web-first at the christian science monitor: one year later

Check out this Mediabistro Q-and A with John Yemma, the editor of the Christian Science Monitor. He talks about what it means to go web-first, and how digital journalism can make print editions viable:

The Monitor's decision to go online-only last year was seen by many as a major step in the evolution of newspapers. What was the genesis of that decision?
For about two years before they hired me, [the paper] had been involved in a fairly deep-dive [analysis] into the future of print. They looked at their financials, they looked at the future of print, they did prototyping of a weekly in two different forms -- a slick weekly and a tabloid weekly -- and they'd already made a lot of progress along the lines of moving from daily print to weekly print. It seemed like where they weren't making much progress, and where they were still caught in the old paradigm was "What do we do with print? How do we make it most effective?" -- when what we really needed to do was go Web-first. Print should be there, but it shouldn't be the lead dog on the dogsled.

Even though print still makes the bulk of the money?
In fact, that's true of the moment. And it's certainly true with most newspapers. But it's clear that the future is digital. That doesn't mean that you won't have print. It just means that you either lower the frequency of print -- which is what we did -- or you do what the Globe and the Houston Chronicle and others have done, which is to decrease your print footprint... down into your core readership areas, so that your supply chain and distribution chain is much cheaper. And then you raise your subscription rates -- which all of the big companies have done. So that's an attempt to keep print viable.

And:

How has your revenue model worked since the move away from daily print, and how has that affected your workflow generally?
Our revenue streams now are print circulation, print advertising, syndication sales and Web ad revenue. We have a daily subscription email with about 2,000 subscribers at $84 a year, that has an abridged version of the daily news stories. I think we've got the mix right for us.

It works because we've been able to unharness the manpower that used to be devoted to daily print, and free them to work on Web-first content. That's been the big revelation. When you have print on a daily basis, then everything funnels into those print deadlines. Everything backs up from that, and everything that you're doing is oriented toward that one deadline, so you're not really optimizing your posts for the Web, you're not thinking about trending stories, you're not thinking about when the best time to post something is, and you're not living Web-first. And that's what we've done in the past year. We've taken a culture that had been a traditional news culture, and we've transitioned them to a Web-first one where they understand the rhythms of the Web better. That's probably been a big factor in contributing to our increase in Web traffic.

The Christian Science Monitor: Treeless

Today marks the last day of The Christian Science Monitor's daily print edition. Starting Monday, the Monitor will publish online only, with the exception of one weekly print edition. Go here to read a letter from John Yemma, the editor. Go here for reminiscences from many Monitor staffers, past and present.

Go here for an interview between Yemma and NPR's Terry Gross.

Unlike other papers that depend primarily on advertising to pay the bills, the Monitor should be able to make the transition without resorting to massive cuts in the newsroom -- the dreaded 12 percent solution -- or a decrease in the quality or scope of the journalism. Or so we hope.

I got my first clip -- and first paycheck -- from the Monitor for a feature on pidgin and creole languages, pegged to the work of two Stanford professors. bk

the monitor goes web-only

Go here (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99239994#commentBlock) to listen to John Yemma, the editor of The Christian Science Monitor, on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He talks about the paper's new business/publishing model as the paper goes online only during the week, with a print edition on weekends only.

He also discusses web-first journalism, and how that will significantly change the look, feel and interaction of the website. He predicts stories will be shorter, some will be faster, others will be "bloggier." And there will be traditional, longer stories, too.

He also predicts that to meet cost targets, the Monitor, one of the country's most well-respected papers, may have to decrease staff by 10 percent. Still, he says, the Monitor will retain its large stable of international correspondents.

He also addresses the big issue, prompted by a question from Terry Gross: who will pay for the news? And what will happen if no one does? bk