Enterprise reporter, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.
lshansen86@gmail.com, @HansenLouis
Louis Hansen explored the efforts of U.S. and international newspaper chains to publish on tablet devices. Their results have been similar to those found in Virginia: readers enjoy the content and design, but have not formed a daily habit with the tablet applications. He also investigated the business model for newspapers’ digital publications.
Journalism Challenge
Q: How can we create engaging and profitable tablet and mobile publications for newspapers?
A: Newspapers should continue to focus on quality reporting and writing. They should also take cues from Silicon Valley — embrace risk and explore new revenue models.
Learn more about this Journalism Challenge »
Posts by Louis
Newspaper economics in the digital age
The ability of Apple and Google to collect unique information from their users — and keep it exclusively — gives them a great advertising advantage over smaller players in the market, like regional newspapers.
About Louis
Louis Hansen is from upstate New York and studied literature at the University of Rochester. He dodged a law career and became a news guy. He earned a master’s degree in journalism from New York University and interned at a few newspapers before joining The Virginian-Pilot.
Hansen has covered state government, the military and criminal justice. He’s deployed twice with combat troops to the Middle East, exposed government corruption and hypocrisy, and profiled the strong and the weak. His work has won national and state awards.
In 2013, Hansen became the first reporter for his newspaper’s daily afternoon tablet publication, Evening Pilot. He aided in the publication’s launch and created an enterprise and investigative beat. His stories helped win a pardon for a teen serving life in prison, and reunited a family with their estranged brother at his funeral.
He never had a shot at his dream job, shortstop for the New York Mets. These days he runs for exercise instead of chasing ground balls.