The decline of daily newspapers has accelerated of late; this is no secret. Nary a week goes by without news of further cutbacks or outright closures of newspapers.
The shift to online, changing reader habits and the global recession are the culprits. Newspapers have belatedly tried to capture online revenue as interest in the print cash cow declines with little success. Nor has the industry found new and innovative ways to monetize the vast amounts of information and analysis it generates on a daily basis.
As a result, many a newspaper will soon cease to exist. According to the Economistbackgammon free casino money free craps game play free black jack craps video poker strategy play black jack online how to win video poker casino game online uk best casino online casino secure online gambling jackpot casino online casino black jack learn to play craps how to win at video poker craps online blackjack casino game online casino betting free on line video poker casino games no download casino online gambling casino play free casino slots video poker machine bonus video poker free on line slots double bonus video poker free video poker games free casinos roulette online craps rules free on line casino rules of craps online casino free money blackjack 21 internet casino how to play craps free casino game download fortunelounge online casino free casino download free casino card game free roulette game free casino play no deposit free money casino internet casino online , San Francisco could soon be the first major North American city to exist without a major daily newspaper should the Chronicle go belly up.
Yet demand for news continues unabated. People still want to read about the swine flu, the NHL playoffs or countless other topics. They don’t, I’d argue, want 7 or 8 sections, that come with the weekend paper.
New models and sources of revenue need to be created for demand to be met. Giving away content online isn’t the answer. In fact, it’s a “flawed” model as noted by media scion Rupert Murdoch last week.
Simply charging for online content isn’t the answer either. In fact, it’s a far from sure proposition, as noted by my friend and former colleague Mark Evans in a conversation earlier this afternoon. Readers have been weaned on free for some time now.
To remain viable entities, news organizations will soon have to charge for most online content. Consumers won’t have a choice but to pay for online content at some point in the near future.
The question is how the industry migrates to such a model. No one has wanted to blink for a very long time. Newspapers may need to move en masse from free to fee together. No easy feat for sure.
Necessity will be the mother of invention. There’s still room for news organizations; Twitter and the blogosphere don’t do investigative journalism well last time I checked. Great journalism is an expensive endeavour but people will pay for it.
But a more personalized approach to news delivery (with less paper) will is a must. People want great reporting but they also it want it to be delivered in a number of different ways. Smaller, more personalized models will help the industry match product with demand. The advances in mobile technology (e.g. the iPhone and the Kindle) may help as it’ll help news organizations migrate people from free content to paid delivery.
The future of news delivery is murky at best. One thing’s for sure. Convention can’t be the norm.
2 Comments on “The End of Free? Let The Painful Transition Begin”
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Interesting post Kevin – we have not renewed any of our newspaper subscriptions because the vast majority of sections simply went straight into the blue bin, unread.
Is it a matter of papers transitioning from the department store model (trying to offer something for everyone) to that of a specialty retailer? It seems to me the papers have too much commentary, too much fluff and not enough straight-up reporting/news gathering.
As for developing a functional payment model, whenever that question comes up I look at the daily paper and ask myself what I'd be willing to pay for, even in terms of micro-payments, increasingly the answer is: "not much."
Posted on May 17, 2009 at 9:47 pm.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the comment. Good points.
I think the answer is all the above. In other words, there is no one answer to newspaper or for that matter mainstream media's problems.
However, I do think there's inherent value in the work done by newspapers. I'm not as down on news media – there is a role to be played and people still do value news.
However, news organizations insisted on sticking with what has been the tried and true approach to news gathering and delivery despite continued declines.
Also, there's still a fair bit of straight up news reporting though I agree there is a lot of commentary, which to my mind isn't a bad thing.
People will buy publications but media has to first recognize and stop the downward cycle they're in before if the collective fortunes of the industry are to improve.
Posted on May 17, 2009 at 10:22 pm.