Traditional newspapers and legacy media have been on the decline for quite a while now, making the way for niche news outlets. While large and powerful publications shrink, smaller outlets focused on very specific populations grow and thrive.
“While traditional newsrooms have shrunk, there are other new players producing content that could advance citizens’ knowledge about public issues," a 2013 Pew report concluded. "They are covering subject areas that would have once been covered more regularly and deeply by beat reporters at traditional news outlets—areas such as health, science, and education.”
Buzzfeed, notorious for click-inducing lists, has a hold on the niche Millenial market, and sites like RIABiz are focusing on tiny market populations with a lot of cash to spend: investment bankers. From poor young college students to wealthy bankers, everyone has a niche. Even some of the large bulwarks of the "fourth pillar of democracy' are beginning to take notice - or else risk losing a business opportunity to keep them afloat.
It is no coincidence that some of these legacy media outlets are being bought and controlled by tech start-up millionaires. If anyone knows how to deliver content in the 21st century, it is companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon. For a prime example, one has to look no further than the purchase of the Washington Post by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Since 2013, the Washington Post has attracted more readers using upgrading digital mediums and employed a variety of analytic tools that allow the media outlet to find each reader's niche. They are now a large media company focusing on pleasing a diverse array of niches rather than assuming every citizen should be interested in the same information and articles.
Even the biggest paper of them all, The New York Times, is changing strategies to increase user engagement and develop a "broader audience". They hope to develop niches based upon the input from their readers, signaling that even the biggest giants are being brought to their knees by a culture of information customization.
"What would prove more fruitful is for newsrooms to treat their audience like people with crucial information to convey — preferences, habits and shifting ways of consuming information," Liz Spayd, editor for the paper wrote in July. "What do they like about what we do and how we do it? What do they want done differently? What do they turn to other sites for?"
The fact is, in a culture of customization and bespoke everything, people expect the same of their information. The days of one-size-fits-all news is dead and niche is quickly replacing it.
TRAVEL WRITING
In this niche climate, travel writing needs to be specifically directed to an audience as well. The writer can't assume that each desination will be found enjoyable to every reader. The writer also cannot assume that every reader has the means and access to travel to Thailand for a weekend excursion or take a cruise in the summertime.
One strategy can be used is to keep stories hyper-local and focus only on trips within a few hours radius of home. Tour companies have begun offering tours by real, honest-to-god locals, showing the neighborhoods they grew up in. Writers may do the same.
Another way to specialize travel writing is to direct articles to people of a particular lifestyle. Boone locals may be more interested in visiting Dollywood than taking in a symphony at the Chetola resort in Blowing Rock. As the saying goes, there are different strokes for different folks, so the writer should make sure they are using the right stroke for the folks they want to attract.
Mobile devices will factor into this heavily, getting the writer into places and local attractions that would no doubt roll out the red carpet for a television crew with a scheduled visit. If authenticity is the name of the game in the niche market, how better than by using the same type of device the traveler will use to take their photos?
Produced for COM4610 at Appalachian State University.