“It’s the economy, stupid” worked for Clinton.
“It’s the placement, stupid” would work for newspapers’ in their efforts to make user-generated content successful.
But most newspaper websites place (“bury”) user-created stuff in UGC ghettos nowhere near the subjects they’re blogging or vlogging about.
If newspapers treated their own content the way they treat users’ content, there would a newsroom revolt and website anarchy. There would be no “news,” “sports,” “entertainment,” or “opinion” tabs. Everything would go under two tabs: “our stuff” and “your stuff.”
Oh, yeah, reporters (and readers) would LOVE that.
Editors organize and promote their reporters’ and photographers’ best stuff on separate pages by category, displaying it well according to what they think is the best, most compelling stuff.
Not reader blogs. First they bury them, then they don’t promote them, then they gang’em all together with no rhyme or reason.
Continue reading
