Monday, March 2, 2009

Demise of Newspapers Inevitable?

Glenn Thrush of Politico writes that the demise of newspapers was inevitable, that nothing management could have done would have prevented it.

"Nobody who asserts that newspaper execs have been arrogant and stupid will ever print a retraction. But as a print refugee (Newsday), I can tell you management saw the Web threat coming for a long time and tried everything, too much, to cope -- all to no avail...
The problem is that nothing works, apart from bypassing the industry model and starting from scratch...
But the Web is killing papers, with or without the intervention of idiotic (or inspired) management."


He's only partly right. Newspapers as they currently exist may disappear, but newspaper companies didn't have to. Management has played a big part in the demise.

The challenge is taking an old media company (think record company) into a new world (think itunes). It is far easier to start from scratch, without legacy employees and ways of doing things, fears of cannibalization, or reluctance to change.

But lots of companies have remade themselves, just not newspaper companies. It's not easy and there is a serious risk of failure. Management has to throw out sacred cows, have a clear strategy, and then only keep the people on board who buy into it. And be relentless.

Newspapers had to stop thinking of themselves as the MASS MEDIA in a world of niche, targeted marketing and advertising. Newspapers had the content, just didn't use it wisely. Instead of thinking of the sports section as a mass media vehicle, think of it as a conglomeration of niche markets, those who are interested in golf, basketball, or football. Take all the content--you've got tons of it--in each area and reconfigure it for microsites and email newsletters on specific topics--then go after advertisers who never think of buying the newspaper, but would want to reach golfers to sell them clubs, or the specific demographic audience that likes soccer or baseball. And because the audience is targeted, you can charge a much higher CPM (cost per thousand).

I don't pretend to have all the answers. But I don't believe in inevitability.

3 comments:

  1. 1. *Would the use of online newspapers like the NYTimes.com be an example of how newspapers have attempted to remake themselves? When they did this how did it affect "legacy employees" and who were the people that pushed them to move online?

    2. *There is something nice about receiving the newspaper on your front porch. If i was starting from scratch, I would think about about how to recreate that feeling for people, but also reach niche markets using an online network.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1. *Would the use of online newspapers like the NYTimes.com be an example of how newspapers have attempted to remake themselves? When they did this how did it affect "legacy employees" and who were the people that pushed them to move online?

    2. *There is something nice about receiving the newspaper on your front porch. If i was starting from scratch, I would think about about how to recreate that feeling for people, but also reach niche markets using an online network.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Couple points:

    1.First in regard to Thrush's point: "But as a print refugee (Newsday), I can tell you management saw the Web threat coming for a long time and tried everything, too much, to cope -- all to no avail..." Really? Newspaper tried everthing? I've worked in newspapers for 20 years, and I don't think they tried much at all. I think they ignored the threat as long as they could, and then when ad revenues started to shrink and the Web looked here to stay, they did a half-hearted attempt at online journalism.

    2. Now for Jeffrey's point: "Newspapers had to stop thinking of themselves as the MASS MEDIA in a world of niche, targeted marketing and advertising. Newspapers had the content, just didn't use it wisely." TRUE, TRUE, TRUE. Even now in the midst of the current crisis so many newspapers through up the blinkers and refuse to change. The era of mass media has been over for a while, and I agree that news organizations don't have to die -- they are committing suicide by insisting that every story have broad appeal to all readers. It shouldn't. If it has broad appeal, it likely won't have niche appeal.

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