What if Clark Kent Really Did Work for a Newspaper?

First, watch this video.

This is inspiring.  It really makes sense.  I receive the local paper daily in my box.  It's not free.  I hardly read it.  On Sundays, I look at the comics, Parade, and the ads.  I've already received my news from the internet, TV, and radio.  There's a local paper that's free and often has articles about things that are uber local, not regional like the big paper.  It also is better designed and is smaller, easier to read in tight spaces.  It's filled with local ads too.  Often ads the big paper would never publish, like the local strip club, but ads none the less.

If the big paper would prioritize the news to only publishing that which I go to the paper to read and maybe one or two huge stories that give a detail and local twist no other outlet provides, then the newspaper would have my attention.  If it looked pretty, flashy, but clean, I'd pick it up.  If it were free with well designed and placed ads, I'd read the ads.  The salvation of the local paper might not lie in websites that are over-loaded with content, video, and blogs.  Maybe the local paper just needs a little pizzazz.  Sure, from necessity and in respect for the earth, the actual paper newspaper we know may go away, but the elements should remain.  Uber local, fantastically framed and emotive photos, well written articles that are examples of perfect grammar, and ads that catch the eye.  

Television could learn from this as well.  Sure, it's getting cheaper and cheaper to make TV and all those innovative people you passed up because they weren't making cookie cutter TV are killing you now because they can afford to fund their own projects, but you're not dead and buried yet.  Quit looking at poll groups.  Quit over analyzing.  Look for innovation, style, talent, and cutting edge.  If your company becomes known for discovering and cultivating the next great thing, people will flock to you to find their newest obsession.  

Forget about ratings.  That's old stuff.  Find new ways to attract advertisers.  "Heroes" has done a great job with it.  I know two advertisers that are loyal to "Heroes": Sprint and Nissan.  I know this because they advertise in every show mentioning "Heroes" in their ads.  They advertise on all of "Heroes" web content.  They've stuck with "Heroes" for all three seasons.  This is one way to do it.  There are others.  Get your writers, directors, actors, and producers involved in thinking up ways to include the advertiser.

Radio, it applies to you as well.  Hire local personalities.  Play local bands.  Be active in the community.  If one station in each market did this, they'd kill the others.  The others are all computers.

The answer to improving your company isn't automation; it's personalization.  People are loyal to people.  A company laying off employees doesn't garner support.  A company that hires excellent minds and shows how creative and non-boring it can be; people will line up at the door and wear t-shirts with the company's logo on the front (especially if the logo is well designed).