Every newspaper secretly knows its kryptonite. But newspapers’ real flaw is a hubris so pervasive that it stops them from admitting weakness and actually doing something.

The latest example of this principle is fleshed out in a journo-debate spotted by Romenesko. The question is whether Chicago’s Red Eye model has the potential to work in cities that don’t have subways. The assumption by short-sighted critics is that Red Eye is only popular because people have time to kill during the commute and aren’t smart enough to read a “real” newspaper.

Ehnnnnnn! (That’s the buzzer sound from Family Feud.)

Subways make marketing Red Eye easier. But readers aren’t picking it up just to pass the time. After all, there are a lot of ways to pass time. It doesn’t make sense that Red Eye is chosen from these options by so many people unless there is another job being done. The truth is some readers want news in a quick, “good enough” format.

In Tampa Bay, the rise of tbt (a Red-Eye-like publication from the St. Petersburg Times) proves subway travelers aren’t needed to make the model work.

Not everyone reads the newspaper because they want deep, investigate reporting. Get over yourselves. Journalism is a service. It’s time egotistic editors wake up and realize no job is below them.

My recommendation: start one of these “Red Eyes” in every major city across the United States. Either your newspaper can do it, or someone else will.

Slideshows at NYTimes.com account for an amazing 10 percent of all traffic to the site, according to its general manager, Vivian Schiller.

Is it just me, or is that an insane amount of traffic? Schiller divulged this trivia while bragging about NYTimes.com’s online-only content during an interview with Jon Friedman of Marketwatch:

"The whole marketing campaign stems from how people don't think of us only as an online newspaper," Schiller said. "You don't know what's going to stick. Slide shows have taken off like a rocket, accounting for 10% of our page views in August. Our strategy is to unleash the creativity of our journalists to tell their stories and build communities around areas of interest."

While the Times failed to give more specific statistics about the success of the slide shows, Schiller noted: "What it says to me is that you can figure out a compelling way to deliver news and information to the readers. What do we do next? We do more of them."

I’ll agree that users favor audio slideshows, but I never anticipated they could account for 10 percent of total traffic. That’s on par with our entire job listings section, for example. What’s the secret to success?

What I’ve seen while helping to launch our first user-submitted Web site, PortCharlotteVoice.com, is piqued excitement and involvement from the Advertising and Marketing sides of the business. Their level of participation is enough that it begs the question about whether the newsroom is needed to succeed.

After all, they’re not nearly as ubiquitously excited.

Just the opposite. I’ve heard some staffers call user-submitted sites a fad. Many are biding their time, waiting for a failure so they can move onto more serious journalism. What might be veiled as healthy skepticism is actually utter pessimism.

For example, we’ve asked everyone in the newsroom to let their sources know about this alternate way to get published. But one newsroom staffer balked, saying that support of this site could lead to an erosion of newsroom credibility.

Herein lies the reason newsrooms might need to be left out of the creation of what is essentially a disruptive business model: Newsrooms could sabotage these sites.

So don’t bother. You don’t need a newsroom to start a user-submitted Web site. You need people who live in the community being targeted. And there are lots of those people working in the other newspaper departments who can spread the word.

When other industries create disruptive business models, it often requires setting up a separate division or company within themselves to safeguard the ideas from withering criticism and traditional thought-processes.

Notice the headline doesn’t say, “Newsroom not wanted.” Ideally, the newspaper realizes that what it deems “community coverage” of clubs and events is actually better reported by the people within the community. Ideally, reporters and editors accept that they don’t answer all of their sources’ needs. In many cases, providing sources a direct communication line with readers better serves everyone.

Given my reputation as perhaps the only person in the world to outwardly dislike the TimesCast, a couple folks have brought to my attention that its demise was just announced via the Roanoke development blog:

The announcement didn't offer any reason for the TimesCast's cancellation, except to blame all the other work that has to get done.

At the end of this week, we'll be wrapping up production on the final TimesCast on roanoke.com . . . We learned a lot of lessons in the two years since the work on the TimesCast began. We've applied those lessons to other Webcasts and to broader video efforts. It's because of those Webcasts and our plans to do more with video produced in the field that we've decided to move beyond the TimesCast.

Sounds like they're conceding the TimesCast took more time than it was worth, at least when compared to the pay-off offered by other projects.

It began as an experiment, with the idea to see whether original video could be shot, edited and produced within a matter of hours. It quickly became much more. It branched out from a brief, three-to-four minute production into a show that featured guest cameos, on-location remotes, interviews, music, movie clips, serials, Santa auditions and video teasers that played on the front of the Web site.

Baking into your culture an iterative design process helps to identify when something is working and when it should go in another direction. The key to innovation (or one of the keys) is failing fast. Apparently, it took two years to discover that spin-offs in the form of targeted shows based just on sports, or just on music, are more effective. In today's episode, TimesCast viewers were promised the upcoming announcement of yet another webcast, this one focused on entertainment.

Best of luck to the Roanoke folks on the spin-offs, and on using video as part of breaking news. What we've learned at HeraldTribune.com is that breaking news video is the No. 1 driver of video traffic. And it doesn't take very long to produce.

The list of TimesCast spin-offs, so far:

• Sports TimesCast


• VarsityCast


• MusicCast

The third financial quarter just closed and soon enough numbers will be tallied in Accounting offices everywhere, leading to the re-emergence of the budget ax. When that happens, don’t panic and cut another section of the newspaper.

There is a better way. Mail sections that are waning in popularity only to readers who still want them. Yes, I’m suggesting using bulk mail via the U.S. Postal Service.

My “Zoning by Interest” series is designed to teach newspapers how to transition to personalization and away from a one-size-fits-all approach to their readers. But editors often tell me it’s unreasonable to expect the Circulation department will be able to reliably deliver so many different versions of the newspaper to so many people. Even though I disagree (as does the evidence), let’s assume for a moment this limitation is real.

Mailing those sections that are optional ensures the right people get them while keeping down the number of editions carriers must deliver.

Sadly, newspapers cut the entire TV listings section or the entire stock listings section. After identifying subscribers who want to retain the old section, my contention is the savings from reduced printing costs will more than cover the costs of direct mail.

Plus, creating sections with smaller circulation sizes presents an opportunity to sell to small advertisers who have been driven out of the evermore-expensive newspaper column inch. In other words, not only will this move cut expenses, it also creates an opportunity for new revenue.

Honestly, what are you waiting for? There is no down side. Go save some jobs.

Given it's prep football season, so lots of folks are trying their hand at posting stats, photos, video, and whatever other whiz-bang thing they can imagine.

Here's the problem. No matter how you cover high school sports, the real problem is how to get high school students to your Web site. Believe it or not, high schoolers don't tend to drop by newspaper and TV sites on a Friday night or Saturday morning. Generally, they see those sites as more for their parents than for them.

I'm told that Augusta sends people to local games to take "Spotted" photos. You know those by now. Volunteers take pictures not of the games, but of the people at the games. They hand out business cards telling folks, "You've been Spotted" and directing them to find the photos on the Web site.

Now that's a good marketing ploy. (But I don't see the Spotted photos in the prep football section.) It's a start, at least. Someone actually got out of the newsroom and made an effort. Let me know if you've heard other good ideas for getting high schoolers online.

Bottomline is newspapers can't afford to use the "Field of Dreams" approach to Web design. "If you build it, they will come" is a fictional storyline, not a business model.

I just happened to be surfing the AJC site and came across something called Kudzu.

Since that's a totally intuitive name, I knew exactly where I was when clicking through to the landing page, right? Wrong.

The largest phrases on the page were "Deals and Discounts," "Got a Job To Do?" and "Recently Viewed By Your Neighbors." Since I watch a lot of CSI, I was able to surmise that this is a section for finding and evaluating local businesses.

Oh right. Kudzu!

Sorry, again with the sarcasm.