Many newspapers haven’t been managing their businesses right. It’s how the net crept up and killed most of them. So now ereaders are on the market and many newspaper heads think their savior has arrived. :-(
Who really thinks a consumer would pay for multiple ereaders to read multiple papers? Isn’t that like Aol creating a machine to access Aol sites?
Old media heads think consumers must be locked into an experience for it to yield results and profits. Buy our ereader to read our stuff (written by a writter who doesn’t need them now that the net provides distribution). Buy our console to play our games (created by developers who won’t need the consoles for much longer. And now, you like The Globe? Buy the ereader, and pay for issues … and a an upgraded device every two years or so, if not sooner.
Getting a consumer to buy an ereader isn’t going to make them buy the papers they’ve stopped buying. The papers need to reevaluate how they provide value in an unimaginably competitive media world.
What’s the real strength of professional journalism when compared to blogs delivered to your hip via mobile device if most newspaper content is written at a grade school level?
And maybe that’s the bigger part of the problem — education. The WSJ is having considerably less issues than most papers. Could it have something to do with an educated niche willing to pay for educated content?
It’s been accepted that most journalists don’t make the big bucks. Ashame, when they go to expensive schools & keep (or kept) us all connected by reporting on the world around us. But if the newspaper product is at a 6th grade level, how much value would we expect a 6th grader to find in anything?How loyal do you think they are to any info source or platform?
I mean, how much different have NY Post headlines ever been from blogs? If they don’t use their resources to make their products & experiences markedly different why should they get special treatment? The only answer is the people, journos that have kept their businesses afloat for years.
(written while waiting for waaay too much paint to be mixed at home depot)
