Hang on to your tote bags
From Huffingtonpost:
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark said he thinks NPR will be a “dominant force” in media by 2020, thanks to the organization’s membership model.
Speaking recently with Atlantic writer James Fallows at a journalism event in Washington, Newmark said that he now believes that successful news organizations “will be the ones that view themselves as public service models.
“I have a feeling that membership models and philanthrophy models will be stronger than advertising-supported organizations, because people are willing to pay for trustworthy news,” he said.
He added that the Internet, with its lower advertising rates, will only strengthen news outlets that get revenues from other sources.
“I have a feeling that NPR is going to become a dominant player in the world of media, say, by 2020,” Newmark concluded.
Which Way to the Exit?
I was recently invited to guest blog over at the Chicago Media Future Conference website, where this post originally appeared.
I really like reading newspapers. And you know what… I’m even willing to pay for that pleasure. This fact may make me unusual these days, but it doesn’t make me a sucker. And lately, it feels that the newspapers think I’m a sucker. They must think I’m a sucker because they treat me as if my loyalty to their product has no breaking point.
I currently subscribe to two papers: the Chicago Tribune daily and the New York Times on Sunday. Why, you may ask, do I continue to purchase news that I can access for free online? To be honest, I don’t have a great answer. Whether its habit, ritual, nostalgia, or tactile pleasure – it’s just always been part of my morning routine. But right now, I don’t think these two papers will have my business much longer. And it’s not that I want to eliminate the physical newspaper from my media intake. Rather, the newspapers are forcing my hand.
The first reason is deteriorating quality. I just don’t get a whole lot out of the daily Tribune. While the 24 hour news cycle leads a lack of “fresh” news in a morning paper, the editorial cutbacks and layoffs are clearly evident in the finished product. It takes me 5-10 minutes and I feel like I have squeezed all the water from the stone. If it wasn’t for my daughter’s breakfast with the comics, weather, and celebrity gossip in the “Live!” section, I think Trib would have lost us about a year ago.
The second reason is cost. The New York Times has informed me that my Sunday delivery will now cost me $7.50 a week. Even with reduced resources, I still think the Sunday NYTimes is a wonderful thing (I even find myself steering clear of NYTimes.com on Saturdays to avoid any spoilers from the Sunday paper). But even as a satisfied customer, I can no longer justify spending that amount of money when you consider that I am essentially paying for the delivery channel, not the content itself. I acknowledge that the economics of physical distribution have changed drastically, but raising prices right now in the face of free content online feels like the music industry deciding to raise CD prices to combat the loss of revenue from digital distribution.
In his famous work, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, Albert Hirschman investigates the choices consumers make when faced with deteriorating quality of goods and services. Loyal audiences can either Voice their displeasure to induce change and improvement, or they Exit the relationship altogether and shop elsewhere. Both options have considerable consequences for the producers – a declining customer base and/or organizational changes based on the demands of the remaining customers. It’s a great little book that all media managers should read.
Looking at the current crisis of journalism through the lens of Hirschman, media outlets have yet to make a clear choice as to which of these consumer options – Voice or Exit – is preferable for their survival. To slow the increasingly popular Exit choice, there needs to be a willingness to listen to the Voice of the audience and make changes based on emerging consumer behaviors and expectations. But instead of embracing a updated set of best practices, we just get secret meetings about how to monetize the news.
And to Exit no longer means simply shifting to a different news outlet. We have entered an age of peer recommended news where, more often than not, our network of friends and colleagues organically point us to interesting and relevant stories. As a media company, you should want to make your organization part of those networks. This means trading in a model of authority (i.e., the “World’s Greatest Newspaper”) for a model of authenticity. It’s about building a trusted relationship with your customers.
I want these companies to understand that I invite their product intomy home and choose to make them part of my media diet. In return, I would like to feel that my loyalty to them has a value, and that they’re willing to listen to my voice. But what are they doing to build their relationship with me? What are they doing to keep me as a satisfied customer?
When it comes to my newspaper home delivery, like so many disgruntled customers before me, I choose to exit.
Chicago Media Future Conference set for June
There was a lot of anticipation for the Chicago Journalism Town Hall, which took place earlier this year. After a rash of layoffs and financial turmoil in newsrooms across the city, many journalists were chomping at the bit to talk about ways to fix the news business. While well intentioned, the discussions at the Town Hall quickly digressed into venting, finger pointing at various websites, and debates about imagined business models that will save the day. Producing little direction, it was most notable for highlighting a clear generational divide. (You can listen to audio from the CJTH at WBEZ’s website.)
A few of those in attendance that day have decided to keep the conversation going by organizing the Chicago Media Future Conference, scheduled for June 13 at Columbia College. The conference plans to address two main questions: 1. How do people consume the news and what do they do with it? 2. How do you make money selling the news and who is willing to pay for it?
I strongly suggest the conference focus on the first question before getting anywhere near the second. Understanding how media habits are changing – and how news operations can adapt – should be a top priority for all media managers. Before you can talk about how to make money, you have to know how people are consuming your product. In all the debates going on, I have heard very little acknowledgement from journalists that news consumers feel let down by the media. A Zogby poll from 2008 indicated that 67% of Americans view traditional journalism as “out of touch”. Google isn’t killing journalism, but Google has changed the way people find, consume, and share the news – and do so in ways that circumvent the old revenue models.
The good news is that in the same Zogby poll, 70% of respondents felt that journalism is important to the quality of life in their communities. Professional journalism is still wanted and needed – but we have to start saying out loud that news organizations are not providing their work in ways that meet the needs and habits of their audience. And by not adapting to this reality, the news industry is losing credibility, relevance, and revenue. News orgs need to figure out the nature of their product and its value to the consumer before setting their sites on making money. Business models are not solutions for what ails journalism right now.
For more information on the thinking behind the Chicago Media Future Conference, check out blog posts by organizers Scott Smith and Mike Fourcher.
Chicago Reader launches redesign
The Chicago Reader has rolled out a new design for its Web site. For the user, there’s an improved navigation system up top & a new emphasis on the blogs that have grown to be an important part of the Reader’s offerings. Above the fold, you get this week’s cover story, the latest blog posts, today’s critics picks, and a list of recommended articles from around the web. On his Chicagoland blog, web editor Whet Moser mentions the redesign is a work in progress, with a number of pages and sections still to be ported over to the new layout. I see it as a big improvement for an organization that was very, very late to embrace the web. There are still a number of financial challenges facing free print publications like the Reader, but moving in this direction will, at the very least, give it a fighting chance.
Rocky Mountain News shuts down
Tough times in journalism continue as the Rocky Mountain News published its last edition this morning. On the paper’s website, the editorial staff posted this video chronicling the last days at the paper, which had been in print for nearly 150 years.
Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.