Where is The Issue?
Regrettably, The Issue did not command enough traffic (or ad clickers!) to be self-sustaining. The Issue has been a great experience and successful in ways that we could have never imagined. We want to thank friends, family and loyal readers for their support.
The editors of The Issue will continue to write on this blog and all the archives and past Issues of the Day are accessible through the navbar.
We would love to hear your feedback. Your fawning praise is always flattering; but we would also like to know why we failed. What could we have done better? We turn to you, our friends and loyal readers, for your thoughts.
-The Editors
March 18th, 2008 at 8:46 am
This is a real shame. Your blog newspaper was well done in terms of content and presentation. It is telling that the tabloid-like blogs attract large audiences, while a more broadsheet-like Internet site like The Issue does not have enough traffic to be continued.
If you had more time, I bet you would have managed to attract more regular readers.
Good luck.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Well that’s a bummer. I had a great time looking through your site to find alternative views on all sorts of contemporary issues.
March 18th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
This is really bad news. Athough I have only discovered The Issue a couple of weeks ago, visiting your web site at the end of the day has already become a habit. As Brigitte says: If you had more time…
March 18th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I will miss the issue.
March 18th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Thanks to Joey Reynolds I started visiting your site a few weeks ago..As a 60+ still working New Yorker..I was impressed..
Suggest you consider more radio & TV interviews & try again. Thanks
March 18th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
That was quick! Hoped you will last much longer :(
Even blog about TheIssue http://webomatik.blogspot.com/2008/02/blog-newspaper.html
Shame…
March 18th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
I think it has to be about getting the word out there through different outlets because my daily experience with the site has been nothing but positive. I had a hard time finding an article that was not interesting. There has to be something the loyal readers can do to help and get things going again! Please post a letter on the site and let us know because I know that if this site is discontinued I will be deeply saddened. Thank you for doing what you do. –Nick
March 19th, 2008 at 7:16 am
I heard about the issue only a few weeks ago on Air America. I found it extremely informative and I was beginning to read it everyday. I am disappointed that the issue is gone. Maybe more plugs on the radio would get more readers? It got me.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:09 am
I will miss it too, theIssue had become part of my daily routine. I valued the off-the-beaten track news and well thought out analaysis or rambling ponderings that I couldn’t find anywhere else.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
The site and its uniqueness will be missed greatly. I heard of it through a Mac publication which had placed it as one of its top 20 internet tools. Clearly the exposure was there or getting there so it’s a shame you seem to have given up entirely!!! Could you maybe not have downsized in some way to reduce costs or collaborated with organisations who were seeking exposure in exchange for advertising?
March 21st, 2008 at 12:32 am
The Issue was an oasis on the net.
I especially appreciated the very balanced presentation of views on an enormous array of topics. The photos were exqusite. Each issue showed your crew’s dedication to assembling the best of the blogosphere.
Those of us fortunate enough to have found The Issue will miss this site. I wish all of you the best in your future endeavors.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:53 am
You had a great idea; don’t let it die.
I hope you can figure out a business model that works. I did notice one problem: I could never get the e-newsletter subscription option to work. So I had to visit your site each day, which is kind of old school. I tried the RSS version, but it wasn’t as visually appealing (or as easy to comprehend) as simply visiting the site. Kind of like the New York Times and Good Morning Silicon Valley RSS feeds vs. e-newsletters: Their e-newsletters are awesome; their RSS feeds are awful.
Maybe revisit this idea, but focused on producing a visually appealing daily e-newsletter.
Also, focus on lengthier (feature-length) blog posts. Too many blog posts these days are more like twits on Twitter than a feature in a newspaper or magazine. A site that focuses on features would have a lot of value.
Matter of fact, this approach is something that I’ve done over at Twine, and I’ve created some of the most popular Twines using this format, i.e., focusing on features. My sources are mostly the online versions of general periodicals, but a site focusing on and finding good features in the blogosphere would be a welcome addition to many as a way to get their arms around RSS feeds, and to separate twits from thoughts.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:06 pm
What will I make my homepage? bring it back!
March 21st, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Aww, that is sad. I had just discovered your website recently and have been reading it nearly daily. Quality as high as this is very rare on the web today.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:57 pm
A sad loss. The Issue was both informative and fascinating. It turned into my homepage after only a few visits.
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I’ve just discovered The Issue, so forgive me if I miss anything: perhaps you should try a different approach to ads. From my experience, ad placements and types matter a lot (and by a lot, I mean A LOT). That could very well be the difference between stopping publication and continuing. Please email me if you’d like some (free) advice :)
March 24th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Too bad, I was always able to find something interesting to read about, and I have appreciated the continued additions and innovations to the site since it launched, best of luck in the future.
March 26th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
thanks for the post. i hope to read some more.
Best regards from Sebbi
March 26th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
nice post. thanks for sharing your traffic tips
March 27th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
interested post about traffic. i think is very useful
April 15th, 2008 at 3:43 am
I didn’t know that you existed until I listened to a two month old podcast of the Rachel Maddow show, guest hosted by Lee Rayburn. I believe that your failure was most due to lack of exposure.
April 20th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
The key problem was money, of course. A newspaper or magazine has subscribers and advertising; websites have advertising, but with certain exceptions not advertising that pays for much. With neither the traffic to make Google advertising pay, nor a subscriber base of some kind you simply couldn’t afford to run The Issue—simply put, editor driven aggregators such as The Issue are much more expensive and cover much less news than something reader driven like Newsvine though of course they get more interesting news.
So how do you solve the money problem? Either through better advertising (see: The Deck), or though subscribers. So. Offer subscriptions to The Issue. For your subscription you get the paper a day early and get to see it in a little rougher form with the stories that eventually won’t make the cut. Call it The Early & Expanded Edition, or some such. You could even give them access to the slush pile as a (passworded) RSS feed so they could follow along as you shape the paper.
For advertising, target it. Your readers like multiple viewpoints on issues, they appreciate design, they look for the interesting and in-depth pieces not twitter like rapid blogging. What does that person want to see advertising for? Certainly not flashy banners and weak Google text ads.
If I was (re-)launching The Issue I’d approach it like so:
-The Early & Expanded Edition rolls out to subscribers Saturday sometime. Editing continues.
-The Issue is released Sunday Morning at the same set time every week. Reliability trumps unreliable frequency, the way I’m positioning it.
-The Midweek Edition is released Wednesday Evenings, same set time every week. This kills the under-performing stories (let’s say bottom 25% in a combo of traffic and disliked by readers via a new simple & discreet up/down rating system), adds 25% new breaking news stories, and shifts the existing content up/down based on feedback & traffic. Additionally the letters to the editor section is refreshed with any feedback that has come in.
-Cycle begins over. Out of the five or so most well liked stories of the last week, one is held over with the best reader comments about it as a new feature. I’d say add bias in favour of the under-trafficked piece as well.
Under the new system the editors keep track of the news during the week throwing everything they like into a slush pile. Slush pile is culled for the first time, and the Early & Expanded Edition rolls out. Slush pile is culled the second time and The Issue is released. Midweek slush pile focuses on more breaking news type things while the longer in-depth stuff is saved for the regular edition.
I’d add, as mentioned, a letters section. I’d also add a new regular & exclusive column. Talk to writers that you like and find a small stable that are willing to do a column. I’m not sure what you should focus the column on, or even if it should be focused, but those are things to think about. I’d do something clever with it—perhaps a piece of fiction that looks like a New Journalism style piece… humour? Satire? Something fun and neat, anyway.
You give up the dynamic updated every day or two aspect, and you’re a little more behind the times. In return you get longer to select news stories, add additional exclusive features so The Issue isn’t just another aggregator, and perhaps establish something more of a brand.
As for the design it’s clean, simple, and decently laid out. Given your attempt to link with regular newspapers, I would have suggested the red, white, and black colour scheme (green is so web 2.0 at this point)—something like Roger Black (minus the white text on red background for the main articles) or The Morning News. Your typography needs a little improvement and I think more hierarchy in size as well as some use of sIFR for headlines would be nice as well. Use colour more, regardless if it’s green or red, make things pop. I’d add pull quotes to stories as well, to suck in the reader. Overall The Issue is so much nicer looking than the usual selection these are fairly minor points.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:16 am
A follow-up:
To some extent I’m sidestepping the obvious problem: how do you get noticed? This takes time, so I’m buying you time.
Your current Issue of the Day would be repurposed as a weekly thing. Let’s do two: one “hard”, one “soft”. That’s less than the 3-5 issues you used to a week, and hence quite a bit less time and effort. Likewise with the news stories. We could probably dynamically shift them around every time somebody loads the page (because people might skim a section and their eye pays more attention to the first item in the section) and then the lowest performing stories get killed Wednesdays, and the rest go by Sunday. This offers some (faked) dynamism, and some actual new news without it being too much work.
If traffic increases to the point where it’s economically viable to do more: do more. Starting at one full and one partial issue a week makes it much easier to scale up than it is to scale 3-5 issues a week downwards.
So if everything works great, The Midweek Edition can get scaled up. Either the hard or soft Feature Issue can be new instead of held over, perhaps 35-50% of stories can be replaced, and so on. If things keep going well The Issue can update in a more dynamic fashion with additional partial editions, and so on and so on and eventually you’re back to doing the same or more work of the old Issue in a slightly different but pretty similar fashion but—and this is key—you did it by building slowly instead of starting out fairly big.
Anyway, just my two (or twenty) cents.
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