Newspapers' helter-skelter ride to hell ... still waiting for the comeback
Summary: The media industry is undergoing a massive disruptive change and there's more ahead....
There seems to be a perception that much of the disruption in the media sector has been done and that we are now at a (lower) plateau of some kind and that a recovery in the industry’s fortunes is underway.
I like to remind people that we are not yet done with the disruption, there’s plenty more ahead of us! And it won’t be pretty.
Here’s a dramatic reminder of the challenges facing traditional media companies:
It's a graph published by Henry Blodgett editor and founder of Business Insider from his post:
HOLY CRAP: Look What Just Happened To Newspapers!
The inflation adjusted graph shows the hockey-stick slide to hell for newspapers. (What is the reverse of a hockey stick when it’s going down? I propose helter-skelter.)
The TV industry’s graph will follow a similar trajectory if Google and its allies have their way with IPTV.
There’s quite a lot of glee in Mr Blodgett’s reporting about the media industry’s woes. He notes:
The tinge of delight in this and other reports by Mr Blodgett on the New York Times and the newspaper industry problems is understandable. Mr Blodgett was hammered by New York Times and many other leading newspapers for his prosecution and fine by the SEC and his ban from Wall Street due to unethical practices in his work as a top analyst covering the Internet sector. Some considered him a scapegoat for a much larger group that got away with massive profits during the dotcom boom.
Mr Blodgett has made a very successful comeback with Business Insider - a very popular news publication based in New York City. We are still waiting for the New York Times’ and the rest of the newspaper industry’s comeback.
—
There’s been much criticism of journalists and the quality of articles, mostly because they are over-worked and under-paid.
But it seems that in good times or bad, journalists have always had trouble with their image, it’s always being tarnished in some way. I was reminded of this fact reading an old Christopher Hitchens essay about journalism called: Fleet Street’s Finest.
He finishes by offering an answer to an age-old question:
Why does the profession of journalism have such a low reputation? The answer: Because it has such a bad press.
The press isn’t getting any better.
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Talkback
Correct order for marginalisation?
2. TV.
3. Books.
4. Banks.
5. Money collectors e.g. VISA, AMEX and all such plastic.
6. iTunes and the music industry.
7. Apple and Microsoft's 30% levy on developers.
8. Telecommunications via OPLAN.
9. Compute power via community-owned cloud.
10. Did I miss any?
Hey ??? any order will do as long as its done!
Annoying professionals
After having both for a year, I find that I use Flipboard nearly every day, but look in on The Daily only occasionally. I think the days of people letting others collect and package their news for them are over. The Daily is pretty, it's well done, but it's not tailored to my interests. Meanwhile there are a dozen news aggregators that will assemble a "newspaper" that contains what I want.
This raises the issue of where the original stories will come from for the aggregators to aggregate if no one can afford to pay journalists. I'm hopeful that the "citizen journalist" volunteers we are starting to see on blogs, and sites like Examiner and Patch, can fill the hole left by the end of paid professional journalism. I welcome this, because it does seem that there is a lack of political diversity among those attracted to journalism as a paid career. I don't see that problem with our new citizen volunteers.