Last Updated: October 01, 1996
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Journalism that people are talking about
Internet revenue potential
An excellent, hard-nosed, clear-eyed analysis of revenue potential from Internet Web sites was offered recently in a professional publication for retailers. Chain Store Age (not your average bedtime reading) looks at advertising on the Internet from the advertisers' point of view.
It begins with a layman's language overview of the Internet and how it works, and the current estimates of its audience.
Then it plunges into revenue potential: "From a selling standpoint the heavily skewed male demographic isn't encouraging. Men aren't nearly as avid shoppers as women, and it's clear they're attracted to the Web more for information and entertainment than for making purchases. Examples abound of merchants who have gotten plenty of foot traffic from being on the Web, but precious few sales."
It continues, "A lot of retailers' Web sites fail because they don't understand who(m) they're selling to. ... The Internet audience is very academic, professional and research-oriented. These people want straight, detailed information about the products they're buying, and they appreciate excellent customer service."
It adds that there are other reasons - besides selling products - for a company to offer a Web site: "The Web is a great medium for disseminating information, such as financial reports, inexpensively, and for bolstering consumer relations."
The article also offers pointers for successful Web sites:
- Work with the Internet as a new medium. Don't just take existing creative materials and transfer it.
- Keep text to a minimum. Maximize your use of graphics, but avoid graphics that take forever to download.
- Make sure an e-mail link is available for suggestions and comments. Always provide a mailing address and contact name.
- Change information often - daily or weekly.
To sum up, there may be many good reasons for newspapers to offer their own Web sites, but a quick return on investment probably isn't one of them.
Media mergers
The spring/summer issue of Media Studies Journal focuses on the impact of media mergers.
Numerous prominent authors decry the current tendency in some quarters to treat newspapers and other mass media as simply "products" with a stock market value.
Industry veteran Gene Roberts, managing editor of the New York Times, warns "it is time, high time, that newspaper corporations become subjects of debate and be held accountable for covering the communities they service. ... Many are managing their newspapers like chain shoe stores, with no sense of being important community institutions with highly important responsibilities to the public." Other authors offer cautionary tales from other countries.
At the same time, observers also point out that technology is making vast numbers of new channels available to citizens.
If this potential is properly managed, there is the opportunity to create thousands of new voices in the media mix.
Campus journalism
Meanwhile, the summer issue of Journalism & Mass Communication Educator offers a peek into the changing world of campus journalism.
Authors raise provocative questions about student-produced electronic media and the First Amendment.
They describe how the resources of the Internet are now being integrated into curriculum and instruction.
A quantitative study finds that there are relationships between the quality of the journalism education program and the college's efforts to support or suppress the student-run newspaper.
"Inadequate journalism education and campus newspaper censorship frequently go hand in hand," the study says. "At the same time, extensive journalism education and excellence in campus newspapers join frequently, as well."
That's not a particularly surprising finding, but it's nice to have it supported
by a formal study. 
Miller, editor and president of the Monterey (Calif.) County Herald, is interested in good journalism articles others might not see. Write to P.O. Box 271, Monterey, CA 93942
