The Digital Native

Is the wind changing?

2006-03-14T12:16:00.000+11:00

"In the first two years of this report, we sensed the news media in America trapped by the twin phenomena of changing technology and economic success. The former created the need for the news media to change fundamentally. The latter bred conservatism and aversion to risk. The role of the press was changing, yet the companies that controlled the media, insulated by high profits, seemed neither to fully understand nor ready act boldly. The problems on the horizon seemed to lead to marginal tinkering, not long-term strategizing. Heading into 2006, we see a change. The problems of the news media have worsened, and with that we get a stronger sense than in earlier years that the news industry is beginning to move into the next era—especially to the Internet."
- State of the News Media 2006 - by The Project for Excellence in Journalism

Media as a 'cloud seeder'

2006-03-10T13:31:00.000+11:00

Reuters boss Tom Glocer calls it a 'Gutenbergian transformation'. Whatever it is, this global media executive caused a stir when he told an online publishers association conference in London what the 'old media' needs to do to reinvent itself in the digital age:

"I believe that the role that “old” media companies have in the truly 'new' media age, is that of content facilitator or seeder of clouds, tool provider and editor. We are the go-between – providing the structure and support - the connective tissue between the information supplier and the consumer, even if they are often today the same person!"

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Craiglist's challenge to print business models

2006-02-22T14:45:00.000+11:00

"Just as Craig Newmark is trying to disaggregate editorial from advertising, there are thousands of people out there who are trying to dismember a newspaper and are providing very rich, deep sites. A newspaper is a mile wide and an inch deep - these sites are an inch wide and a mile deep. Newspapers can either bitterly resent this and say 'that's not what we do', or say 'this is an interesting, different way of doing business so we will adapt what we do'."
- Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger

Less Press

2005-12-08T10:17:00.000+11:00

"Printing will not go away, but I do not plan to open a single new printing plant. We now concentrate on using social software to build closer relations with the communities of readers around our magazines."
- German newspaper publishing magnate Hubert Burda

"BusinessWeek plans to replace its European and Asian print editions with online ones as the magazine tries to take advantage of its growing online readership. The magazine said about 60 employees, mainly overseas, will be laid off as a result of the change. "
- New York Business

Making content media-independent

2005-11-09T21:16:00.000+11:00

"Newspapers will have to review their structural arrangements. Their added value is in content, not in printing presses. A structural separation is needed and the content business should be media-independent - in other words, news and information should be provided in whatever format the customer fancies (and is willing to pay for). This will most likely be a combination of text, video and audio—in other words, Internet, broadband TV and podcasts, etc. My advice to many media companies has been to train their journalists to be multimedia journalists. The journalist should be able to generate a text article from an interview, also put the interview (or a summary) on video and make audio versions available as well."
- Communications analyst Paul Budde

The risk of not adapting

2005-11-05T14:10:00.000+11:00

"The main problem with newspaper websites is that publishers have been reluctant to change their analogue business models and newsrooms their analogue journalism in order to adapt to the rising digital storm. Publishers' shortsighted vision, based mostly on pleasing investors, made them blind to the changes the Internet is bringing further down the road. Because of this, newsrooms have been losing the resources, financial and personnel, they need in order to adapt instead of lowering profit expectations and investing their money back into their digital journalism development."
- From the Editors' Weblog

Embracing the Revolution

2005-10-28T12:12:00.000+10:00

"Only by embracing the net, using it positively to boost newspaper buying, can we hope to maintain interest in the print medium. Rather than bowing our heads we should see this as the most exciting time in media history."

Roy Greenslade, Daily Telegraph, Oct 25, 2005

The 'Prestige' of Print Journalism

2005-09-06T21:55:00.000+10:00

"With audiences, ideas and journalistic formats developing more quickly online than off, journalists who really think print is more prestigious are going to find the next decade stressful and disappointing in equal measure."
Guardian Unlimited's editor-in-chief Emily Bell

Old boundaries dissolve

2005-08-04T14:32:00.000+10:00

"All of us appreciate that one of the biggest long-term challenges facing our craft is to invent a digital journalism and new services for our readers that both live up to our high standards and help carry the cost of a great news-gathering organization.We have concluded that our best chance of meeting that challenge is to integrate the two newsrooms into one."

- NY Times executive editor Bill Keller, in a memo to staff, on plans to merge the paper's print and online teams

What can newspapers do?

2005-07-19T14:44:00.000+10:00

"What then can newspapers do? Like other businesses in trouble, they must focus on their core competency, which usually is local information. Second, they must actively plan for a paperless future. Such transitions are gradual; but they are also inexorable. Managing the transition will not be easy. Online and print newspapers depend on each other symbiotically. Print needs online for the future. Online needs print for the present, to subsidise it financially and intellectually. Third, they must customise. The traditional newspaper provides averaged-out content to a multiplicity of readers. What it needs to do is to serve the increasingly differentiated readers’ particular mix of interests..."

ELI NOAM, Professor of Finance and Economics, Columbia University
(from The Financial Times)

2005-06-23T15:47:00.000+10:00

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"We're on the cusp of another revolution (in the) three legs of the publishing stool - publishing, distribution and advertising. Audience expectations are changing, and news organisations must align with that.The challenge is organising information. Previously, legacy newsroom produced the bulk of the content, and derivatives moved downstream to other platforms. But news no longer is a sufficient organising principle around which to build a publishing business."
-- Kinsey Wilson, editor-in-chief, USAToday.com
See 'Cross-Platform Teams: How to Practise What You (and Others) Preach'

Online editions winning favour

2005-06-20T20:21:00.000+10:00

According to Neilsen/Net Ratings, nearly one-fifth of web users who read newspapers now prefer online to offline editions. Newspaper publishing revenue is growing slowly, but remains in a prolonged slump. Internet companies such as Google and Yahoo have been posting booming revenue gains on a revival in more traditional online advertising, as well as fast-growing Web search ads. In response to the increased traffic to news sites, online editions of newspapers often now include frequent news updates, original content, message boards and editorial blogs. See full report from Reuters here

When he takes it seriously...

2005-06-15T21:13:00.000+10:00

"What is happening is, in short, a revolution in the way young people are accessing news. They don’t want to rely on the morning paper for their up-to-date information. They don’t want to rely on a God-like figure from above to tell them what’s important. And to carry the religion analogy a bit further, they certainly don’t want news presented as gospel. Instead, they want their news on demand, when it works for them. They want control over their media, instead of being controlled by it. They want to question, to probe, to offer a different angle."

Rupert Murdoch, April 2005

Journalism and the Digital Revolution

2005-06-15T14:52:00.000+10:00

When even the biggest 'old' media titans start warning of complacency among journalists about the internet, you know it is time to sit up and take notice. Rupert Murdoch's speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in April 2005 is being seen as a watershed moment in the debate over the future of newspapers in the digital age. A new generation is growing up that has no particularly affinity with print. These "digital natives" want news on demand, as it happens and with full context. Even more importantly, they want to be able to interact with it and use it as a springboard for wider discussions. They are not passive consumers of news, but active participants. The lines between journalist and reader have blurred. How do we respond to this? Murdoch says the technology is there, but the culture is lagging. He says we need to listen more closely to our readers. And the web gives us a perfect venue to do so. Encouragingly, he also contends that by streamling our operations, changing the way we write and edit, we will not only improve our online product, but strengthen our printed medium. Now here's a forum for journalists and others to work out how. Please post your thoughts here.

'Surf's up...but what's stopping us?

2005-06-14T22:10:00.000+10:00

Photo: Lesley Parker