Re: How to Save the Newspapers

[the occasional problem with darts - so I'll preface my comments with JH:]

From: "cherryfinals" 

I'm never upset by reasoned thought or alternate opinions, Joseph.[grin]

JH: I'm glad about that ;-).

And I do agree that there is a core of good reporters and editors that provide a service. Unfortunately, the trend towards making previously free online news a paid subscription is a suicide call for the industry. They will never see the revenues they once enjoyed. IMNSHO

JH: This depends what point you compare it with. Revenues have been bloated for decades, and papers have been excessively fat. Compare to 60 years ago, even thirty. But I do emphasize my point about the structure that is vital for a successful news service, let alone the whole newspaper package. That hardly changes for an all-online equivalent.

JH: I just plain disagree on the suicide point. The question is what level of subscription is necessary, and what level of content is the minimum to attract subs. This will vary between journals, times of year, and level of ad revenue. But it is a mistake to think everyone is net-bound. 

What will happen with most folks, is that you will get a few hundred thousand amateur bloggers who will get the idea of turning semi-pro. They will only earn a little with junk ads and selling a few special-interest publications. Since there will not be as much editing and it will be a much narrower viewpoint, the overall quality of news will suffer. Perhaps some of them will form conglomerates to showcase multiple viewpoints and pool their intelligence resources. But they will be operating on a much smaller economic base.

JH: The requirement of the public is reliability and regularity. That is very hard for an individual or a small group, and the coverage will be very small. At the moment a lot of the blogger and alternative free news depends on the exisiting newspapers one way or another. As the changes in sub demands take place the aggregators will face immense problems and those who gain their news that way will choose having to pay or having nothing.

JH: The organisation of a news service is difficult and labour intensive. A great deal depends on contacts developed over many years and cultured; correspondents are placed al over the world and may rearely have news to send in. But the big stories come unexpectedly. And no blogger can fly to a disaster zone and even if he did he would not be allowed anywhere near the action.

There is going to continue to be a shaking up in all the media industries and how it actually will turn out may surprise us all.

JH: There we agree. But the net is only a delivery method; it has not altered the basic economics of business. Maybe you also don't realise that there are already a very large number of self-employed freelances. If the papaers went they would swamp the amateurs on the net. Though it would still be hard for them to deliver a comprehensive news service if no one wants to pay!

Just as a side note: I for one, average one or two Sunday edition newspapers each year and that is only when I'm really bored and have some spare change in my pocket. A half hour later, I generally feel as if it was a waste. 

JH: But you are not typical, nor alone. Newspaper readership has always been limited, varying from somewhere over threequarters of the potential to somewhere around half. And newspapers have many tricks up their sleeves from past difficulties that may attract a high readership in worse times and even with the net.

And before you think me one of the young, ADHD 'net' generation that doesn't read much, I'm over 60, and a published author. I regularly consume at least one novel a week and read more than a dozen blogs (with varying viewponts) every day. 

Stan

JH: It has greatly interested me that age is proving no dividing line on all these issues, and figures I have seen suggest the older generations are keener on the net than the younger ones. But how the figures are arrived at is something of a mystery anyway ;-).

JH: With books the net has not reduced paperback reading, but with other advances made for a massive expansion in titles and with reading itself. Newspapers have been sleepwalking in the hands of bean counters for a while. Now they have to get back to basics. Some will go; many will be sold off individually to staff. And the news services will become stronger suppliers of much news for a while.

JH: Of course it depends on how one defines ones terms for some parts of the discussion. But the idea that 'free' is a business model has no wings I can see.

Joseph




"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:

 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."

-Ed Howdershelt

--- On Wed, 8/12/09, joseph harris <[email protected]> wrote:

From: joseph harris <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [ebook-community] How to Save the Newspapers
To: [email protected]
Date: Wednesday, August 12, 2009, 5:22 PM











    
                  From: "Stan" 

> Here's an interesting little OpEd piece.

> 

> http://tech. yahoo.com/ news/zd/20090811 /tc_zd/243073

> 

> Cheers!

> 

> Stan



I hope I do not unpset you, Stan, if I class the article a piece of junk opinion. I have worked in many types of media, and I also have some financial and business background.



The first thing to understand is that there isn't one mass called newspaper publishing. There are many different forms, formats, audiences and business models. So the experience of the wrtiter of the article is valid - for his experience.



The idea that serious professional newsgathering is a simple little 'have laptop, will travel' operation shows no knowledge at all of big newspapers which, let me emphasize, are the backbone of effective reporting and news gathering [tv does not have that strength in news]. Newspapers have a lot of shrinking to do, that's true. So has everything else! 



But there is much further for newspapers to go before they are likely to reach a condition that is no longer viable. There has been around 60 years of almost unchecked expansion. Now the contraction has arrived; just another stage in revising business models. But also a challenge to the gannets that thought they could suck the last penny out of publishing in general.



Just to make one other point that underlines my criticism of the article. He chooses the Economist and Vogue to show how right thinking could have saved them all. But The Economist has for many decades been the prime resource for economic and political economic thinking. At his time it has even more appeal - and therefore is a magnet for advertising. Vogue serves the richer elements and the straiu in those circles has been much less.



It will certainly be interesting to see in ten and twenty years how the dust settles and what size the newspaper industry will be, and to what extent 'free' has been reduced. It is clear  the by the end of this year more than half the currently easily accessible newspaper material online will be on subscription bases.



Joseph Harris  -  Debt Control Man

author: Control Your Debt Crisis on Your Own Terms

blog: http://debtcontrolm an.wordpress. com

http://www.controly ourdebtcrisis. co.uk

debt dictionary: http://www.controly ourdebtcrisis. co.uk/debtwiki/


 

      

    
    



















      

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