Newspaper Without the Paper

The newspaper is dead -- long live the newspaper. If you haven't run into stories written by "mojo's", you will soon. No, mojo's aren't Austin Powers wanna be's. It's short for mobile journalists, and Gannett news, one of the media behemoths of the world, is bringing them on board. Armed with nothing more than a laptop, digital camera and power source (such as their car), these mobile journalists write stories and upload them in the blink of an eye. You may not read these stories in USA Today, but the millions of Americans who get their news online see them daily, or even hourly.

Is there really that much news out there? Well, yes there is, if you focus on covering the most local of events. Previously considered to be the banal chore of newsroom interns, mojos are covering everything that happens in the community -- from the opening of a local grocery store to the neighborhood cat show. Some people may argue that "no one reads those stories." But the point is that the committed few DO read these stories. And, if you have enough of these microstories on your site, you can increase cummulative readership while capturing the hearts and minds of people who feel passionately about the issues and events of their community.

Just ask Gannett, where traffic from August to October on their sites has increased 146% over the previous year.

These mojos and their micro stories strike at the heart of engagism. By posting articles of significance to the community, and even hiring community members to write those articles, Gannett is recognizing that "top down" journalism won't work any more.

You can learn more about this in the article "A Newspaper Chain Sees Its Future..." in the Washington Post.