In past seasons, The Wire has looked at lack of opportunity, corruption in city hall, smuggling through port authorities, and the failure of education.

This year, The Wire is focusing on the media.  And it brings up an issue of significant interest to marketers:  what makes news credible?

Set in Baltimore, the show takes us inside the newsroom of The Baltimore Sun, where the newspaper is struggling to maintain profitability as readers switch to other media.  (See New Challenges for Old Media:  Newspapers.)  People are laid off, budgets are cut, and pressure is put on the staff to write more sensational stories to sell more papers.

Show creator David Simon used to work at the Sun, and over the next few weeks, he’ll certainly take us through an entertaining look at what happens to the people there as pressures mount.

His point is critical:  What happens as news quality deteriorates?  What impact does that have on the rest of the city and society? 

Mark Twain once noted, “I am not the editor of a newspaper. And I shall always try to do right and be good, so that God will not make me one.” 

Journalism in general is struggling with a credibility crisis, and newspapers more so than other media.  A Pew Research study in 2004 showed that just over half of readers ranked the newspaper they are most familiar with as being “believable.”  Even the news sources ranked as “most credible” (CNN, national and local TV news) had believability ratings just over 60 percent.

People obviously want more, but how are they going to get it?  Especially if the media outlets have fewer resources to provide good coverage?

The answer may lie in a remarkable opportunity for marketers.

The believability ratings of the media don’t appear to be moving upward anytime soon.  But technology has created the tools are changing the game.  Just not within the traditional channels. 

The credibility issue stems from the limited space and information that a news source is able to provide.  Print space in particular in finite.  Readers who think a story is biased or incomplete have no way to find out more. 

But some savvy reporters have found ways to work around this—and boost their credibility—through running their own blogs in addition to reporting through their traditional outlets.  Blogs not only allow them to expand information, but invite discussion.  What’s more, some reporters are going so far as to include podcasts of their raw interviews with subjects, so readers understand the quotes in context.

And that’s the opportunity:  Eliminate the constrictions of information in traditional media sources by supplementing them in other places.   As news sources have fewer resources, public relations resources from marketers can help fill in, if they are willing to offer quality information.  This is true not just for major media sources, but for trade and local media as well.

For marketers, that means opening up more background, access to people, and (for those who can handle it) unfiltered conversations in blogs, chat sessions, and other user-generated content.

Hewlett-Packard recently made the decision not to filter content on its website.  Others are following suit.  Even when time-strapped viewers don't take advantage of the information, the value is still there:  the source is willing to open up.

The credibility risk for marketers.

Ultimately, the reason to do this is that there will be no choice.  Whether a marketer filters content on its site or not, there will be numerous other locations (all accessible with a simple search) where unfiltered content is readily available.  Which will be more credible to a viewer—the corporate filtered version or the good-and-bad-news that actual product users are offering?  Are you more willing to buy the digital camera with all-glowing manufacturer-generated testimonials, or the one where owners say it's usually pretty good, but you need to have more batteries on hand than the manual says you should?  Even when some viewers decided to completely trash a product, it can still result in more sales (see this Chevy Tahoe report from Wired.)

"Transparency" is the buzzword being used for this, although we're not sure if complete transparency is possible.  What is possible is for marketers contribute more, and relinquish some control of their messages to other sources.  Those who don't may wind up facing credibility issues of their own.

So, while they may not be cursed with the fate of actually being a newspaper editor, there will be more pressure on marketers to ante up with news.

There's a lot more to this issue than we can fit here.  Want to know more?  E-mail us or call, and we'll share as much as we know.

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