I was on a panel discussion last night representing Next Door Media along with many of the local journalism startups that have sprung up in Seattle — InvestigateWest, Crosscut, Publicola, Xconomy — as well as the Seattle Times and SeattlePI.com.
A member of the audience, who works for a theater organization in town, asked why mass media coverage of the theater has declined (which it has) over the last couple years. Sure, there are some blogs that focus on the local arts scene, but those blogs have a narrow, niche audience. He lamented this “nichification” of media as a struggle for the theater community, which used to be able to get the theater guy in the newspaper to write a review, drawing in people who wouldn’t take the time to read a theater blog.
Yes, this is all true, but I suggested that he can equal the old mass audience by 1) aggressively pursuing social media and 2) expanding and tailoring his media outreach to the many journalism startups that are covering more news than ever (for example, finding a tie in with a neighborhood, and pitching it to the neighborhood blog.) I argued that combining successful social media efforts with multiple stories in niche/smaller sites could equal the mass reach of the one newspaper review.
“Just because you say it, doesn’t mean it’s right,” he responded bluntly. Perhaps I’m not right, but I think it underscores an important point. Journalists aren’t the only ones who must change in the new “nichification” of media. If an organization is having trouble getting stories “placed” (as they say) in traditional mass media publications, then perhaps a change of tactics is in order. We live in a world in which anyone and everyone is a publisher, and if the content is compelling, it will spread.
