Social Media Saves the Newspaper industry

Are the days of the newspaper and print advertising are numbered?The days of the newspaper and print advertising are numbered. There are more ways than in monetizing content nowadays and the newspaper is no longer the biggest arena. A lot of people are going to the greener pasture- where you can get almost anything for free – the Worldwideweb. Well, if you can’t beat them, join them. The newspaper industry can also use the power of the Internet and social media to save what is left of it, see how they are trying to so..

Twitter feeds
The New York Times has over 250,000 followers on Twitter. Social media networks can make use of feeders and modern Internet technology to extend their reach to those people who do not enjoy opening newspapers with their daily morning coffee.

Social media services
Two heads are better than one. Get a social media service provider and market to end users. Gannet Co, one of the biggest publishers of dailies, joined Ripple Inc, a social media service provider and breathes in new life and sales to their print company.

Online happenings and events
The online world has its own community, you can introduce online events to promote your publication and attract more readers. This can be done through forums, free downloads and videos.

User-generated content
CaptureCincinatti.com, an umbrella project of Cincinnati Enquirer, created a photo-sharing site and encouraged locals to upload their images to the site. Some months after, it produced a coffee table book that comes with a DVD sold at $39.95.

Online communities
Thousands of people wanted their voice to be heard and online communities can be their outlet. Online tools like blogging and forums can build a community that the newspaper industry can tap in.

Outsourced news service
Fresh content is not always hard to find. Collaborate with online news magazine and outsource news bits. This is one cheap way to get fresh news content on almost about anything under the sun.

Customized news
Everything can be personalized and customized- even the news that you want to read. The Denver post created I-News (or Individual News), that allows users to pick the news that they want in the categories that they prefer. You get the news you want to read minus the fluff.

Special communities
There may niches that you might want to tap in. Creating branded communities is on way to liven up a newspaper industry. For instance, the St. Louis Post created Best Bridal which is an online community where users can post content and interact with other members.

API (Application Programming Interface)
You can commission a third party developer to create an API for your publication. This would attract a number of possible readers. Social media interface is one of the more popular platforms that you can use.

Social Media
Ultimately, social media is the key solution to the woes of the newspaper industry. It would reach out to a lot of people who already forgotten about holding a black and white paper in their hands. So if you want newspaper to thrive and survive, social media and online marketing is the way to go.

Tagged as: social media, social media for newspaper, social media print industry