Internet Won't Save The Newspaper Business Anytime Soon
from the not-gonna-happen dept
There's no doubt that newspapers are desperate to profit from their online activities, as the outlook for their traditional business is not promising. In this most recent quarter newspaper companies were eager to tout their online growth as evidence that their successfully making the transition. But it could be a long time before internet operations can really sustain these businesses, make that a really long time. A new report estimates that it could take 30 years before online revenue accounts for even 50% of total sales. The message is clear: simply trying to grow the online divisions in hopes that they'll replace the core business is a losing strategy. As such, the only way these company can continue grow is if they develop new strategies that go beyond simply moving the newspaper content online.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Well......
Just my .02c
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Re: Well......
I love it!
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Newspapers
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Internet Won't Save The Newspaper Business Anytime
Now, don't get me wrong, I will read a paper but I do find it far more useful to do so from my laptop. I don't have to pay to have them carted off by the garbage company for one thing. I would think that the local paper could cut considerable distribution costs and printing costs by making the content accessible on-line too. It would be far easier to search for news I actually find interesting if a search feature was included.
As an advertiser, I would be able to get far more details about how many people actually viewed my advertisements if logfiles could be processed for stats instead of simply being quoted how many subscriptions a newspaper has or the number of papers distributed. Those numbers don't come close to telling me how many people actually looked my advertisement, only how many newspapers they may have dumped at the end of someone's driveway....
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Newspapers and the Internet
Far to many times we nothing but NEGATIVE NEGATIVE , Bash Bush, Bash Miltary, Bash Conservatives, and then they have audacity to print such sad sob stories about criminals have to pay the price for their crimes.
As far as I am concern I will jump for joy when papers like the Washington Compost and the NY Slime are bankrupt- because morally and eithacally they have been that way for along time now....
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More Bush Bashing Needed.
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Rethinking newspapers
The Merrill Lynch report mentioned ignores a lot of other good research in the field. One person I spoke with recently suggested that the tipping point for print newspapers will come within the next 10 years -- that is, the point at which ad and subscription revenue will no longer cover the cost of print and distribution. The point is that the idea that it will take 30 years ignores the technological trends -- both online and with things like e-books.
The bigger problem that newspapers have is adapting to the new dynamics of the Internet, of which there are two that they critically keep missing --
(1) the decentralization of content production which, while enhancing the importance of editors, makes owning the creation of content a dis-economy of scale (or more correctly, changed the nature of what is scaling). To be more clear - creating your own content makes you think that you should feature your own content. Get over it and feature the content that is best (most accurate, highest quality, relevant at the moment).
(2) the audience is no longer just listening -- they are part of the conversation, and they often know more than your writers and editors. Get them engaged.
I call this post-industrial media. But then again, I am biased. This is what my business plan is based on.
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