From Product To Service: The Diffusion Of Dynamic Content In Online Newspapers
Mark Tremayne, Amy Schmitz Weiss, and Rosental Calmon Alves
J&MC Quarterly Vol. 84, No. 4 Winter2007 825-839
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Abstract
This study documents a steady increase in dynamic journalism on the Web sites of twenty-four U.S. newspapers, including a sharp rise in 2006 of multimedia elements, particularly video.
Mark Tremayne, Amy Schmitz Weiss, and Rosental Calmon Alves
J&MC Quarterly Vol. 84, No. 4 Winter2007 825-839
Abstract
This study documents a steady increase in dynamic journalism on the Web sites of twenty-four U.S. newspapers, including a sharp rise in 2006 of multimedia elements, particularly video.
This trend was particularly apparent for newspapers'in our sample with print circulation between 100,000 and 120,000.
While traditional news categories are the most common source of dynamic content, the growth over time is coming from coverage of weather, sports, crime, and accidents.
There also appears to be a rise in hourly updating of softer news.
Conclusions
This study documents a steady increase in dynamic journalism on the main pages of twenty-four U.S. newspapers, including a sharp rise and in 2006 of multimedia elements, especially video.
While traditional news categories are the most common source of dynamic content, the growth over time is coming from coverage of weather, sports, crime, and accidents.
There also appears to be a rise in hourly updating of softer news.
Conclusions
This study documents a steady increase in dynamic journalism on the main pages of twenty-four U.S. newspapers, including a sharp rise and in 2006 of multimedia elements, especially video.
The findings are consistent with those of earlier studies that have examined Web updating.32
The significant increase in dynamic content for the full sample is driven, however, primarily by the smaller papers in the sample.
Only for those eight papers is the rise over three years statistically significant.
It appears the Web sites for the larger dailies have reached a plateau; they were already doing significant updating in 2004 and had less room to grow compared to sites of smaller papers. The findings shed light on the diffusion of dynamic journalism within the online newspaper industry. It would appear the larger papers were early adopters and helped generate the steep incline of the diffusion s-curve prior to the 2004-2006 period studied here.
It appears the Web sites for the larger dailies have reached a plateau; they were already doing significant updating in 2004 and had less room to grow compared to sites of smaller papers. The findings shed light on the diffusion of dynamic journalism within the online newspaper industry. It would appear the larger papers were early adopters and helped generate the steep incline of the diffusion s-curve prior to the 2004-2006 period studied here.
The smaller papers, however, are later adopters and were still migrating towards dynamic journalism in the middle of this decade.
It is important to note, however, that some online papers in the sample bucked this trend and have yet to complete Rogers' implementation phase of diffusion.
It is worth noting two other changes, because the increment from 2005 to 2006 is much more acute than when the comparison is between 2004 and 2006. It coincides with the intensification, in 2005, of the, tendency of American newspapers to merge their print and online newsrooms, especially after the New York Times made such an announcement in August of that year.
It is worth noting two other changes, because the increment from 2005 to 2006 is much more acute than when the comparison is between 2004 and 2006. It coincides with the intensification, in 2005, of the, tendency of American newspapers to merge their print and online newsrooms, especially after the New York Times made such an announcement in August of that year.
In 2006, there was an increase in importance placed on video content in news organizations during this time, an increase similar to this study's increase in the number of video updates on the sites examined.
The second hypothesis concerned the geographic focus of dynamic journalism.
The second hypothesis concerned the geographic focus of dynamic journalism.
Based on prior research,-we predicted that dynamic journalism would be increasingly local in focus.
And while all categories (local, national, and international) of dynamic journalism rose during the study period, the rate of increase was only statistically significant for local news. Again, it was the Web sites of the smaller papers that drove this overall result; those sites had a significant rise in local dynamic journalism while the medium and large dailies did not.
The content analysis shows that as newspapers move to more constant updates on the Internet, traditional beats are still paramount: government/politics, business/economy, war/military, sports, and courts. However, the news categories that showed statistically significant growth from year to year were weather, sports, crime, accidents, and miscellaneous.
These categories bear some similarity to the topics that tend to dominate local news in another medium characterized by immediacy: television.33
There is also evidence that softer news may be driving much of the increase in dynamic content.
Stories coded as hard news showed little growth from year to year, but those coded neutral or soft showed sharp and statistically significant upswings.
Limitations.
First, the content analysis tracked only dynamic content, those stories that changed from hour to hour, and not the entire contents of the online newspapers. Results should be viewed with that in mind. Also, many papers in the sample underwent redesign during .the period of our study. This resulted in sharp differences, in some cases, in the quantity of changes on pages from year to year. No adjustment was made for this in the analysis presented here because these changes occurred across the sample (small, medium, and large dailies) and were not judged to have significantly altered overall results.
The content analysis shows that as newspapers move to more constant updates on the Internet, traditional beats are still paramount: government/politics, business/economy, war/military, sports, and courts. However, the news categories that showed statistically significant growth from year to year were weather, sports, crime, accidents, and miscellaneous.
These categories bear some similarity to the topics that tend to dominate local news in another medium characterized by immediacy: television.33
There is also evidence that softer news may be driving much of the increase in dynamic content.
Stories coded as hard news showed little growth from year to year, but those coded neutral or soft showed sharp and statistically significant upswings.
Limitations.
First, the content analysis tracked only dynamic content, those stories that changed from hour to hour, and not the entire contents of the online newspapers. Results should be viewed with that in mind. Also, many papers in the sample underwent redesign during .the period of our study. This resulted in sharp differences, in some cases, in the quantity of changes on pages from year to year. No adjustment was made for this in the analysis presented here because these changes occurred across the sample (small, medium, and large dailies) and were not judged to have significantly altered overall results.
Because we drew our sample from Editor & Publisher's Top 100, findings cannot be generalized to the smallest dailies.
Importantly, any pattern observed in the presentation of news over time must be considered in the context of real-world events. For example, it is conceivable that a paper's dynamic journalism content could increase over a three-year period due simply to more "breaking news" occurring either locally, nationally, or internationally in successive years. This possibility was considered both during the design of the study and in analysis of the results. Because the sample included twenty-four papers that are geographically diverse and with varying circulation sizes, any observed rise in local dynamic content is unlikely to be attributable to real-world local events.
National and international events, however, posed a more serious threat to the validity of the study, especially because the sampling scheme encompassed the same two-week period for the three years studied. An analysis of the results shows, though, that the observed overall rise in dynamic content was driven not by national or international news but by local news. And the dominant national stories (politics in 2004 and 2006) and international stories (war in Iraq) did not show significant increases for dynamic content.
Future Studies.
This is an ongoing study that has been conceived as a multi-year gauge of the frequency and the topics that change on newspapers' Web sites to document what is seen as a shift from the singular, static, product-oriented approach of twentieth-century print journalism toward a service-oriented approach in the twenty-first century.
Dynamic content is part of that evolution.
Importantly, any pattern observed in the presentation of news over time must be considered in the context of real-world events. For example, it is conceivable that a paper's dynamic journalism content could increase over a three-year period due simply to more "breaking news" occurring either locally, nationally, or internationally in successive years. This possibility was considered both during the design of the study and in analysis of the results. Because the sample included twenty-four papers that are geographically diverse and with varying circulation sizes, any observed rise in local dynamic content is unlikely to be attributable to real-world local events.
National and international events, however, posed a more serious threat to the validity of the study, especially because the sampling scheme encompassed the same two-week period for the three years studied. An analysis of the results shows, though, that the observed overall rise in dynamic content was driven not by national or international news but by local news. And the dominant national stories (politics in 2004 and 2006) and international stories (war in Iraq) did not show significant increases for dynamic content.
Future Studies.
This is an ongoing study that has been conceived as a multi-year gauge of the frequency and the topics that change on newspapers' Web sites to document what is seen as a shift from the singular, static, product-oriented approach of twentieth-century print journalism toward a service-oriented approach in the twenty-first century.
Dynamic content is part of that evolution.
Another part, unexamined in this study, is the new relationship between reader and newspaper and between reader and reader. Evident across the years of this study was a growing voice for readers, even on the front pages of online newspapers.
Much of this came in the forms of local blogs, a feature increasingly apparent on news Web sites.
Interaction, debate, and social networking are becoming visible components of online news.
The "service" that news sites increasingly provide, beyond the reporting that remains the primary mission, is the bringing together of citizens in a way different than last century. Here the voices of readers are amplified and the reader-to-newspaper relationship is transactional (and not just financially). Further study in this area is ' needed.
So far, the newspapers have evolved considerably from the shovelware days of using the Internet as a simple distribution means for the traditional paper product. But it is not yet clear if the transformation from product into service will be successful. Future studies must look at the business side of this question: Can newspapers make money by moving to dynamic journalism? It is not a settled question by any means.
Finally, while the medium itself may influence the message, the advice of Singer (echoing Bill Kovach) ten years ago still holds: "Journalists cannot be content to be taken along for a ride. The technology may only be a vehicle, but being able to drive it is mandatory if one is to have any say in where that vehicle is headed."34
NOTES (ed GGA)
All media industries are in a period of transition, but the growing pains are particularly acute for those in print journalism.
So far, the newspapers have evolved considerably from the shovelware days of using the Internet as a simple distribution means for the traditional paper product. But it is not yet clear if the transformation from product into service will be successful. Future studies must look at the business side of this question: Can newspapers make money by moving to dynamic journalism? It is not a settled question by any means.
Finally, while the medium itself may influence the message, the advice of Singer (echoing Bill Kovach) ten years ago still holds: "Journalists cannot be content to be taken along for a ride. The technology may only be a vehicle, but being able to drive it is mandatory if one is to have any say in where that vehicle is headed."34
NOTES (ed GGA)
All media industries are in a period of transition, but the growing pains are particularly acute for those in print journalism.
The transition from paper to electronic distribution has confronted the industry with three major areas of change.
- First, instead of the centuries-long practice of publishing daily or weekly, journalists are being asked to publish on a continuous basis. That alone presents a major issue for newsrooms to confront.
- Second, the new medium presents opportunities that newspaper journalists are being asked to exploit: use of audio, video, and animated graphics. And
- third, the medium allows for greater activity and involvement by the reader and simultaneously allows the newspaper to monitor that activity, harness it, and respond to it.
Each of these changes is considerable by itself; combined they are having a major impact on the mass communication process and, likely, on the content of that communication. This project began in 2003 to track news content' in online U.S. newspapers with this premise:' that the "news as a product" model of the twentieth century was giving way to the idea of news as a service. *
A printed newspaper can be defined as a closed, static package of news, information, and advertising, constructed in a typical industrial era line of production with a fixed periodicity or publication cycle.
In the digital era, the newspaper faces the challenge of breaking that traditional line of production into a much more dynamic flux of continuous information delivered through different digital platforms, but mainly on its Web site.
Instead of the closed, static product, newspapers have been evolving into an open, dynamic service that not only breaks the time paradigm of the twenty-four-hour news cycle, but also absorbs the multimedia dimension.
This multi-year study aims to record and measure how much the Web editions of American dailies reflect their evolution from a static product on paper to a dynamic service online.
The study presented here focuses on news content which is dynamic, defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as "characterized by continuous change, activity, or progress."
The study presented here focuses on news content which is dynamic, defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as "characterized by continuous change, activity, or progress."
In the context of online journalism and this particular study, dynamic content is content which changes hour-by-hour on newspaper Web sites.
These changes include the addition or subtraction of stories, the alteration of headlines, the changing or addition of photos, and other multimedia elements.
Focusing on dynamic online content, as opposed to the static, provided two primary benefits.
Focusing on dynamic online content, as opposed to the static, provided two primary benefits.
First, it narrowed the scope of what was going to be a major content analysis while allowing a test of how widespread (or diffused) dynamic content was becoming.
Second, focusing on content that Web editors are spending their time adjusting throughout the day permits determination of the direction journalism on this new medium might be taking. One of those directions, according to a 2001 study by Singer, is toward a greater percentage of local news.
This study extends the approach of Singer to look at dynamic content specifically. Is it, too, moving in the direction of more local news and less national or international news? And what other variables are associated with dynamic content?
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The authors attribute the specific evolution of Web-based news to the ongoing interaction between news organizations and their audiences: "The sites are responding to the increased sophistication of online readers, providing more multimedia features, deeper content, and more frequent updates."
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The authors attribute the specific evolution of Web-based news to the ongoing interaction between news organizations and their audiences: "The sites are responding to the increased sophistication of online readers, providing more multimedia features, deeper content, and more frequent updates."
Deuze in 2003 characterized the changing patterns of interaction between readers and news content as the emergence of monitorial and dialogic journalism.6
Others share this view that the connection between communicator and receiver has tightened and, to a greater degree than before, the news product reflects the needs of the audience. If true, this is another indicator of a move toward a service rather than product model of journalism.
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Journalism as a Process.
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Journalism as a Process.
Lasica was one of the first to make the claim that online journalism was a process not a product. This is most evident on collaborative "crowd sourced" creations but is increasingly true in more mainstream venues.
The shift from a product-based journalism mindset to a service-oriented approach mirrors a broader trend in Western economies away from mass-production and toward more flexible production and service.
In computer-based communication, the term service is increasingly common, from Internet service providers to programming techniques that emphasize "service-oriented architecture."
The service that online newspapers provide ranges from traditional gatekeeping functions to nontraditional ones.9 A change in gatekeeping practices promoted by the nature of the Web and perhaps users' expectations has resulted in a more continuous news flow.
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