I read a
recent column by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times that strongly criticized the concept and growing popularity of a “Daily Me” news product, which Kristof said would lead to readers seeking out “information that confirms our prejudices.” The original
“Daily Me” concept dates back to 1995 as proposed by Nicholas Negroponte. True, that back in 1995 the notion of a user personalizing his news to create his own news digest seemed as foreign and far fetched as someone flying to the moon in the 1920s, but today this concept is real and has been successfully executed against.
We as a society turn to TiVo as a platform to watch the programs we choose, at the times that fit our schedules, and TiVo suggests other programs that match our interests, though perhaps not our point of view. Pandora (a personal favorite) gives us a similar opportunity to choose the genres or artists we’d like to listen to, whenever we desire. And iTunes, gives us the ability to purchase one song instead of a full CD. So why would we believe that this trend would not carry over to the consumption of news? We wouldn’t. In fact, I would argue that our loyalty to news media, especially to newspapers, has delayed for too long the adoption of this trend in the news domain.
The “Me” media trend is here and growing in popularity among consumers. Consumers drive the demand, and suppliers step up to the plate to deliver – and
DailyMe.com is no different.
Kristof makes a leap to assume that the decline of traditional news media and the rise of online personalized news will inherently lead to more filtering of contrary opinion and perspective on the news. Clearly, when given the tools to find it, online readers seem more willing to seek out news content from a variety of sources and different perspectives. I never heard the argument that giving people various perspectives on issues that matter to them is bad for them, for journalism or for democracy.
DailyMe.com (our version of Daily Me) brings together hundreds of sources, giving people various perspectives on 'their' issues. We would prefer to help people become deeply informed on issues that matter to them, instead of helping them gain a superficial, one-sided perspective on a variety of topics that they may be unwilling to defend.
To my regret, I have had the opportunity to discuss 'our DailyMe' with Dr. Negroponte superficially, but I am willing to bet that he and I agree on many principles, especially now that almost 20 years have passed since he first thought of this. Personalizing your news is not about giving you only what you want from a single or handful of sources. True personalization should leverage your interests (gathered implicitly and explicitly) as a starting point, use means of algorithmic and collective discovery, and weigh them based on editorial values. The end result should be diverse (in terms of views and sources), dynamic (since it learns and adapts), multi-platform (extends well beyond online into print and other devices) and promotes the exploitation AND exploration of content. Oh, and it should compensate journalists for writing stories.
The truth is that most news consumers are not reading newspapers or online news ‘cover to cover’ and that they are consuming online news from multiple sources. The habit is the same, but the methodology is different, as has been argued by my colleague Bob Rountree, the editor in chief of DailyMe. Home delivery continues to fall and the state of traditional news media is in a place where acceptance and change is needed.
Our interpretation and execution of DailyMe is helpful for consumers and journalists alike. Although it does pose a challenge to traditional newspapers, this is a trend they should embrace, not fight. At the end of the day every player in the personalized news space is tiny as compared with
NYTimes.com,
Washingtonpost.com or the online version of most other newspapers. Personalized news will grow if, and when, newspapers adopt it and execute it well from the perspective of presentation and underlying technology. When that time comes, we'll be ready to help. These are realities, right, wrong or indifferent and as such, fighting reality or nay-saying it on the sidelines will leave you… well on the sidelines.
- Eduardo Hauser
DailyMe Inc. Founder and CEO
http://DailyMe.com
