“The United States has no metropolis. The intelligence and the power of the people are disseminated through all the parts of this vast country, and instead of radiating from a common point they cross each other in every direction; the Americans have nowhere established any central direction of opinion, any more than of the conduct of affairs. This difference arises from local circumstances and not from human power; but is owing to the laws of the Union that there are no licenses to be granted to printers, no securities demanded from editors … The consequence is that nothing is easier than to set up a newspaper, as a small number of subscribers suffices to defray the expenses.
Hence the number of periodical and semi-periodical publications in the United States is almost incredibly large.”
That was Alexis de Tocqueville’s assessment of the diversity of American newspapers in the first half of the nineteenth century. The passage is from a much larger chapter in "Democracy in America," wherein de Tocqueville examines the many differences, mostly of editorial tone and monetary success, between the American and European press. What strikes me about this quote is that de Tocqueville could just as easily be talking about blogs. Blogging has created new opportunities for the free exchange of ideas to return to the commons. Anyone can share and discuss ideas – the news, business, sports, hobbies, life, anything at all.
It’s also affected more traditional institutions, like this newspaper.
We’ve made some big changes in the last six months as we launched the new Web site. The dust has settled, but we don’t want to lose our momentum.
A few weeks ago, Tac Anderson posed this question for us on his blog:
My question for the Idaho Business Review is “what’s next”? John Foster has made some great changes in the right direction, but I think that they need to strike while the iron’s hot. One blog is a great *start* but is not even the tip of the iceburg (sic).
I’ve struggled with this for a few weeks, but I’ve been unable to come up with a concise, thoughtful solution. Instead, in the spirit of Web 2.0, I’d like to turn the question over to our readers. How do you use the Web site? What features would you like to see us add? How should we keep the conversation going?
6 Comments
I feel like your website needs to spread out and breathe a little. I recognize that there a couple different sections (Idaho People, Companies, Industries) but it seems like the vast majority of your website is based on either the main page or the actual article page.
Not that there is anything inherently wrong with that, after all you are a group of journalists. I'd just like to see perhaps sections with more in depth stories related to the section. Personally I come here mostly for the development news, what's being built in town, how the hole's doing, etc. I would love to see a section kept up to date with that kind of thing and perhaps even some sort of map outlining what's going on in greater-downtown Boise.
These types of ideas could obviously carry over to the political, industrial, and other topics on the site.
Basically what I'm saying is you guys have a fantastic wealth of knowledge but you're doing yourselves and your readers a disservice by merely keeping it text. There's so many innovative and interesting ways to extend your stories and reporting it's amazing. I feel like your site is like every other blog out there, just with generally better content.
Push yourselves and don't be afraid to try new ideas, I'd rather see small failures than stagnation.
And that my friends, was my ramble.
Comment By Josh Thursday, May 3, 2007 @ 4:24 PM
In the spirit of Tac's new blog - www.techboise.com - that is using "columnists", IBR could easily have invited /submitted "editorials" online much faster than print.
Also, in the spirit of Web 2.0, maybe collaborate with Tac and others?
Maybe look farther afield than "tech" or the TV... how about folks like the public affairs subcomm of IEDA? (IRP's ED committee too?)
Take the red pill, Eddie!
Neo
Comment By Norris Krueger Thursday, May 3, 2007 @ 5:25 PM
There's a lot of buzz in journalism right now about how does the industry stay relevant. I think an industry wide shift needs to happen and reporters need to stop worrying about 'reporting' and be more concerned with 'aggregating' and delivering stories.
The key is personalization. You nor anyone at the IBR has any idea what I (or anyone) will be interested in as a reader. Provide relevant content (no matter what the source)and provide a way for me to select what news I want aggregated to me and how I would like it delivered.
Pretty simple right? :)
Comment By Tac Anderson Thursday, May 3, 2007 @ 6:48 PM
I think that the Idaho Business Review has made some very positive improvements. However, I have to agree with Josh above that while I am interested in Idaho/Boise business in general, I am most interested in Treasure Valley development news, downtown construction/infrastructure reporting, etc. If you could devote a section on the website to these items it might be good.
Also, it would be nice to have op-ed pieces and up-to-date information regarding the relocation of companies to the Treasure Valley, and regarding efforts to bring Fortune 500 companies to this area.
Overall, you do these things already. However, I would like to see even more done in these areas.
Comment By Justin McMurdie Friday, May 4, 2007 @ 2:27 PM
The two IBR blog posts immediately following this one:
1. A dog is painted in Pocatello.
2. Dan Popkey and Jill Kuraitis argue over their struggling sources of income.
It reminds me of a television commercial, probably from the 80's, jabbing at morning "news" magazines: "Big news overseas, but first...is your pet dog psychic?!"
At least you're not spending time on Rosie's departure from The View, Paris Hilton's probation violation, or "Two Boobs in the Morning" billboards.
Perhaps a renewed focus on bona fide business news?...
Comment By Leo A. Geis Saturday, May 5, 2007 @ 4:33 AM
What I like to see in the IBR newspaper is more articles from all sectors. It seems like there are two or three lenghty articles over multiple pages and the rest are columns?
Your web has much more interesting news. If you are going to charge $2.00 for the paper, give us our monies worth. If not, I will just read the web.
CONTACT US at 208.336.3768
SUBSCRIBE
