The CEO of the MediaNews newspaper chain, Dean Singleton, offers some new views from his company about online and print journalism in an interview with the Colorado Statesman.
Among other tidbits:
1. The company will stop giving away its content. It'll provide some things free and create stronger packages it will sell.
2. The newspaper remains a viable home for advertising.
3. The online content will be less driven by newsrooms and more by readers and listings.
Gordon Borrell, who oversees the Borrell Associates research and consulting firm, is asserting that the online advertising business is much larger than most believe. Gary Goldhammer writes in Social Media Today that, for all the intelligent agents and algorithms pointing us to things we like, nothing beats the journalist. Will people pay for online content? Yes, but not necessarily for news. The "secret" meeting of U.S. newspaper executives to contemplate new revenue models was "secret" only in not Webcasting it, seemingly. From the moment it was organized by the Newspaper Association of America, it appears journalists did their journalism and figured out who, what, where, when and why. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post writes one of those on-the-one-hand, on-the-other hand reviews of the effectiveness of Twitter within journalism for the American Journalism Review. Rupert Murdoch, arguably the world's unrivaled press baron, asserts newspapers will make money in the future through advertising and subscriptions. They'll perhaps not be printed on paper, but supplied through a mobile device or panel, updated often. Microsoft this week announced its new "decision engine" called Bing. It's a challenge to Google and the promotional video --- knowing that all promotional videos feel this way --- is impressive. Some early testers like John Batelle have come away impressed. Associated Press has generated a lengthy newsfeature on the debate involving whether it's smart to charge for online news. AP itself is in the midst of testy discussions with search engines like Google and Yahoo and with the blogosphere over their use of AP material. Social media blogger and advisor Chris Brogan has written one of the more provocative posts on the next steps necessary for media companies. He has framed it in the form of a manifesto. |