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The December status report

December 14, 2007 | Author: mattmansfield | Filed under: Community, Prototypes, Milestones

By Chris O’Brien
+ Matt Mansfield

Here’s our promised (much overdue) update.

The last three weeks have been intense. The Rethink committee put together two sets of prototypes. We revised those. We met with several groups, both inside the Mercury News and around the community, to get feedback. We adjusted again.

While the details varied, a common refrain was heard: You’re not going far enough.

So we huddled again for several days, merged the two prototypes into one, and moved on to the next round. We’ve honestly lost track of which version this is, but, whatever it is, here is the latest overview of what is on the table.

(Disclaimer: These descriptions represent a glimpse of what remains a work in progress. Please be kind.)

Our driving goals in this process remain the same. We must re-imagine the print version of our paper in a way that serves our loyal readers and continues to reward the reading habit we know will be a part of many of our lives for years to come (no matter what the naysayers on “the death of print” say). At the same time, we must redeploy a good deal of our news staff to work online where our business and our readership is growing faster than we could have ever imagined, even in a place as wired as Silicon Valley.

PRINT

We’re still on track to create a three-section printed newspaper every day, with several extra weekly sections (more on that in a second).

Why this approach? In our interviews and conversations with the community, we’ve heard frustrations with changes in the paper in recent years. We want to stem that tide.

With the three-section daily paper, we would focus on doing greater depth on a smaller range of subjects, but those content choices would be things that the Mercury News reporting staff excels at doing, namely stories about working and living here in Silicon Valley.

We intend to plan a smart, thoughtful blend of news you need and news you can only get from the Mercury News, stories from the worlds of business, technology, politics, and sports, as well as arts and culture news that recognizes the South Bay’s vibrant scene. We want to be mindful of the call for depth and balance that with the need for a quick start to what’s still a morning ritual: reading the newspaper.

The current three-section lineup (subject to change, of course):

First section: No official name, but let’s call it the San Jose Mercury News. This would be a one-stop destination for news put together in one larger section. This section, as proposed, would include things like expanded versions for Mr. Roadshow and Action Line, reports from South Bay cities, stories on government and politics, plus crime news and a thoughtful lineup of Mercury News columnists weighing in on the issues of the day. It would also have quicker read versions of international and national news (think of the Wall Street Journal’s “What’s News” summary) because that frees up more space for our expanded local reporting.

Business and Technology: This section will be several pages larger than our current business section because our rethinking plans are built around a significant reinvestment of reporting talent to cover the story of global innovation that’s happening here in Silicon Valley. (This expansion would, naturally, also show up online.) We’ve heard from many folks that they want and expect us to become a leader again in this area, to help them see around the corner more – and more often. This section would also include the opinion pages because so much of what we write about as we analyze and comment on the news is global in scope.

Play!: This may be the most radically different idea, but we believe it’s a smart section that can put many of the fun parts of the newspaper together. It includes sports, entertainment, arts, food, culture, video game coverage, digital media, gadgets, theater and music, the works. If that sounds like a lot, it is. We’re hoping we have created an exceptional look at the things we all do with our lives when we’re not working.

Also worth nothing: The Play! sections would include a four-page pullout in the middle that would offer more comics and puzzles than we’ve ever had in the daily paper and make it easy to share that section (so, for instance, one person can be working the crossword while someone else reads the sports coverage … We’re just sayin’).

On Sundays, we would create a new beautiful magazine-type section that puts together our current LifeStyle and Travel sections. It would also include a lot of new cool content and a good deal of additional color + space for documentary photography and longer stories, with the eye on Sunday as a day when you have a little more time than a hectic weekday. There’s more to come on that as we print a prototype next week.

Next month, we’ll be taking prototypes back out to all of you. We’ll be looking for your honest response to what we’re making as we look to solve problems before we launch another change in print. We have heard that you’re ready for something we can all agree works and stays that way for some time. And we want to know if these sections work for your lives, the way you use the Mercury News. So help us red flag the things that are deal-breakers for you.

CHOICE

We’re also looking at offering readers a choice in the paper they receive. The details are still at a very early stage. But, for instance, we’d plan to offer a series of extra sections on several different days that you could choose to get (or not, depending on the appeal to you). We haven’t figured out how many choices there will be, or the content of those sections, but we might offer an expanded commentary section, a section just for prep sports and another one just for football. When you subscribe, we’d like there to be two or three plans to select, so people can get as much or as little of the paper as they’d like. We know many of you want your hands on everything we can give you … and some of you need a quick paper that keeps you informed but allows for the fact that we’re all busy.

ONLINE

And what about online? We’re just mapping that out now. We want to vastly expand our commitment to getting breaking news and sports online. We want to expand our multimedia offerings with more audio and video. We’d like to be doing more data products, like our salary and real estate databases that have been big hits. We’d like to introduce new community-driven sites, that allow readers to connect to each other, and participate to a greater degree in the things we do here. And we need to feed the amazing appetite for Silicon Valley business and technology news, where we are one of the 20 strongest players on the internet.

So that’s the broad overview. We’ll continue to post more details as we can. But before we head out for the holidays …

A Town Hall update:

We have to reschedule the Town Hall we had planned for Jan. 8 due to some conflicts (including the governor’s state of the state speech). We’re scouting out a new day and we’ll post something here as soon as we have it scheduled.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
JANUARY 8, 2008

We’ll be having a Town Hall at the Mercury News to kick off the year. Make your plans to come by our place on January 8 so we can get together in real life.

We’ll start at 6 p.m. with tours of the building and a social hour when you can meet Merc personalities. At 7 that evening, we will show you the prototypes of the main paper, the Sunday paper, a few of the “choice” sections we have in mind, and a glimpse at two of those new online offerings. We want your feedback and we’ll have a chance for a meaty conversation after you see everything.

We’ll post additional details, directions (we’re at 750 Ridder Park Drive in San Jose) and all the other things you need to swing by the newsroom in a separate post. Plan to come by the Merc early next year for a visit. Until then, have a great holiday season. We hope to see you in 2008.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 and is filed under Community, Prototypes, Milestones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

xygoxen

3 people have left comments

First, drop the “!” in “Play!” It’s nuts. (See Name, above.)

“Play” is bad enough. If you have to brand it, and of course you do, “Life” is nice. “Play” is patty-cake.

I’m encouraged that you will still have local, national and international news. (Hey, I’m grasping to say something positive here.) I’m worried about the increased space for Mr. Roadshow and Action Line. Gary Richards is an excellent transportation beat reporter. Unfortunately, you have him spending his time and space writing an entertaining but frivolous advice to the commute-lorn column. Give him an intern to compile the column under his name and let him do some reporting.

As for Action Line, unless you give the column some additional personnel to do real problem-solving, it will continue to be limp.

The a la carte idea is interesting. I don’t understand the newspaper printing business, so I’m not sure targeted packages will be cost efficient, but you have a better take on that. It’s hard to imagine how it would work. For example, I often skip sports but occasionally look for a compelling sports story.

Good luck. I want the paper to be better than it is now so I can subscribe again.

Oh, and bring back Opus.

Former Subscriber! wrote on December 16, 2007 - 3:29 pm | Visit Link

Why do we have to wait so long for any positive changes to the print edition? Take a look at the Tech section on Mondays: buyers guide after buyers guide. Very little depth for a newspaper located in Silicon Valley. Please make a change starting today instead of all the talking. It seems the only changes we see are to reduce the value of the only product people actually pay to read. I do not see how a business can survive with such contempt for its paying customers.

Steve wrote on December 24, 2007 - 9:07 am | Visit Link

I canceled my paper on Nov. 28 and have yet to receive the promised refund to my credit card for the remaining five months of advance billing. When I called again this morning, I was told it would take another “7 to 14 days.” Yet I have already received an offer in the mail to resume my subscription at a greatly reduced rate, along with a special “priority” number to call for any problems. Is this laughable or just pathetic?

Former Subscriber wrote on December 26, 2007 - 7:29 am | Visit Link

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