wine reviews — some of the wines reviewed and/or recommended in the wire-service copy we routinely print aren't available here. Why are we bothering?

  8. And imagine if those recipes and wine reviews were databased then flagged when primary ingredients (steak, flounder) or a particular vintage show up on sale at the local Safeway. Wouldn't that be useful?

    This stuff can be done. A few smart developers, a platoon of interns, some dedicated reporters and (once they see what's in it for them) a growing cadre of reader/reporters could build this into a very useful feature.

  9. And imagine if those recipes and wine reviews were databased then flagged
    when primary ingredients (steak, flounder) or a particular vintage show up
    on sale at the local Safeway. Wouldn't that be useful?

    This stuff can be done. A few smart developers, a platoon of interns, some
    dedicated reporters and (once they see what's in it for them) a growing
    cadre of reader/reporters could build this into a very useful feature.

  10. To be super-useful, i'd like to see such a site incorporate bar-code technology on a mobile platform (with smart phones that can read bar codes.) so people can use their smartphones at stores to access that information while on the fly: product reviews, comparison pricing, recipes, etc. can something like this be done without using bar-code tech? it seems like the lowest common technology denominator for this type of use.

    it would be exciting to see something like this in action. but i'm not sure a traditional newspaper company will undertake such a venture. however, i wouldn't be surprised if unemployed journalists end up getting involved in these types of efforts. 🙂

  14. To be super-useful, i'd like to see such a site incorporate bar-code technology on a mobile platform (with smart phones that can read bar codes.) so people can use their smartphones at stores to access that information while on the fly: product reviews, comparison pricing, recipes, etc. can something like this be done without using bar-code tech? it seems like the lowest common technology denominator for this type of use.

    it would be exciting to see something like this in action. but i'm not sure a traditional newspaper company will undertake such a venture. however, i wouldn't be surprised if unemployed journalists end up getting involved in these types of efforts. 🙂

  17. Very cool discussion and brainstorming. The part that really caught my eye was "Maybe we have to focus on serving the needs of one master — the consumer, the reader — over the ever-elusive "advertiser" in order to build an audience with staying power that's addicted to our information."

    Yes and nicely put. Addicted is just the right word. as in "addicted to books, or the Mets, or Rock n' Roll. Another word describing the same activity are fans. Fans are very happy to buy stuff that signfies their fandom. So while serving the needs of one master, you can use the web to nurture tribes of fans. Then instead of advertising other people's stuff to sell, invent stuff to sell them directly. It seems to be working for the NewYorker magazine. <a href=”http://www.newyorker.com/"” target=”_blank”>www.newyorker.com/"