Hi Mike! I was at a Job Fair at the New Hampshire International Speedway in Louden, New Hampshire last week, and I met a veteran reporter there from the Nashua Telegraph, a newspaper in Nashua, the second largest city in the state, and one of the largest New Hampshire based papers, probably second to the Manchester Union Leader.
The reporter was interviewing me about the job market and how things were faring for me, but I turned it around at one point and also asked him how he was faring personally and what he thought about Internet based news, and whether the Telegraph had found a way to earn income from advertising or other mechanisms in the on-line information age.
He told me that the Telegraph had been involved in some of that, but at least so far, had experienced only limited success with Internet based advertising. Maybe that is because Google grabs so much of that advertising, but maybe it is because the Telegraph has not yet learned what works and what does not work.
I think in the long run that media publications are going to have to adapt to the changing environment or, more and more, as we've seen in many places, experience failure, closures, and find an industry that is has a very small remaining market.
I think advertising is possible through the Internet. Heck, Google and Yahoo have done it for years. Google has leveraged it to the point that they dominate. Maybe that is the model, maybe it isn't, but it is clear that it is possible to come up with new ways to generate revenue, but they may be VERY NEW and VERY DIFFERENT. Not all traditional business knows how to make those drastic changes - just look at the American home, automobile, and financial industries if that assertion is questionable.
I do not think that change should be made for the sake of change, but when an entire replacement industry emerges, you have to pay attention or your products become irrelevant. It is not too late to learn this, but it IS getting quite late - too late for some of them.
The survivors will be creative. Their products, whether traditional or new, will be exceptional.
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I suspect it is not nearly as easy as it may seem to be
The reporter was interviewing me about the job market and how things were faring for me, but I turned it around at one point and also asked him how he was faring personally and what he thought about Internet based news, and whether the Telegraph had found a way to earn income from advertising or other mechanisms in the on-line information age.
He told me that the Telegraph had been involved in some of that, but at least so far, had experienced only limited success with Internet based advertising. Maybe that is because Google grabs so much of that advertising, but maybe it is because the Telegraph has not yet learned what works and what does not work.
I think in the long run that media publications are going to have to adapt to the changing environment or, more and more, as we've seen in many places, experience failure, closures, and find an industry that is has a very small remaining market.
I think advertising is possible through the Internet. Heck, Google and Yahoo have done it for years. Google has leveraged it to the point that they dominate. Maybe that is the model, maybe it isn't, but it is clear that it is possible to come up with new ways to generate revenue, but they may be VERY NEW and VERY DIFFERENT. Not all traditional business knows how to make those drastic changes - just look at the American home, automobile, and financial industries if that assertion is questionable.
I do not think that change should be made for the sake of change, but when an entire replacement industry emerges, you have to pay attention or your products become irrelevant. It is not too late to learn this, but it IS getting quite late - too late for some of them.
The survivors will be creative. Their products, whether traditional or new, will be exceptional.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Brian Masinick.
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