Read all about it!
Cow had some thoughts on newspapers competing in an online world, in response to Michael's Blog. She is reproducing them here.The entertainment industry has always been curiously behind the times in providing ancillary content that the customer wants: ie the Star Trek conventions of the 1970's put on not by the content originator but by entepreneurs. The same reluctance of the entertainment industry to provide products led to a black market of photos, scripts, items from movies/tv, with all profits accruing to third parties.
Just as high-quality movies and television shows can't be produced by the general public though, neither can newspaper stories be produced by people sitting in front of their computers. SOMEBODY must actually go out and GET the news, photos, interviews, etc. This is the actuality the bottom line that cannot be substituted by someone creating a site in front of their computer.
With the cost of admission covering costs of movies, and the cost of advertising covering costs of television, the obvious model for newspapers is to either raise admission prices (price of printed or on-line newspaper) to emulate the entertainment industry and thus cover the cost of production, or develop other streams of revenue.
Newspapers could integrate to be web communities with messages, posting boards for every story, etc. But there isn't an easy way to make money off this except in the same way newspapers always have: sell advertising around the edges of the content, whether printed or online.
Developing ancillary products (analogous to the photos, conventions, dvds of the entertainment industry) and selling them successfully to its online community would open an entire new horizon for newspapers. Think, for instance, of the millions of dollars action figure licensing brings: all that is needed to translate this to the newspaper model is the cult of personality...develop the good-looking, charming or otherwise attractive reporters, then market their looks instead of just their written output.
posted by The Topiary Cow at
8:44 AM
14 Comments:
I guess that leaves Burt Case out.
tc, being in the newspaper business, you can't imagine how painful it is to watch them struggling to try to "keep up" in a changing market. Newspapers are dying, if not already dead. Period. That's just the way it is. If you look at marketing studies, the vast majority of newspaper subscribers are over 60. What does that say about newspapers 10 years from now? Five years from now?
If you look around, visiting the Web sites of various newspapers, you can tell the ones that "get it" and the ones, sadly, that don't. Thank you so much for posting the link to the other blog. He said it so very well. I think I'm going to forward that link to my bosses. We're guilty of trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Yes, we're making progress, and I honestly think we're moving in the right direction, but no, I don't think we're doing it fast enough and I don't think the right people are doing it. I'm not saying that there aren't smart people here, but when you've been in this business for 20 or 30 years, it's very difficult to grasp what's going on with, say, social networking sites and blogs.
Look at the ones who get it. Marshall Ramsey gets it. Kyle Veazy gets it. Then look at all the ones who don't. They are the ones who are basically putting newspaper content verbatim into their blog. That doesn't work.
(OK...I could go on, but I'll stop)
Uh, the Burt Case action figure could have a wind-up dog.
That might make it a big seller.
Moo!
Sandi, your comments are very interesting, coming from someone inside the business.
Thank you.
Cow sees what you mean about some getting it and some, not!
Moo!
yes, well said indeed, Sandi...
and I for one am a diehard newspaper subscriber... I get LIVID when my paper isn't delivered by the time I leave for work.... I LIKE the ads.... I like holding the stuff in my hands...
then again... I am in the computer industry so I'm sick of staring at the computer screen when I don't have to.
Newspapers are still making money, at this point. And the print product will be around for a long time. But at some point the bulk of their income is going to come from Web-based and niche products, not newspapers like we know them today. Some papers grasp that and embrace it; others fight it — and they're dying.
I am very passionate about this, and I wish others in this profession would be, too. I want to have a job five or 10 years down the road.
Cow likes the newspaper too.
It's strange that so many things that seem so permanent: watches, hard-wired telephones in everyone's houses, videotapes, gone.
It will be interesting to see where newspapers and other threatened species are in a few years.
Sandi, Cow is sure you are helping moooove the C-L into the 22 or 23rd century!
I'm doing what I can, tc. I'm doing what I can. Unfortunately, I'm very low on the totem pole.
that just means there's no where to go but up! ;-)
Thanks, supermom. :)
And thanks too for reading my blog on MississippiMoms.com. That Web site feels like my baby. I do content for it. I love it, and I want other people to enjoy it, too. I'm doing all I can to get it out there, through facebook, myspace and whatnot. It's not a print product; online is all I've got. I do hope my networking efforts will work.
By the way, sorry for hijacking your blog, tc. I just get on my soapbox sometimes.
Sandi, you are welcome to hijack the blog anytime!
Super mom, of course, through her super powers, has no need to hijack a blog, she just wiggles her finger and it's turned into a pumpkin or something.
Moo!
Sandi, Cow is sure you will be climbing the totem pole quickly and with style and grace.
Moo!
Bless your heart. Thank you, tc. I hope you're right. :)
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