Use of SMS for local media

I stumbled across two stories this week that made me realize that newspapers, at least local ones, still have a great opportunity to utilize technology.

First, from Julie Starr in New Zealand, comes the observation that while larger papers have pretty much missed the boat on conversion to a strong online business plan, regionals and locals still have an opportunity. (Full post here.)

There's no question that ink on paper remains strong in rural and small-town New Zealand. But most of those newspaper readers either don't have internet connections or have dial-up or low-speed broadband. Eventually that will change, and people's reading habits will change along with it - with a clear impact on local papers. Unless, of course, those local papers start working towards developing useful websites. Not much sign of that yet.

So, they're behind the times but not by too much and still have a chance. Plus, I've always contended that local newspapers have the strongest chance of surviving simply because they cover something nobody else does -- local news.

After reading that piece I then stumbled across this piece from The New York Times about the recent protests of the Olympic flame in San Francisco and the rampant use of SMS (text messaging) to mobilize people. (Read full post here.)

The protesters had deployed people across San Francisco who were tracking the torch’s whereabouts — from the waterfront warehouse where it first appeared, to the diverted path it took away from the biggest protest gatherings. Every few minutes, the pro-Tibet sympathizers were sending updates on where they believed the torch and a busload of its bearers were being redirected. Most text-enabled demonstrators were apparently subscribed to a distribution list set up by Students for a Free Tibet, using the commercial service TextMarks.

After reading the two it struck me that local news organizations have a great opportunity to take the lead here. Granted, SMS is used primarily by younger people but isn't that the audience local newspapers desire to reach? In addition, nearly everyone now has a cellphone. Many older people don't have text plans but that will change over time.

What if local news organizations could broadcast events, alerts, traffice updates, weather alerts, scores, gas prices etc by SMS? Basically, anything local that the reader can't get anywhere else. (Hey -- go one step further and do it by Twitter too.)

I've written about this before. (See post here.) But that was basically about harnessing the power of users to share news regarding a train accident. Here the local media can finally take charge and be the reliable and up to date source of news it has wanted to be for so many years.