Subject: Re: Push vs. Pull From: meyer@newslink.org (Eric Meyer) Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 17:17:03 -0500

Sender: owner-online-news@marketplace.com
Precedence: bulk
Status: RO
X-Status: 


>1) When the content that you send them is too broad
>2) When the frequency of emailing is improperly chosen

Bingo on both scores. The problem is, it is *very* difficult for a typical
mass-circulation, local news product to find content that is focused
narrowly enough or to offer a frequency that provides usefulness without
clutter.

Part of the problem is that what mass local media -- i.e., a typical
newspaper -- offer is of a non-predefinable nature. It's not like sports,
where you can pick a team to follow, or stocks, where you can select a key
company. As a reader, I want to know about the forced curb-and-gutter
improvements the city council has ordered, but only if they affect my
neighborhood and (much harder) the neighborhoods of those to whom I am
related or socialize with.

Even if you solve that problem, do I care what Al Gore has to say the one
and only time he comes to town? Do my partisan leanings pro or con hold
sway, or does it depend on what he talks about, or does it depend on where,
exactly, he spoke and to whom?

Do I care or not care about the rape that occurred downtown? How do you
factor ethos and pathos into the equation.

For most mass local media, news is not nearly so predictable as it is for
the niche media, resulting in too broad of content being distributed. And
because only a few things really are of greatly predictable interest, the
update frequency becomes so seldom that alternative niche services would
develop greater loyalty.

Your research and mine don't seem that far apart, in truth, even though one
says e-mail is great and the other says it's no savior. The difference is
the type of publication involved -- reaffirming that there is no
one-size-fits-all answer to how to publish in cyberspace.


+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
This message was posted to ONLINE-NEWS. http://www.planetarynews.com/o-n.html

From owner-online-news-digest@marketplace.com Wed Sep 18 23:59:07 1996
Received: from marketplace.com (majordom@marketplace.com [206.168.5.232]) by cnj.digex.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id XAA01748 ; for ; Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:59:06 -0400