Sunday, August 28, 2022

TikTok, News and The Washington Post

I’m fascinated by TikTok and what its startling growth implies for online reporters and editors. Some recent data points:  

“The app came into its own as a news-gathering and presenting tool in the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ordinary Ukrainians picked up their smartphones and documented the atrocities of the Russian regime, their footage viewed nearly a million times a minute in the war’s early days. 

“The reality is that TikTok is where the audience is these days: a billion worldwide. So it makes sense for news outlets to be there too. The BBC has, for at least a decade or more, been seeking an audience of “replenishers” W1A speak for younger viewers and listeners to replace the old, dying audience it currently has. (The average age of a BBC One and BBC Two viewer is well north of 60, according to the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie.) So far, it has done so relatively unsuccessfully.” (1)

      Usage is higher among people 18–24, and much higher in parts of Latin America, Asia, and Africa than it is in the United States or Northern Europe. (2)

     There’s still a relatively short list of U.S. news publishers on the platform, including The Washington Post, USA Today, PBS stations including WGBH,WBUR, YahooNews, Vice News.(3)

     The Washington Post, for example, has 1.4 million followers, with its most popular posts including pieces on monkeypox (137,000 views), student loan forgiveness (144,000) and controlled-burning in forests (211,000).(4)

     The Post’s TikTok efforts are led by Senior Video Reporter Dave Jorgenson, a graduate of DePauw University in English who launched the paper’s channel in 2019. Presented here are two samples of his work. Notice the two approaches, typical of the experimentation you would expect as we figure out how best to connect with audiences.

     The student loan piece (above) from Aug. 18 has racked up nearly 900,000 views with a 10 percent engagement rate – the number of likes, shares, etc., over the number of total views. By comparison, the average on Twitter posts is closer to 0.5 percent.(5)

     Check out the sophisticated production, with Jorgenson playing both parts as two people discuss repayments, complete with reaction shots. And besides the information itself, there’s a point of view: At the end, the person with debt is Googling up a question very much on the mind of skeptical, younger students today: “Was going to college a bad idea?”

    A more recent Jorgenson piece, published Aug. 27, takes another approach. The description line says, “Want to give your phone battery a long life? The Post talked to scientists who study lithium batteries. Here’s some tips.” 

    What follows is a frenetic take on a Jack Black “School of Rock” moment as the backdrop for information about making cellphone batteries last longer. After only one day, the piece had more than 97,000 views and an engagement rate of 14 percent.


   

     After watching these you may wonder, is this news? Set aside the format for a moment, and think about how the material relates to the time-honored seven values we use for evaluating newsworthiness(6).

A better question: Is it worth the effort? WaPo’s TikToks don’t link back to the newspaper’s web site, and don’t generate revenue, so a fair question would be to ask what the goal is, and how does this contribute to their success. One answer: As newsrooms seek to replace readers who are aging out, and trying to underscore their usefulness and relevance, they have to turn to the strategy we’ve always used: Meet the readers where they are, not necessarily where you’d like them to be.

    Your thoughts are welcome.

 

(1)  TikTok is not the enemy of journalism. It’s just a new way of reaching people

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/23/tiktok-journalism-news-outlet-journalism-media

 

(2)  Overview and key findings of the 2022 Digital News Report

https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2022/dnr-executive-summary

 

(3)  Here’s a running list of publishers and journalists on TikTok | Nieman Journalism Lab

https://www.niemanlab.org/reading/heres-a-running-list-of-publishers-and-journalists-on-tiktok/

 

(4)  Washington Post TikTok

https://www.tiktok.com/@washingtonpost

 

(5)  Your guide to social media engagement rates

https://www.adobe.com/express/learn/blog/what-is-a-good-social-media-engagement-rate

 

(6)  These 7 news values can help you make smarter content choices

https://medium.com/atlantic-57/these-7-news-values-can-help-you-make-smarter-content-choices-6b3cbc0bddf7

Friday, August 12, 2022

Gannett layoffs: Relief for newspapers could be years away

Unsplash/Luis Cortes
Aug. 12 was a dark day for many newsrooms across the country, as Gannett Co. Inc. began another massive round of layoffs. 

I'm a former Gannett reporter/editor (Indianapolis Star) who left to teach college journalism in 2008, a couple years after total newspaper revenue peaked at $49 billion. In the most recent (2020) data from Pew Research(1), that number was $9 billion, or a decline of more than 80 percent. A good guess is that the decline will continue at least until 2026 when rising digital revenue stops the bleeding.(2)   

What does this mean for online reporters and editors? As word of Friday's layoffs spread(3,4), we should note that there are many jobs in news and other communications fields. Even newspapers are still hiring, as staffers from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other outlets pointed out(4). TV news operations are dying for producers and web editors, jobs where excellent writing skills command big respect.  

But anyone considering a big change--even if they haven't been laid off--should look things over carefully, reach out to trusted networks and think about where communications and jobs are heading.

If you've been laid off, consider this advice from the Harvard Business Review(5): Take a hiatus, Get a handle on where you stand financially, Talk to trusted friends, Surround yourself with positivity, Tend to your well being. Like most advice offered to people in crisis, it's easier to say it than do it. So the rest of us can help by reaching out, listening, and being there for friends feeling this punch.

(1) Newspaper Fact Sheet, Pew Research
https://lnkd.in/gwT9hSyu

(2) U.S. digital newspaper ad revenue expected to surpass print by 2026
https://lnkd.in/gkMqFvxP

(3) Gannett lays off journalists after dismal second quarter results
https://lnkd.in/gETgrFnX

(4) Twitter - Gannett
https://lnkd.in/gJpBeDAc

(5) How to Bounce Back After Getting Laid Off
https://lnkd.in/gmxSRUcq

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