Earl Wilkinson, the executive director of the International Newsmedia Marketing Association, has issued his annual outlook for the newspaper-based industry.
It's called Last Minutes of Danger, Last Minutes of Opportunity for good reason: Wilkinson sees too much fiddling and not enough really new music in the way the business is transforming. The shifting sands of audiences now provide new platforms for consumers to make smarter choices.
"Writing more or selling harder won't produce the growth needed to fund the journalism that is the DNA of our industry," he says. "We have to change the rules. We have to restructure the people and technology at our disposal to serve smaller audiences more profitably."
The report is proprietary to INMA members (disclosure: I am one), but in broad outline it identifies strategies for publishers, how audiences need to be redefined, the challenge of advertising and the revenue and expense outlook for the business.
It suggests new thinking needs to be applied to the value of content across platforms, how consumers interact with news brands, whether there are other ways than brands to build value, and how the industry can sell marketing solutions.
Its tone is impatient in places. While Wilkinson sees great change in places, he also thinks the recession's economic distractions haven't served to reorient the business sustainably --- instead, the cost-cutting process took up the attention.
It's called Last Minutes of Danger, Last Minutes of Opportunity for good reason: Wilkinson sees too much fiddling and not enough really new music in the way the business is transforming. The shifting sands of audiences now provide new platforms for consumers to make smarter choices.
"Writing more or selling harder won't produce the growth needed to fund the journalism that is the DNA of our industry," he says. "We have to change the rules. We have to restructure the people and technology at our disposal to serve smaller audiences more profitably."
The report is proprietary to INMA members (disclosure: I am one), but in broad outline it identifies strategies for publishers, how audiences need to be redefined, the challenge of advertising and the revenue and expense outlook for the business.
It suggests new thinking needs to be applied to the value of content across platforms, how consumers interact with news brands, whether there are other ways than brands to build value, and how the industry can sell marketing solutions.
Its tone is impatient in places. While Wilkinson sees great change in places, he also thinks the recession's economic distractions haven't served to reorient the business sustainably --- instead, the cost-cutting process took up the attention.
