What bargain could newspapers offer for this iconic sticker?

After reading this delightful article  , by Geoff Williams, about free snacks for those sporting an “I Voted” sticker, I came up with a great new idea for newspapers.  When the next election comes around, make a  great deal on subscriptions.

How would this benefit the community? First, newspapers would be coming in constant contact with voters, great for election coverage, and possible subscribers.  People will do anything that’s for free; and they’ll go pretty far for a sweet discount.  How about 50% off subscriptions? Or, you receive a free product, donated by eager advertisers, if you show up with an “I Voted” sticker and buy a subscription to your publication.

People want more than news stories; they want interaction.  Provide the possibility of a free item and their name in a paper, people are SOLD! 

Commemorative plates, t-shirts, backpacks, song downloads, you name it; it’s all a possibility for gathering more business to your paper.  And advertisers will be less afraid of investing in a newspaper that’s so in tune with its audience.

One of those projects has caught my eye–an election night party for Wellington citizens followed by newspaper deliverers, the morning after the election, dressed up like old time paper boys to distribute the paper on street corners like the good ol’ days.

Many times, newspapers seem to feel the need to sell themselves to advertisers.  Of course, this makes sense, advertisers are the biggest chunk of revenue.  However, many citizens in Wellington are excited by the opportunity to be involved with the newspaper.

The Wellington Daily News will also be handing out umbrellas to those who purchase subscriptions to the paper.

I think this type of creative marketing helps reporters to connect to the readers, gives confidence to advertisers that people are interested in the paper, and produces a little extra, needed revenue to the paper. 

There are many things newspapers can do to interact with the community and help boost their advertising.  From umbrellas, bumper stickers, radios, etc…what sells a subscription?  Take photos of a community event and sell them online. 

Wellington is only thirty minutes away from a metropolitan area with its own high profile newspaper.  One of the reasons the Daily News has stuck around since its beginnings in the late 1800s is its connection to the community.  And I think many newspapers will see good results if they do the same.

So far…the older generation has described me as a young person, born between 1977-2000, who doesn’t know…

what a record player is and how it works

how to use white-out

what it means to use a typewriter

what it means to value a job

etc…

I was born May 6, 1985.  My mother had a record player;  I used it many times.  And I’m proud to own one now…along with many vinyls featuring older generation music.  At my previous job in the hotel business, we constantly used white out–paper…and errors…still exist.  Though not needed anymore, I’ve written many letters on the family typewriter.  And I’m a college student, I know what it means to value a job…and money.

However, I am kind of biased towards being labeled unaware, ignorant, selfish and rude by my older contemporaries. 

The best article, while perusing my news search results for “millennial,” comes from Liz Wolgemuth for U.S. News, “Gen Y Millennials Meet Hard Times.”

Wolgemuth presents both sides, and concerns, of the generation gap coin.  “Millenials” want to succeed; and think they have the knowledge and means to do that.  However, they are competing against a global workforce that doesn’t need as much ego, or money, to do the same job.

But in defense of my generation, and job opportunities, I think that there is nothing wrong with having an aspiration for greatness.  And who is to judge whether or not are expectations are “too high”?

My age group has the most experience with technology.  We know about youth culture.  We’ve already been communicating globally.  And, we set high goals not only for ourselves; but who we represent as well–business, organizations, family, etc…Plus, we look to the future.  We are finding out what’s happening next and how to get there.

What business would say no to those qualities?

Is this the future?

Even if a blog references sources and covers issues that are important to its audience; does it consider both sides of the story? Does it cover a variety of issues?

Take politics.  I find that many bloggers will cover stories that will focus on one candidate, positively or negatively.  With many people wanting to be aware of what’s going on the campaign trail, is it fair to not give an entire, unbiased scope of the election?  Many people go to blog sites like digg to gain information and form an opinion.

WIth such specific, heated arguments in blogs, do people get a fair, honest portrayal of what’s happening in the world?  Though the definition of truth is up in the air, it’s more important that the viewer knows through the publication and writer’s history that the content is from a place that always strives towards presenting fair news.

It’s hard to know what to trust in the world.  And when information becomes more easy to access, it is even more necessary to fact check and research thoroughly.

Image courtesy of http://www.thinkgeek.com

I’m not too sure about the thoughts of my contemporaries.

After this one media week, I’m tempted not to use the words change, economy, debate, or corruption for the next ten years.

But I think I’ll gain courage not to preemptively kill my journalism career.

Sometimes when writers are in quest to cover popular topics that will relate to their audience; they tend to repeat themselves to the point of monotony.  My own example would be from my college newspaper–The Sunflower.

The first article was popular.  It was an expose of a professor, and student government supervisor, that had allegedly given an underage Wichita State student alcohol–proof coming via a facebook photo.  It was a significant story that showed possible corruption within Wichita State’s faculty.

However, many news and opinion articles continued about the same subject.  Sometimes stories, not specifically related to the event–news articles about SAG events and meetings–were tied into the incident.  Students began to get weary and suspected the newspaper of being biased towards Wichita State’s student government.

So what to do?  How do you divert a writer’s interest away from something they are interested in? How do you gain new interest?

One of my favorite news/kinda-blog site, Slate.com, has a variety of creative news articles that go over popular events in the news, but it’s always from a different perspective than mainstream news.  However, each article is credible and falling within the rules of journalism.

Slate’s approach to news has also created a niche for the Web Site being an outspoken, yet interesting information with news that can only be found on their Web Site.  Think about what could be your staple at your news organization.  What could set you apart from the rest.

For a helpful start, check out this article, “New Ideas for Writing Articles” by Laurie Pawlik-Kienlin.  It features methods for finding those ideas and putting interesting twists on popular ideas.

Image provided by http://www.cartoonstock.com

Hmm…

Image from http://images.camcorderinfo.com. Did not orginate from author.

According to the article, “Adobe, Amazon points finger over video ripping exploit.”  by Joel Hruska,  the companies are laying the blame on each other. Amazon said that programs like Adobe’s Replay Media Catcher made it possible for users to download material.  Adobe stated that Amazon needed to fix a security problem that accidentally let users download almost an entire movie instead of previewing it.

The problem has been fixed and all is well again. 

However, how do you think the companies should have handled this situation.  According to Hruska’s article,  Amazon fixed the security problem.  But what would you do as a PR representative?

When you company’s software clashes with another major company’s software, which is happening a lot in this new media world, what do you do?  Sure, it’s a great opportunity to show how a competitor’s software failed.  But if your product couldn’t protect itself; that’s not good either.

Maybe, just don’t talk about it until it’s fixed.  Think about changing a tire–who’s to blame?  The nail in the road or the driver who has decided to go onto shaky territory.  It doesn’t matter, the tire’s flat and you have to go somewhere, just change the thing and move on.

Your customers and your company don’t particularly care who did what, your product doesn’t work.  Fix it first!

Image used from www.castrol.com. Did not orignate from author.

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