Are media losing out to websites and blogs?

LOTTO CRAZE: When I wrote last Sunday about the Grand 6/55 Lotto whose jackpot had soared to P741 million and the bettors were going crazy, my email feedback also climbed 10 times and my Yahoo inbox groaned.

Suddenly the whole town was excitedly talking of the Lotto, the evils of gambling, the indolence and bahala na attitude of Filipinos, why lottery draws are suspect, how to handle a windfall of nearly a billion pesos, etc.

We usually do not generate as much excitement writing on executive orders from Malacañang, the Korean war jitters, the gas pipeline leaks and the Wikileaks, the popularity of Noynoy Aquino, and such.

This might confirm my lurking suspicion that there are more readers who equate a newspaper’s value by how it can help them make money or get entertained, than their plying the public with unverified reports and unsolicited opinion on heavy front page stuff.

*      *      *

LIGHT ENTRY: I used to tell friends jokingly, but now seriously, that we op-ed columnists who talk like we are political, economic and marketing geniuses are nothing compared to our light-hearted colleagues in the entertainment, lifestyle and showbiz sections.

I know of many readers with highbrow pretensions who actually buy the Philippine STAR because of Ricky Lo and the other writers and columnists in the inner sections. Thank God, the same readers are also eventually drawn to us in the op-ed pages.

This item in the shifting interests of readers should be the subject of continuing research by media outfits concerned about viability, if not survival. If such a study is too expensive, media owners can co-sponsor it and share the costs.

*      *      *

CREEPING IRRELEVANCE: In this town, however, market research does not seem to be the vogue as it looks like an unnecessary and avoidable expense.

Billionaires wanting to crash into the burgeoning mall business simply go where Henry Sy’s SM fleet is, because he is presumed to have done his homework. To them there is no need to spend millions doing the same study all over again.

Many great newspapers have folded, because lethargy had seeped in and they stopped being relevant to their readers. Some of them lagged after they allowed themselves to be reduced to merely following their readers, instead of leading them.

In the Philippines and many other countries, the newspapers are losing their publics to television, whose audio-visual impact and facility of use make a lot of difference.

*      *      *

RESEARCH VITAL: A news-and-views medium serving a community in flux must aim for opinion leadership. To do this, it must know its clientele and where it is headed, then move to lead it.

It is difficult adjusting to the reader and winning his trust and patronage if you do not know for sure and in full what he wants. Since it would be tedious for individual reporters or columnists to do the research, their mother news organizations should do it.

Some individuals who have the money but not the inkling of what it takes go the direct route. They just gather a staff, send out reporters, hire opinion writers, and embark on the publishing business — without bothering to do market or readership research.

We mentioned in a previous paragraph the need to know what the reader wants or expects. Knowing readers’ preferences is basic, because the simplified selling formula is to find out what the reader wants and then giving it to him.

Of course, as we say in journalism school, the newspaper — being invested with public interest — must strike a balance between what the reader wants and what he needs.

*      *      *

SALES FORMULA: The best source for this vital information on reading preferences is the reader himself, and the best way to find out is to ask him directly.

One grave error that supposed veterans of the big league commit is to think that they already know every nook and cranny of the business and can even read the reader’s mind without asking.

This is the reason why the sex-crime-scandal formula has been perpetuated in the dog-eat-dog media world. Nobody seems to bother to seriously question it.

And this is one of the reasons why the level of journalism that most local media dish out is woven around that hoary, unchallenged, formula.

*      *      *

TURNING THE TABLES: But the media empires are being threatened by the very public they serve.

Equipped with the modern gadgets of electronic communication, readers have turned reporters and opinion-mongers themselves, sometimes beating the traditional media in their own game.

The growing popularity of blogs and other social networks have turned the tables on media. Posters in open blogs and such vehicles as Facebook and Twitter report their own version of the news and dish out their own opinion about things.

The remarkable thing is that in some cases, the reports and views uploaded in the clouds turn out to be ahead, more accurate and discerning than the news and opinion carried by the traditional media.

*      *      *

DANGER LURKS: With their digital cameras and mobile phones, many budding journalists now compete in newsgathering and reporting.

One obvious problem, however, is the new electronic media’s lack of conventional discipline and clearcut codes of conduct. The informal setup does not seem to be guided by a firm code and a delineation of legal responsibility.

Most times in the Internet, nobody knows the blogger hiding behind a cryptic username. The uploading of comments is instant and there is no effective way of verification of what is offered to be published. That is dangerous. –Federico D. Pascual Jr. (The Philippine Star)

*      *      *