We published a lot of great content this year. This week’s newsXchange provided the top 10 News Media Alliance articles from 2016. See what our most-read articles were from the year – we think you’ll find they’re worth another read!
1. Debunking the ‘Newspapers Are Dying’ Idea
Published in honor of National Newspaper Week, Oct. 2-8, 2016 — Imagine waking up in a world without newspapers. “Ha!” You say, “I haven’t gotten a newspaper in years.” But I’m not talking about just the paper delivered by carriers or the postal service. I’m talking about the news online, the links on social media, the email newsletter, the source cited in the television broadcast and the push notification on your phone. The word newspaper no longer reflects the media industry encompassed by the word. It’s time to debunk the idea that “Newspapers Are Dying.”
2. Trump’s War on the Media
Donald Trump’s efforts to blacklist publications is an attack against our First Amendment right to freedom of the press. His treatment of journalists and the press isn’t just offensive or rude or political theater. It is a danger to our constitutional rights.
3. You Know That You Still Read a Newspaper, Right?
Legacy newspapers today manage two very different types of businesses: a print business that is slowly declining but actually makes money, and a digital daily news business that is growing audience rapidly but, like other digital content business, is struggling to figure out how to be consistently profitable. Legacy news organizations actually have some huge advantages over digital-only shops and shouldn’t be discounted.
4. The Donald Doesn’t Understand Libel Law … Which Surprises No One
Last week Donald Trump said, “I’m gonna open up our libel laws, so when they write purposely negative and horrible, false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.” Under the landmark Supreme Court case of New York Times vs. Sullivan, news organizations could be found liable when they deliberately publish false information, so the law is already established to do that.
5. Another Dumb Preconception about Digital Ads Dies
The digital realm is the future of publishing — and it is certainly the place where most innovation and forward-thinking is happening right now. But that doesn’t mean it is completely free of lazy or conventional thinking. After all, we still have banner ads that could have been designed by our great-grandfathers and pre-roll videos in commercial TV formats.
6. Rise of the Opinion Section
Recently, a number of news media outlets have announced the expansion of their opinion section offerings, even creating new ones all together, to accompany its current news coverage. The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and The Tennessean, among others, have cited a variety of reasons for why they are further investing in these pages, and all tie back to the common desire to engage and connect with readers.
7. Opinion: Ad Blocking Threatens Democracy
Published on Digiday – By David Chavern, News Media Alliance president & CEO — Digital ads can sometimes be very annoying. Slow load times and often chaotic content can drive people to download ad blocking software as an immediate “fix.” But there is, as they say, “no free lunch,” and there are serious costs — for everyone — from the growing use of ad-blockers.
8. Five Answers with Nikhil Hunshikatti, The Columbus Dispatch
Nikhil Hunshikatti came to The Columbus Dispatch as the Director of Marketing & Research. Now he is the Vice President of Marketing. Previously, he worked at The Chicago Tribune, Nielsen and Ogilvy & Mather. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
9. Five Answers with Renee Lopez-Cantera, Miami Herald
Renee Lopez-Cantera is the Audience Growth and Initiatives Manager at the Miami Herald Media Company, responsible for direct response print and digital customer acquisitions. She plans and executes digital sales campaigns not only for the South East Region of the McClatchy Newspaper Company, but works with a national McClatchy Digital Sales Team on strategy and creative templates for all 29 newspapers.
10. Five Answers with Stacy Lynch, Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Cox Media Group
Stacy Lynch is the Senior Director of Audience Analytics, Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Cox Media Group. Lynch and her team provide audience analytics that use transactional data, web analytics, sales data, market data and a variety of other sources to understand consumers and inform strategy. News Media Alliance caught up with Lynch about her work, how she sees the future of media and more.
Members of the News/Media Alliance staff have contributed to this post.
