Publishing is challenged by new media. How do we fight back?
Newspaper and magazine publishers bear the negative publicity that paper is a dead business following dinosaurs. The truth is that readers still trust the brand value of paper, but the cost to maintain paper is killing the economics.
1. What strategies can help legacy publishers fight the competition from new media competitors like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and millions of blogs?
2. Can bloggers and publishers team up to gain both efficiency and brand?
-Dash
New Economics of Advertising (http://adecon101.blogspot.com/)
Clarification added September 12, 2008:
@Jonathan. Brand value means people still have higher respect for TV and publisher news - when compared to reading about a subject, online. This does not reduce the need for online news.
@Joyce. Green is another issue for legacy publishers.
@David. Copyright is a way to fight back. The Associated Press has been trying to tighten policies. The net effect has been a wave of negative imaging.
Many don't fear Yahoo and Google as either near or long term competitior to new media.
Clarification added September 12, 2008:
Strategically, newspapers have lost their oligopoly power on distribution/redistribution of national news, lifestyle, sports, and business stories. They are stuck with lower draw local stories. How do newspapers rebuild online circulation in this environment?
Clarification added September 15, 2008:
Interesting quote from Rupert Murdock via Esquire,
"I don't know the future. Is knowledge in this world going to be more valuable, more important than it has ever been? Absolutely. We're clearly going through a period of real change, where the business models of the old newspapers are challenged. That will be even more so in the future. If you look at the readership of newspapers -- both the age of their readership and the numbers -- it's worrying. But if you then look at the number of people who go to the Internet, it's tremendous."
Answers (17)
Jonathan H
I move art/electronics efficiently nationwide without damage
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What do you mean by "the brand value of paper?" Many of the articles are reprints of the AP newswire or other corporate sources, and what I call the "dinosaur media" (print and TV "journalism") is, with a few exceptions, full of an institutional bias as a result of an un-diverse newsroom (J-school grads who are mostly democrats and who didn't serve in the military and don't know anyone who does). Why trust the biased dinosaur media when I can go online and get news that links directly to primary sources instead of putting up with third-hand information that's gone through a biased filter and been condensed to a bunch of sound bites?
M. Joyce M
"Chief-of-Quite-A-Lot"
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A few reasons why newsprint and paper-based info is going bye-bye:
In light of the green movement... people have to be aware that a number of resources are also used in the recycling process - so even a newsprint or magazine publisher who uses recycled paper is skating on thin ice when it comes to really being green. Add in the "resource" cost of distribution and paper-based news and information and it doesn't even come close to meeting the values of consumers who want to cut down on waste.
Printed books will still be around for a long time after newspapers aren't.
The cost of newsprint is highly volatile... and as you know, newspapers have been online now for about a decade and developed online revenue streams through 'voluntary/transient' and classified advertising mainstays (auto and real estate) in addition to 'retail' ads.
Consumer reading/news gathering patterns are changing more rapidly than most publishers are really aware of... and as you know people are not moving in the direction of newsprint. Publishers will have to go with the flow when it comes to consumer's buying and usage patterns.
Aside from specialty trade sites that carry subscription based niched-market news for specific industries.... today's average consumer/reader wants their information and news "now", they want variety and they want it included in the cost of their DSL and Cable/Satellite.
David C
Freelance Writer, Print & Prepress Production Expert and Image Retoucher
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short answer, you don't. Better luck fighting the tide. Don't make the same mistake the recording industry made: if you can't beat 'em, throw million-dollar lawsuits against 'em.
I wouldn't consider Google, et al. publishers, or even "competitors." Better to think of them as aggregators. In that sense, they can be seen as partners, wherein you can showcase your work.
Publishers need to embrace the new technology. Would you decline to send your book to a library, because someone might read it without paying for it? We need to think of the internet as a really big library.
Seen in that light, blogs aren't competition, but another distribution channel. Feed them your articles; let them link to (and republish!) your content. What's the worst that happens, more people get exposed to your content (and become inclined to pick it up at the newsstand)? Or do you feel that if people could get some of your content for free, they'll never shell out for your product?
Clarification added September 11, 2008:
wow, Jonathan, way to insert authoritarian propaganda into an answer. The problem is journalists who're "mostly democrats...who didn't serve in the military?" The problem with accurate reporting in the media is most journalists live in fear of the corporate media conglomerates that employ them. As soon as someone asks why the emperor isn't wearing clothes, "The Media" (Fox, CNN, and a bunch of authoritarian pundits) screams, "Bias!"
Bad troll - no goat for you.
Greg P
President ♦ Bluefin Productions Inc.
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You can't fight it.
But you can make your product relevant.
Provide something that's needed and you stay in business.
If you think Newspapers are in the news business, you will not "win", but if you think print media is in the information business, you have a product that people need and will continue to use.
offer insight, not factoids
deliver wisdom, not news
publish ideas, not information
Dave K
Web Application Expert
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The problem with most traditional media is that they don't understand what they are delivering. Many media companies feel their products are 'tv', 'newspaper', etc. These things are not products, they are simply content delivery systems. The consumer cares about the content. Until traditional media wakes up and starts focusing on the best way to deliver CONTENT to their customers, they'll continue to be overrun by those who are better at content delivery.
Publishers had it made for hundreds of years as publishing and content delivery technology advanced very slow. With the rise of home computing and the web, the technology is changing rapidly but the longstanding companies are not. The choice is, evolve or perish.
1. I would suggest that the first step is to define the business that one is in. Are you in the publication business or are you in the business to provide information/ entertainment? At an individual level, I firmly believe that newspaper/ magazines would not be around for long. But the business for providing info/ entertainment will thrive
2. Google, Yahoo etc. are not the competitors, they are just aggregators of information.
3. One option could be to prolong the life of the publisihing business as much as profitably possible. This could possibly be done by focussing on the core consumer group which in my mind would be the 40-60 years age group.
4. Another option could be to transfer the so called good will of the newspaper/ magazine online. Have an online version of your publication
Krishnakumar V
Senior Manager at Infosys Australia
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Many traditional media companies are embracing the trend to go online. Check out NYTimes and Dr Dobbs journal. I think online media is complementary to paper and we just require new tools/ways to monetize it.
Dear Dash
One needs to understand that the movement of audiences from traditional media like TV or print is not merely because of better content provided by players like Goolge, Yahoo, Microsoft and other millions of blogs. What new media is doing is that it is serving the need of the new age consumer with far more convenience and relevance than traditional media. Multiple changes and trends are leading to this shift. Some of these are changing lifestyles, on the move consumer, higher time spent out of home and accessibility of global and wide range of information. Hence, it needs to be accepted that new media are servicing consumer needs better than traditional media.
Having accepted this fact, it is not an end of road for publishing. Publishers need to understand the consumers better and deliver content according to consumer preferences. It is important to understand consumer segment skews for the content published. Then, having identified these consumer segments, publisher needs to deliver relevant content and communication that delights these segments. However, one should still be realistic in accepting the consumer prefernece shifts and diversify in new media to deliver strong content in the form that consumer desires.
Do not forget that new media is still a "medium" to deliver content and consumers' preference has only changed in terms of "form of delivery" or "Consumption of delivery" and not so much in "matter of content". So as long as you can provide relevant content in the consumers' preferred form, you will stay relveant.
If I purchase your paper or magazine, give me special access to your web site! Even if I by only one paper or magazine, that issue should come with a temporary code that grants me access to additional information on your web site. Assuming that your paper and magazines have web sites, they should work together to give whomever purchased your product some type of fringe benefits. It irks me when I have a subscription to a magazine, but can get on line access to articles when I'm away from home or at work.
I see this or similar questions being asked more than once, in LI and in many forums etc. (I have asked this question about newspapers myself in our magazine publishing group here in LI).
I think it's very import not to bundle everything into this simplified question. First the Magazines and Newspapers are very different. Newspapers focus on News and Magazines mainly to very different and variety of topics.
I think that the main factor that is and has been important for Newspapers is moving to other channels and that is the News.
If you want your news fresh (like many do) then newspaper (in paper format) is not your source anymore.
Therefore I think that Newspapers are in different category than Magazines in this matter, since Magazine content is not so "time sensitive"
Will both die? Yes and no, I imagine some dying and others surviving, majority will change format away from paper, but obviously not all at least not for a long time.
The main factor for me to (nearly) never read news on paper, has been my iPhone and the reason I still read magazines is because I like to read longer articles on paper. I also like the ad's & overall visuals better on Magazines.
When iPhones, ereaders and similar achieve right specifications to give the feel and experience of the magazine (with professional layout etc.), the traditional paper format will start to really go away.
As I'm an avid RSS reader about 500 posts/day via google reader from various blogs etc. I can say that the visual experience is quite boring compared to magazines. Even if there is really good looking blogs, they are still the same looking from day to day & week to week...
What I like about online based content is that it's fresh and it's easy to get various versions from same news fast with different viewpoints, not just one...
So depending on the content:
- News (RSS from main media sources & blogs)
- Topic related & short content (RSS & Blogs)
- Longer articles and when I have more time, I still enjoy Magazines, particularly while I'm eating by myself..
- While on the move Podcasts & RSS
I have meant to write my thoughts in this matter many times and post in my blog.
Thanks Dash for the inspiration, I finally get this written ;)
PS. the first link below is to the latest ereader & second one is my blog
Links:
News media needs to completely re align around the elements of their operations that create value in the new media age. That means local ad sales (becoming consultative about integrated marketing), quality local editorial and national/international editorial for orgs with the budget, and their databases of millions of consumers.
Print pubs should sell off their manufacturing and distribution to specialists in those areas.
Finally, new news media orgs mut become highly consumer-centric and targeted. Editorial and advertising must become targeted to the finest level of granularity possible to maximize value for readers and advertisers. This is something the internet aspires to, but has never delivered to the extent possible due to friction from established marketing industry practices.
News media can own the consumer, and allow advertisers to reach them with higher brand-building value and conversion rates than yet seen by allowing consumers to express their wants and needs. By providing an option to the contextual, behavioral and re-targeting guesswork model news media can again become the darling of marketers and re-establish the value of editorial content.
That's about as much as I'd want to share publicly. Let's talk.
Links:
Peter P
Independent Marketing and Advertising Professional
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Maybe you need to get back to the concept of decent content instead of merely filling space that can't be sold as advertising. If it's not worth reading, it's not worth buying or even wasting time on.
This is so simple. Write about those folks in the new media industry! MacWorld is a magazine that writes about everything relavant to people who use Mac and Mac products (Ipod, Mac Software, Mac resources such as Mobil Me). People LOVE to read about themselves and gain the most up to date information on trends in their areas of interest. Also, traditional media outlets could allow for a section of their reporting to be dedicated to reader submitted hot tips, updates/trends, and suggestions for their tech saavvy friends. All the best!
I think print could learn from new media in many ways. On TV, one way to boost sales was regional advertising. Could a newspaper sell different ads on each edition? Could they be more local and more present on the daily lives of local people? Could print media be more interactive and social?
It is important to see that it's not all competition between print and new media, they also support each other. Practicing journalism and writing balanced, objective stories is expensive. That's why most new media services simply forward raw news wires without adding anything on them. Blogs are personal views, they are not articles in the way how they are in newspapers and magazines.
Couple of years ago I was looking at user studies of one interactive, mobile service. One of the most requested feature was to get more and deeper information. Headlines and summaries are just not enough. The crowd is always where the free stuff is, but the free stuff doesn't necessarily mean good business.
Tom M
President at Zehnder Communications, Public Speaker, Head of Social Media Group @Zehnder: @TomMartin
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Radio was supposed to kill newspaper. Television was going to kill radio. The internet is supposed to kill everything. And in the end, we still have radio, television and Internet and we always will. Why? Because each channel has it's own benefits. If "legacy" publishers want to maintain relevancy, they need to take the time and spend the dollars to discover why someone would want to read a newspaper versus getting their news online. In what context and circumstance would a person prefer a paper to a computer screen?
Same for magazine publishers. Instead of trying to just copy that which they think consumers like about Internet and Blog channels, they need to step back and really, truly do a deep dive into their current, future and past customers. Then, once they truly understand what motivates the consumer to prefer their medium, and then deliver. Once they deliver, capture and quantify the consumer data, interests, etc., that can be packaged and sold to advertisers. Cooperatively work with subscribers to build better advertising platforms that translate into trackableresults for advertisers.
Advertisers care about messages being seen. If newspapers and magazines can provide good contextual environments for adverts that are seen and acted upon, they'll never go out of business -- no matter how expensive paper becomes because advertisers will pay premiums to break through and reach their consumer.
Gary C
Director Strategic Partners at LibreDigital
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If you fight it, you will just die tired. One need only examine the history of disruptive, or disaggregating technologies and you should come to the conclusion that is if you do not embrace the change then you are doomed.
Digital media offers new distribution channels, new revenue models and the opportunity for publishers to shed operating expenses and return those saving into the generation of editorial content. And that is where the value is generated
