After Today, You Will Never Look at a Newspaper The Same Way Again: Welcome to the 21st Century!

It’s really quite obvious, isn’t it?  Newspapers have to compete with television, radio, and cable.  Even more to the point, they have to compete with computers, the Internet, smartphones and every manner of new device.

So newspapers have to change — or die.

Well, this newspaper is not going to die! Rather, we will be at the forefront of change!

Last year, Facebook released Facebook Live, and it is for practical purposes a whole new medium. It is not over the airwaves or on cable.  It is on the Internet. Moreover, rather than be limited to the coverage of a broadcast signal, which can only go out a few miles, or a cable signal, which depends on a hardwire, Facebook Live goes around the world to the 2 billion people who have Facebook.

The ability to broadcast from the iPhone to a worldwide audience is, quite simply revolutionary.

Our newspapers, owned by Community Press, LLC, are taking advantage of this new opportunity.

In May we broadcast the State 5A Championship baseball game between  Central and West Monroe live on Facebook and had an astounding 94,000 viewers.  This fall, we have broadcast Central High varsity games on Facebook Live and averaged more than 20,000 viewers a game.  These numbers dwarf those expected by broadcast television and cable.

Moreover, we have found a way to profit from Facebook Live by selling advertising.

Now we integrate the technology of QR codes, and we have the ability to turn our newspapers, starting with the Istrouma Journal, into “video newspapers.”  And who wouldn’t want to have a newspaper that combines print and video?

All you do is download an app that reads QR codes from the App Store on your phone, and Voila! this newspaper comes to life!

You can now Watch the Istrouma Journal, and we trust you will.  It’s interesting, it’s fun, it’s revolutionary, and it’s free!

So where do we go from here?

Well, the sky’s the limit!  We’re are studying this technology — print, telephone, television, social media, Facebook Live, QR codes, and everything else everyday.  Each day, new ideas and new possibilities emerge.

Think of the telephone.  Alexander Graham Bell patented it in 1876. How was the telephone being used one year later?  20 years later? Or today, 141 years later?

The telephone is constantly changing.  And expanding.

Facebook Live became available less than two years ago.  Where will it be in five years or 20 years?

We don’t know, but we want to be at the forefront of finding out!

So how do you like your new Video Newspaper?

Follow us on Facebook at Istrouma Journal.  Also at Central City News, Capital City News, and my personal Facebook, Woody Jenkins.  Tell us what you think and where you think we should go!