From October 2007 edition of Newspapers & Technology

The newspaper’s most important  ‘job to be done’ By Rob Carrigan   It has been roughly one year since the American Press Institute introduced us to the idea that consumers don’t buy products. Instead, they hire them to get key jobs done in their lives. The concept, “Jobs to Be Done,” arose from the API’s Newspaper Next project. Newspaper execs alternately embraced the idea, puzzled over it, and in a few cases, outright rejected it. Depending on whom you talk to, the printed newspaper is either a dying breed or in the throes of being reinvented into a yet-to-be-determined entity.   Yet according to the World Association of Newspapers, global newspaper circulation is up nearly 10 percent since 2002, although the group is careful to note that the North American marketplace is not participating in that growth. As Gregg Bergan, a columnist for the Denver Business Journal noted recently, “predicting the future of newspaper readership is possibly as confounding as Yogi Berra’s puzzling statement, ‘Nobody goes there anymore; it is too crowded.’”   Good idea But the idea of readers hiring us to get a job done is a good one. Community newspapers should be reflective of  the community they are in. If a paper manages to do that — and in a way that is better than anything else available — it will survive. Bill Haupt, president of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors, brought that point home several years ago. “… A hometown or community newspaper will always be here to hold a mirror to the community. That means the good, the bad and the ugly, generally in that order. A good community newspaper reflects the essence of a community. An outstanding community challenges it to be better,” wrote Haupt. It is as Walter Williams, the first dean of the school of journalism at the University of Missouri, articulated before  his death in 1935. “I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the Internet during the day, and view cable news in the evening. Ease of use, convenience, timeliness, relevance and, of course, quality of content serve as drivers in the selection process.  In short, those readers migrate to the source that best gets the job done. Granted, consumer choice 75 years ago was far more limited, but to quote Walter Williams again: “I believe that advertising, news and editorial columns should alike serve the best interests of all readers; that a single standard  of helpful truth and cleanliness should prevail for all; that the supreme test of good journalism is the measure of public service.” If we can somehow keep that in mind, no matter if our story-telling platform is the traditional newspaper, a blog, podcast or something that hasn’t even been developed yet, we will survive and prosper. We will continue to be  hired. And in keeping all that in mind, I guess we have identified our primary “Job to Be Done.” Rob Carrigan is in the sales and business development group of weekly newspaper publisher  Colorado Publishing Co., a Dolan Media Co. unit based in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at rob.carrigan@csmng.com.