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By Thomas Baekdal - November 2011

When News Sites Fail Spectacularly

Yesterday, Fairleigh Dickenson University came out with a study that every newspaper should think long and hard about. They found that people ended up knowing less about world events *after* following some news sites.


Just take a second to let that one sink in.


We no longer need basic news

The study did not find that people knew nothing at all. It found that people, without following any news sites, already know more about world events than what some news sites provides.

People already know!

As a news site you can no longer just be bringer of news. People's basic level of knowledge requires you to do more than just keep them informed.

Too many newspapers are just focusing on 250 words + a picture, like Fox News is doing on TV.

The basic level of required journalism is today much higher than what it was in the past. If all you do is to be "the bringer of news", you are actually making your readers dumber. That strategy might work in the short run, but as more and more people embrace the concept of social news, the knowledge people already have (from other sources) will quickly exceed the level of reporting that you provide.

...and when that happens, you go out of business.

We live of a trend of abundance. *More* is not the answer, because we already have *more*. You have to raise the bar.



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Thomas Baekdal


Swedish business magazine, Resumé


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