Master a niche topic; toss the peanut butter ball of your expertise through the ever-growing information webfields of popcorn
General-interest publications encompassing a broad range of topics will be replaced by a collection of in-depth, niche publications operating independently or as a network.
Extremely focused (perhaps down to the story level if we had a massive, real-time, story-as-commodity-exchanging network of journalism resources alongside journalism demands), high-quality, information-producing, filtering, evaluating and aggregating publications stand the best chance of survival in an information environment that:
- Expands exponentially without standardized regulation of quality or quantity of information;
- Unpredictably and uncontrollably fractures, (re)distributes and (re)packages information according to consumers’ wants and needs;
- Is shifting away from a distribution and consumer-connection business toward a content production, filtration, evaluation and aggregation business.
Two niche sites:
- GoVolsXtra. Web crack for University of Tennessee sports fans.
- chicagocrime.org. Why isn’t every newspaper taking this idea and expanding it?
General interest sites, such as Brijit, during the transition, will likely evolve into referring machines made up of brief entries that direct attention toward more engaging niche products, much like a home page directs attention to a site’s portions.
If you’re looking for a niche publication, start with the sections of your site.
