Everything's Not Lost: in the world of traditional media
Print media is struggling with a digital future and are Newspapers embracing the digital age?
The New York Times once epitomised all that was great about American newspapers; now it symbolises its industry’s deep malaise. The Grey Lady’s circulation is tumbling, down another 3.9% in the latest data from America’s Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Its advertising revenues are down, too (12.5% lower in March than a year earlier), as is the share price of its owner, the New York Times Company, up from its January low but still over 20% below what it was last July. On Tuesday April 29th Standard & Poor’s cut the firm’s debt rating to one notch above junk.
that the advertising business model for traditional media those venues where advertisers still channel most of their spending will fall apart faster in the coming five years as the kind of interactive, targeted advertising that is defining the Web comes to the fore. And we did ask Has Hollywood Gone with the Wind? And Tomi discussed in a great post Eyeballs vs Co-creating Consumers: Measuring Blyk
The ABC reported that for the 530 biggest dailies, average circulation in the past six months was 3.6% lower than in the same period a year earlier; for Sunday papers, it was 4.6% lower. Ad revenues are plunging across the board: by 22.3% at Media General, for example. In 2007 total newspaper revenues fell to $42.2 billion, not to be sniffed at, certainly, but a lot less than the peak of $48.7 billion in 2000.
And
Mr Murdoch’s enthusiasm is a reminder that not all newspapers are suffering. He bought the Wall Street Journal last year, and is investing in a vigorous expansion of its political coverage and international news. This foray on to the traditional turf of the Times seems to be working: the Journal’s circulation is rising. Another flourishing outlet is the web-only Huffington Post which is fast evolving beyond a series of political blogs into a fully fledged online newspaper with liberal sensibilities close to those of the New York Times.
Not all is lost, however. Plenty of innovation is taking place, particularly at local papers, as the latest Newspaper Next report from the American Press Institute. It quotes 24 examples of newspapers becoming “information and connection utilities”, through such offerings as local internet forums.
The idea that newspapers must broaden their vision to become local information and connection utilities, with products and services to touch every consumer and serve every business in a market
The concept of the whole market, a universe of consumers and businesses that reaches well beyond readers and advertisers, and that newspaper companies should be striving to reach and touch
Mega-jobs -- important "jobs to be done" that a wide cross-section of any market will want and need, and therefore the first that newspaper companies should seek to address.
Writes the report -
Also the report asks: What will the 21st Century Consumer want and expect in the 21st century? the answer
people will want – and will get from somewhere – exactly the information, solution, contact or connection they seek, for whatever circumstance arises in their lives, whenever they want it, wherever they happen to be. Because their lives are local, much of it will be local. And they will use any convenient channel to get it.Some of it will be news, but the vast bulk of it will be on topics more directly pertinent to their own lives, work, interests, circumstances, families, communities.
Businesses large and small will want – and will get from somewhere – the ability to reach precisely and measurably the kind of people they seek in local markets, with messages that will engage them, delivered in the most effective formats and channels, at prices that fit all levels of ability to pay.
Communities will want – and will get from somewhere – ways to interact, share knowledge and experiences, ask questions, give answers, debate issues, form networks and stay in touch. These will be not just geographic communities, but communities of shared interests.
So Newspapers need to adapt and harness those insights - as the report comments
It’s not difficult to predict these wants and needs, because they aren’t new; they’re as old as civilization. What changes over time are the technologies available to fulfill them and the forms, functions and business models of the solutions created.But it does challenge who is the audience? Hyper local or super global? What is the business model and how do we create vlaue
And that's we say about the insights in CDB -
So for example Gannett to Crowdsource News - Why communities dominate brands!
The change wrought by the networked information environment is structural –challenging how democracies and markets have co-evolved over the last 150 years. Manuel Castells emphasizes the role of technology in the process of human transformation, particularly when we consider the central technology of our time, communication technology, which relates to the heart of the specificity of the human species: conscious, meaningful communication - It needs a new logic, common sense and language. This is the world of Flow data and the harnessing and application of data flows will also be transformational for news and media platforms.
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