The Daily Newspaper Needs To Clearly Define The Promise

"What problems are people trying to solve in their lives, and how can we help?" These are key questions that a news organization needs to raise as it publishes a daily newspaper, explains Stephen Gray, managing director of the initiative launched by the American Press Institute (read our other post). And we will add another question: Which medium is most suited to provide each of the different types of information?

In other words, it is a question of clearly defining the PROMISE made to the readers based on their needs. Then we need to determine which medium (or media) is best to fulfill each part of the promise.

This promise, which we also call "the contract with the readers", should be written in black & white. It needs to be approved by every team that contributes to the fulfillment of the promise. And we would even go as far to ask, why not have each new employee sign it? It will instill a sense of a common mission across the news organization.

The more we work with newsrooms and in particular with daily newspapers, we see that the service to readers is not clear. And that the organization which is publishing the newspaper on a daily basis does not have a common mission across its staff. Readers can feel this gap in service. So we come back to this: daily newspapers need to clearly define the promise to readers and deliver on that promise. Readers will know the difference.