A PriceWaterhouseCoopers report released Monday says newspapers will survive, but that they'll have to transform themselves into hyperlocal entities with extensive online operations.
They'll be smaller, there will be fewer of them, but they will not easily garner support. On the other hand, the brand is more important than the medium, so strong brands will endure if operated well. Print will continue to be the principal revenue generator for some time to come.
The newspaper/Web operation of the future needs to examine the content realms that offer opportunities for subscription support. One sleeper issue: sustainable production methods are important. But people are prepared to pay for high quality, it says.
"Newspapers have a long-term future and will coexist with other media. However this is unlikely to be either in the formats or volumes seen today and there will some casualties and losses of well-known papers along the way," the report says.
One of the world's top financial media says another one of the world's financial media has plans this fall to charge for individual articles online. New York Times columnist Frank Rich has his turn today on the challenges to journalism as the business model supporting it faces necessary reinvention. I hope Andrew Phillips doesn't read this, doesn't use the tools to research himself online or have one of his countless friends and colleagues e-mail him the link. He would truly hate the attention. The Christian Science Monitor, which itself changed its business model in recent months, carries a good commentary on a business model that works. It's the community publishing model, and the authors note the strength of the newspapers inside the Suburban Newspapers of America. Veteran reporter Walter Pincus of the Washington Post has adapted a speech into an essay for Columbia Journalism Review. In it he decries the straying of journalism from its central mission into what he calls a pursuit of glory, prizes and the wrong kind of accolades. The U.S. Senate subcommittee examination of the future of media heard a lot yesterday and the reports on it are worth noting, if for no other reason than their conclusiveness of a turning of the page (so to speak). Marissa Mayer, the Google vice president with responsibiliies for Google Search and Google News, appeared today before the U.S. Senate subcommittee examining media and the particular future of newspapers. A personal post this time. Like all posts, it is a personal view, not that of my employer. Mashable features a post from Woody Lewis on innovative ways traditional media are using social media. |
I am the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief at Self-Counsel Press, an Adjunct Professor and Executive-in-Residence at the Graduate School of Journalism at University of British Columbia, and the
Executive Director of the Organization of News Ombudsmen. In 2008 I launched themediamanager.com to chronicle media change, then media ethics, standards and freedom. I was recently the mayoralty candidate in Vancouver for the Non-Partisan Association. I am the former CBC Ombudsman of English Services and have held the senior editorial roles at CTV News, The Hamilton Spectator and Southam News. I was the founding Executive Editor of National Post, Managing Editor of The Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Bureau Chief and General News Editor at The Canadian Press, and host on CBC Newsworld, among other media roles. My social networking includes activity on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. I also write for a for-fun-only music site, rockzombies.us Archives
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