Tribune’s Abrams On Creative Destruction: Using The Printed Page To Push Readers To The Web

imageIn a long memo posted on Romenesko, Lee Abrams, the radio vet who joined Tribune Company in March as its first chief innovation officer, takes aim at general criticisms who say that the company’s recent plans will destroy newspapers. Abrams’ memo doesn’t zero in on concerns. For example, there’s the plan to slash news pages and to implement productivity measurements. Some say that could lower the quality of some papers’ brands, as they may be forced to shift resources from time-consuming investigative pieces. Instead, he tries to be more general about the sad state of the newspaper business and make a case that Tribune’s moves are trying to save it.

Also, he insists that quality is primary to what Tribune’s reinvention of its newspapers is all about. So as the company’s Baltimore Sun wraps up its relaunch, Abrams hopes to beat back the flack Tribune has endured over its reforms by accentuating the positive: making every day’s newspaper like “Sunday” with more special features, and retreating on plans to downplay national/world news versus a greater emphasis on local. Whichever way that balance tips, Abrams wants each paper to have a singular goal: each print page must drive readers to the corresponding site. In particular, each page should direct readers to more info on a paper’s website at least three- to four times.

Abram’s web push: “You’ll NEVER truly send readers to YOUR site in droves without constant referrals to the web. And with meat. I see some blogs get 100 or 200 replies. I’ll bet that’s because as well written as they are, relatively few are reading them. Goes back to web push being an occasional afterthought. Gotta DRIVE it. Give people a TASTE in print…then the whole story/blog/detail or whatever on the web. Baltimore Sun will have 4+ drivers on a page. The 2×4. And it’s NOT obnoxious if there’s ‘reason’ instead of a mindless ‘For more go to the web.'”

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