Breakfast Serial

[Jenn Matusiak]

So whenever my Mom goes somewhere on a business trip, she picks me up a local newspaper. Recently, she purchased a copy of The Union Leader, a local newspaper in New Hampshire. On the front page it mentioned Breakfast Serials. So if you flip to the B section of the paper, there is a work of fiction called Breakfast Serials, and the catch? Part 1 of 9. I think that is a clever way to sell newspapers. Get people hooked on something and they want to buy the paper everyday to see where the story goes. I know this is a fiction piece, and not news. But maybe future journalists could do this with news...

The days of breaking news stories are ending since anyone with a cell phone can be a reporter these days. I say let's bring back the days of long, in-depth feature pieces. Let's bring back expose journalism. Heck, let's bring back the term muckraking. Why not? Who wouldn't want to read another mind shattering piece like The Jungle in the Philadelphia Inquirer? I know I would. Let's grab the reader's attention on Monday and not let go until next Tuesday.

And let's not give it away for free either. I checked the Union Leader's website, and Breakfast Serials isn't on there. Kudos to New Hampshire.

[George Miller]

I've been saying the same thing but no one listens to me! What is the strength of a newspaper? In-depth reporting. Fill newspaper websites with blurbs of stories, encouraging people to purchase the print version. Give them a reason to by the physical copy - longer stories, in-depth series, good old-fashioned muckraking.

Of course, you'd still have to get people interested in those longer essays, and we've already broken people of their reading habits. But in-depth reporting is becoming a niche in and of itself.