Somebody Had to Say It

A lot of traditional newspaper people aren't going to like this, but Web thinker/professor/pundit Clay Shirky pretty much nails the current (and quickly passing) state of the newspaper business:

The great misfortune of newspapers in this era is that they were such a good idea for such a long time that people felt the newspaper business model was part of a deep truth about the world, rather than just the way things happened to be. It's like the fall of communism, where a lot of the eastern European satellite states had an easier time because there were still people alive who remembered life before the Soviet Union - nobody in Russia remembered it. Newspaper people are like Russians, in a way.

In other words, there's no natural law that says that the traditional newspaper business model–hire large staff, report news, sell ads, crush trees, smear ink on them, throw on doorsteps, collect some circulation revenue, reap 20 percent-plus profit margins–is inviolate. Unfortunately, the reality may be that it's not that the Web news business model is broken–it's the print business model that's screwy. And now rapidly going extinct. 

Rather than bemoaning that or wasting time trying to save something that can't be saved, newspaper people need to devote all their energies–all of them–to inventing the next news thing. Or, to trample Shirky's metaphor, it's high time for some serious perestroika.

Comments

[James]

All their energies on something else?

So newspapers should be just given up on?

Millons of newspapers are sold each day in the UK - possibly billions world wide.

Yeah, lets throw the towel in.

[Mick]

Clay has written a sad ending to the once powerful press. Like you, I left when I saw the end game coming sooner than I could afford to wait and see. I predict these papers will stop daily subscription delivery this year and a few will be shut down all together: The Sun Times, The Boston Globe, Denver Post. The Detroit JOA has already announced a stripped down publishing schedule. Sure, the blokes in the U.K. love to read the daily tabs, they also drink warm beer and eat something called haggis.

[Michael Josefowicz]

RE: newspaper people need to devote all their energies–all of them–to inventing the next news thing."

My 2 cents. The next big thing is going to be niche Print publications that are informed by the actionable intelligence that comes from the Cloud. CPMs can't work unless the fixed costs are very,very,very low. Or unless you are Google.

The ethos of the web is "Read for Free. Pay for Print."

So ...newspapers will invent new print products that people will willingly pay for.
Think fast to market books about the local ramifications of the coming reorganization of business, education, health and government.