San Phillipa Herald Case
The assembled staff sat at the ornate conference table. Joei LaMesa momentarily looked out the window at the city of San Phillipa. San Phillipa was a medium sized city in California's central valley. Like most American cities, there was only one newspaper, the San Phillipa Herald. Just a few years ago there were three, including two morning papers and one afternoon paper. But the lack of competition didn't make Joei feel any better. Readership was down and getting lower every year. Not only that, the owner was worried about the competition from online services.The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the planned foray of the San Phillipa Herald into cyberspace. As publisher, Joei knew that the job of deciding what the Herald should do would fall to her.
The meeting quickly turned argumentative. A new editor named Mark made a proposal that the Herald produce a snappy, irreverent "interactive 'zine" called the San Phillipa Phile. The Phile would emphasize games, interactive chat sessions between readers, and entertainment and leisure. A veteran editor, Jane, argued that the Herald should pattern its online presence after its paper version.
"Our unique advantage online is no different from our regular paper version. As a company, what we do is produce content. We should provide the same kinds of news stories that we do in the regular paper. That way we can utilize all the quality reporters we have hired," Jane said.
"Not only that," she continued, "our online version should use the same graphics and the same logo as our paper version. That way we can leverage our brand image in this new format."
But Mark was just as adamant.
"This project should be different than our regular paper. The look should be modern, the format should take advantage of the different delivery channel. This product shouldn't remind readers of a newspaper at all."
Jane wasn't finished. She looked at Joei. "We have invested millions of dollars in our image. Why should we throw all of that away? " Here she made the motion of dollars floating to the ground with her hands. "The Herald's name will help this new venture. And not only that, it could work the other way around. The online investment could be a great ad for the Herald. "
Joei thanked everyone for the input and walked down the hall to her office.
Some Background: New and Old Media
Various media companies use the Internet as an outlet. You might recognize some of the names from the first list below, which consists of established magazines and newspapers that also have an online presence.
- The New York Times
- The Wall Street Journal
- Chicago Tribune
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Chicago Reader
- Time Magazine
- Business Week
-
Christian Science Monitor
Some Background: Media Production and Consumption
Nicholas Negroponte, in his 1995 book, Being Digital, discusses two criteria for assessing media: how the medium is consumed, and “where the intelligence lies.” The first criterion refers to how people use a particular medium. A television program is viewed in much the same way by all viewers: we all watch it from beginning to end as it is broadcast. (Products such as TiVo, which incorporate a digital VCR, may change this pattern, however.) A newspaper or magazine can be read in many different ways. One person may start with the sports section, while another turns first to business news. The Web, however, with its hyperlinks, can be “read” in many, many different ways.A medium’s “intelligence” refers to who creates the content. For television, content is created by the producers and writers. Viewers are passive recipients of the programming. (Enhanced TV is said to be “interactive,” but viewers do not actually alter the content.) Print media (newspapers and magazines) allow for limited interaction between content providers and readers via the “letters to the editors” sections. A Web site, however, can be designed for true interaction. Initially content is provided by the Web designer, but over time users can add their own content and/or customize a site. The discussion of the Halfsed Jeans assignment in Chapter 11 presented examples of Web sites that incorporated interactive chat with customer service representatives. Many other sites, such as the Interactive Wall Street Journal, have a bulletin board or chat room feature that allows readers to post their comments about current articles.