by Molly Pappas, Media Relations Specialist, Business Wire Boston
Last Thursday, over 100 PR and communications professionals attended Business Wire Boston’s media panel breakfast event focused on the ever-changing media landscape. Panelists from the Boston Business Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Boston Herald, Patch.com and Mass High Tech discussed how news is changing in a digital environment, ways publications measure success and the differing views on paywalls.
Panelists included Frank Quaratiello, Boston Herald’s business editor, George Donnelly, executive editor at Boston Business Journal, Mass High Tech’s newest associate editor, Don Seiffert, associate regional editor of Patch.com, Abby Jordan, and Leigh Montgomery, Christian Science Monitor’s librarian. Business Wire’s own Sanford Paek, Group Vice President of Eastern U.S. and Canada, served as moderator.
L-R: Sanford Paek, Frank Quaratiello, George Donnelly, Abby Jordan, Leigh Montgomery, Don Seiffert
Here are some of the highlights from the discussion:
News changing in a digital environment:
- Digital formatting has changed the way in which the media address their audience. In terms of storytelling, the visual experience online can be interesting. Donnelly says the Boston Business Journal runs two to three slideshows a week.
- The Boston Herald has played around with its homepage and moved the video player there, and has since seen a dramatic increase on time spent on the site. Videos bring in about 180,000 views.
- Digital environments have brought about a different world of immediacy to Jordan and her Patch.com team. They do not wait for an end-of-the-day deadline like print publications; instead, they are continually updating their sites, usually five to seven times a day. “The site is not just for people to consume, but to interact with,” says Jordan. For example, people can upload their own events on the site for display.
- “We need to put aside old media/new media; it’s just media,” says Montgomery. In 2009, the Christian Science Monitor was the first international publication to drop its daily print and move to a Web daily only. They still adhere to a publishing schedule, but she says they have more flexibility to publish throughout the day online (usually 30 stories per day).
- Seiffert has found that the length of stories and deadlines are affected by the digital environment. “There are losses to the digital age. You lose the ability to report longer, more well-crafted stories,” he says.
Measuring success:
- Patch.com is unique in that it does not have a print subscription number to base its success on. “We are the new kids on the block. We measure success on the number of unique visitors on the site, the number of comments on a story, how our readers interact with the site,” Jordan says.
- For Quaratiello and the Boston Herald, circulation of print product is an obvious measure of success. But it’s also about the visitors online, who are building a community and using the Herald as a “meeting place” of sorts. The Herald has helped create a forum, engaging the paper and its readers.
- As an online publication, the Christian Science Monitor can draw on a lot of online usage data, such as quizzes, to monitor success. The core, however, is solution seeking, Montgomery says. When a story is being discussed and you hear and see it in conversation, that is considered a measure of success.
- While the Boston Business Journal has really embraced analytics, they try not to allow it to be the sole decision maker on the news they cover and publish. “We want to give people as much as we can in an interesting way,” says Donnelly.
- For Seiffert, there is a constant struggle between balancing context and ‘hits.’ “We measure success on Tweets, join/follows on Facebook, the most read and most emailed articles. But there is a danger of losing the personal connection,” he says.
Paid content vs. free:
- “Readers aren’t tired of free news, the newspapers are tired of giving out free news,” says Seiffert.
- “I do not think paid online subscriptions will be successful. It’s just not going to pay the bills,” says Quaratiello. Donnelly, however, disagrees. He sees the tide turning in the other direction, and believes that it’s necessary. “Newspapers are realizing that readers need to subsidize revenue. Newspapers are dispersing news worth paying for. Valuable news shouldn’t be free,” he argues.
- Patch.com has not looked at a paywall. They use metrics to get advertisers, thus bring in revenue.
- Because of the Christian Science Monitor’s multiplatform model (Internet first and paid print subscriptions), Montgomery believes the publication will be self-sustaining by 2017 because of the revenue they bring in.
The panelists ended the event with a few quick pointers on how they like to be pitched:
- Seiffert always likes to talk to someone directly. However, if that isn’t possible, provide links or pointers to other primary sources he can contact.
- “When we get information, our day begins. It’s frustrating and annoying when someone sends in a release at 5, then leaves and we can’t get them on the phone,” Quaratiello says.
- Both Jordan and Donnelly are happy to accept photos, but he advises that they be no more than 1 megabyte. Editors and reporters are weary of opening photo attachments because they can cause computers to freeze or shut down.
For more upcoming local Business Wire events or to see what’s coming up in our award-winning webinar series, visit our events page or follow Business Wire events on Twitter, hashtag #bwchat.
Posted by Amy Yen 
