The folks at Ideas have been very patient. They asked me to write my column about emerging platforms. This seems easy enough since it’s what I make a living at. The issue is the pace at which these platforms seem to keep emerging. “Paradigm shift” used to be a great buzz word which instilled shock and awe making those listening perk up to hear the next pearls of wisdom out of your mouth.
I remember when paradigm shifts (real or imagined) happened maybe once a decade…then once every five years. Nowadays, these paradigms keep shifting to the point where my column is due on a Friday but I need a week extension in order to make sure I catch the latest “shift”.
The pace of change today can either drive you to early retirement or make you jump out of your skin to see what happens next and what role you can play. I usually end up leaning towards the excited side but, if this keeps up, an exit strategy starts to look enticing. Too bad, with three kids and three college educations ahead of me, this is compete fantasy. So now that I am resigned to the fact that I need to make a living for the next decade or so, what do I (we) do to remain relevant in today’s continually fractured, media society?
If you are in the newspaper business, my answer is keep doing what you are doing. Stay the course. Just make sure you take time to look at the horizon and see what’s coming. Bottom line, local remains the killer app which no one can take away unless we let them. Unfortunately, the jury is still out on whether we will allow that to happen. I am steadfast in my belief that, if we use the emerging technologies to our advantage, history will show that the newspaper industry will come out stronger once the world settles down again. The key issue is to remain nimble and ready to re-define your role as the rules of engagement with your readers evolve. I will now step off my soap box at this juncture but, before I do, can I hear a Halleluiah. Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Ask any senior media executive how much time do they devote to online and the answer is usually between 35-40%. It doesn’t matter if they are in newsprint newspapers, TV, Magazines, Radio and even Outdoor. The logical follow-up question is how much of your current media budget do you spend on the internet. Oh, maybe 8%. It is clear that they are spending this much time talking about it because they expect those two numbers to converge at some point and they want to be ready to when that happens.
The issue is the scale of one business versus the other. Newsprint still accounts for 90% of overall advertising revenue while their online counterparts remain at around 10%. It can be argued that this is all found money since the editorial already exists and it’s only being repurposed onto the web. But, do the math...if online revenue increases 30% year over year, it does not come near making up for a loss of say 10% in newsprint advertising revenue. That’s the issue in a nutshell. .
The infrastructure costs required to maintain local reporting will not be supported by online gains. Original content is not free and the creator of that content needs to be compensated for that media model to work.
Look at the brewing battle Viacom and UTube who is owned by Google. Internet pundits will say that content yearns to be free on the web. That’s fine for consumer generated America’s Funniest Videos, but it costs a lot of money to create the Sopranos, Star Trek or support the city desk at a local newspaper. Viacom feels they should be paid royalties for anyone using their content because they created and, by law, own the rights to distribute it.
It is interesting to note how other major video based media forms are muted for now in fear of angering the Google gods. There may be a point there. Is redistribution of content a good thing, because it gets more eyeballs and those eyeballs will be drawn to build your audiences? There are copyright laws for these reasons and it will be interesting to see how the Viacom suit runs its course.
A few years ago, Napster provided a great service. Registered users tapped into a master database and shared music files of whoever was a member. As an ex-user I found it to be great. I could download the one song I loved on an album for free without having to shell out $17.00 for the CD. The record companies woke up and, with copy rights and lawyers in tow said, “hey, cease and desist…I own that music”. Napster lost the case and most of its market value over night. It is now reinventing itself as a paid content site but is a mere shadow of what is was. Another player came along named Apple and said, OK, it’s now free but we’ll charge you $0.99 a song and you can choose which songs you want. A new model was born. Fast forward, there are very few record stores left and most will go away soon. Netflix is doing the same to the home video market. Now that I think about it, it wasn’t too long ago that the only place you could see a recently released movie was in the theater. Now, movies will be released in theaters and for home distribution simultaneously. Is UTube the video form of Napster? What is old is new and what is new get old very quickly.
User generated content will change the world as we know it…or will it? Without question, the genie is out of the bottle on that one but is this all bad? The diversity of voices yearning to be heard now have a conduit. Trouble is, all this diversity unleashed on the public as fact is dangerous. There needs to be some level of editorial control from an impartial third party for it to work and keep the participants safe. What better place to encourage this open forum than in the comfy confines of a local newspaper. Affinity groups will find each other nationally but, again, newspapers have the unique opportunity to be the hub around the spokes for most user generated content forums. Kind of like the town meeting connected together in real time across the country. Facebook and sites like it are very interesting but I would put out there that newspapers are safer for our children and teenagers and more relevant for adults if you can cobble them together across the country. Traffic to a number of the leading social networking sites are already starting to wane. Young adults are very fickle and with short attention spans and will organically seek the next new thing. What stays the same is your friendly local neighborhood newspaper.
The paradigms will keep shifting and the pace of change only promises to accelerate.
Word to the wise, hold close the unique selling proposition that has kept you relevant for all these years and costs you so much to maintain, your local voice. Newsprint newspaper distribution will continue to be a challenge but this core value will remain undiminished unless you give it away. This is why every major online outlet is salivating to take a bite of our apple.
Keep doing what you do best but make sure you stop every once in a while to look at the horizon. By the time you have finished reading this article, the next paradigm shift may have already started. Wouldn’t it be great if you figured out a way to play a roll in making it happen.
Don’t let everyone else have all the fun!
