The Times They Are A-Changin'

One thing newspapers could do is try to localize their papers by covering smaller communities within each city. We touched on this in class one week, but it could be handled by allowing readers to contribute coverage of their own neighborhoods so that everyone could have their own little personal news source. Readers would be more inclined to check the website more often to keep up to date with what's going on in their area instead of just occasionally coming to look at the day's top headlines. It could be almost like a 24-hour news site because readers could post any time of the day. I know I would visit the sites more often if I had the opportunity, especially to be able to keep up with what's going on in my hometown.

Newspapers could also try to connect with local or national news stations to have attached video to their stories so readers can navigate around the site and look into extra information if they are interested. While sites usually already have some sort of video content it doesn't feel that substantial and if there is something a reader is really interested in, they want to know everything about it. And sometimes pictures just aren't enough for people. So papers could either form relationships with broadcast news sites or simply improve their own video access. They could get readers involved through this avenue as well, allowing the public to contribute videos but this might take longer to screen before posting.

Third, newspaper websites could really benefit by improving their template and overall website design. Many of the sites are really plain and boring and on top of that are somewhat confusing to navigate through. They are usually so busy that sometimes you can get lost in the jumbled text and miss out on really great stories. As well, sites like the LA Times have a completely different site for their calendar section but most probably assume those articles would be in the entertainment portion of the website. Little things like this could be easily fixed and it would make readers more inclined to visit the website because they know they are going to be able to find everything they are interested in reading.