On The Death of the Newspaper
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We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect some new disaster with each newspaper we read – Abraham Lincoln
There are many news paper who are dying,
“Hearst is threatening to close the San Francisco Chronicle – and on Monday said it would make the Seattle Post-Intelligencer an online-only publication. Gannett, owner of USA Today, has followed The New York Times in slashing its dividend to preserve cash. Titles from the venerable Cincinnati Post to the six-year-old New York Sun have folded”
The web isn’t killing them, Aggregators on the web are killing them. But forcing aggregators to pay is just a losing game. there are too many people writing, too many links, track backs, A hacker would just reprint the NY times on a uncloseable Page in New Delhi in anger.
But i think it’s because the business model, based on Revenues from advertising, cannot really subsist in a digital age. It’s not that people do not want to the content, infact, they want the content to get to their phones, their enhanced computer desktops, their ipods and Kindles; but they want it for free…., and that’s because they used to get it for free. Before the Google “click” model, There was for example “Tom’s Hardware.” And on this page was a hobbyist who devoted his time to telling US the masses Hardware news. It was hard, but he was dedicated. Well, maybe he makes money at it now, but hobbyists who are willing to just “work hard for zero return” are everywhere… they are blogging and micro blogging and letting you know what’s what without massive advertising dollars.
1 TV to the Rescue – this solution is for the big conglomerates to control a real Print side. all major News networks have a print component on their web site, but their TEXT sides are barely more than transcripts of their TV sides. The point of their reporters is not to write a Pulitzer (written) but to win one for TV (Video). So who wants to write a 3 page story anyway, when you can video it and it gets Youtubed! Still, TV would do good to collect some of these Talented Writers, and Make special pages for them.
2. Bundle and Pay. In the Age of 3G, 4g, WiMAX, Universal Wifi, Video is very important. Really Important. Phone will soon be getting video and soon, someone will approach AT&T or HULU or someone and bundle this, like cable companies did and sell it back. That’s right, subscription. I pay Comcast, and Comcast pays the times (for views or what have you.) Problems Is, i don’t want “15 second spot.” in my Text. I may allow it in my video, but not in my text. Yet People will pay for premium content. This is true. There is always a small group of people who WILL pay. Just like premium chocolate, or Car parts or HBO. However, HBO really hit it’s stride when it got Comcast to offer it with it’s service. Now it has like 8 HBo channels, is offering great shows (yet still sticking to it’s “commercial free.” mantra. The same could be done for print. Say certain sites were blocked unless you paid the extra “news paper fee.” then a .info would open up to you. Thou, I hate this plan, as it would segment the internet, and limit free speech. Still, take a look at it, find a better way than What I’ve explained, i know it’s there.
3. Just be small. A news paper can simply live online. Being so small it hires the limited number of writers per it’s click thru, but innovation rules on the internet, and there is only so many ways to deliver print. Soon enough I suspect your reporter will leave and start his own “click to revenue blog.”
OceansOfThought @ March 16, 2009