In the previous article "Vol.19: What is Ideal Web 2.0 Wocial Journalism / Jourlist?", ideal journalism and journalist was discussed. The topic of this article is how news media as the organization (and employer of journalists) need to change to survive in web 2.0 online world.
1. What does news media need to know to succeed in Web 2.0 online world?
News media need to be aware of the drastically changing environment and the paradigm shift in the business model of journalism, attributing to the game change of news and all content business by Internet/web 2.0. This is supported by Fisher’s article of 10 Industries That The Internet And Social Media Will Revolutionize (2009), with print media as #1, television as #3, music as #6 advertising as #8 and public relations as #9.
2. What is happening in the news media and all content media industries?
There have been scrap and build (such as of AOL and NCB selling announcements), and staff cuts in news media and other content industries. Focusing on news organizations, some examples are mentioned by Steiger (2009) in his article Investigative reporting in the Web era, including closing of business, operating in bankruptcy proceedings, and drastic cut in team and staff/journalists. According to Steigner, newspapers have bought out or laid off nearly 26,000 journalists, which is the equivalent of more than 20 New York Timeses.
3. Are news and other content business market really shrinking?
No, it is not; it is actually on the increase in total. It may seem to be shrinking if looked focusing on traditional media business and/or as an extension of traditional business; however, total news and all other content business is not shrinking but potential demand is increasing. Take music industry for example. It is true that CD business is decreasing with the advent of online music business but with easier access to more online music content, more people are actually consuming more music content and thus total music business has expanded.
Many of the myth of news and content business are not quite right. Curley (2009) says in his article Crossing the burning bridge, under the new game in the Internet era, “it often appears as if the more our content is distributed, the more revenues decline”, but his stance is also that it all depends on how professional news media adapts to the changing business environment. The myth attributes to inappropriate, obsolete business model of many current news media and other content business organizations, not knowing the KFS under the new game rule.
4. What are the KFS to succeed in new game?
KFS to create demand and market to succeed in news and other content business are quality and distribution channel of content.
1) High quality content is a must.
It is true that news business seems to be on the decline in general, demand for high quality news content does exist and even seems to be increasing.
As mentioned in the previous article Vol.10 – How to Successfully Develop Web Content to Directly Reach Buyers, content is the king, and in addition, context the queen, as Joel (2009) advocates, and online consumers do pay for high quality content. This means that content business can be successful even thought many free content are available online. The issue is quality of the content.
According to Mohsin’s article The Future Of Paid Content (2009), global online consumers still place more value on content produced by “professionals” and pay for (perceived) quality content. Steigner (2009) is also of the same stance. This is the very reason why Comcast, the “content distributor” company decided to acquire NBC, the “content” company.
2) Controlling distribution channel to deliver content is also vital.
Controlling distribution channel to deliver high quality content is also a crucial competitive advantage under the new game with the emergence of Internet and web 2.0. Lewis (2009) says in his article Social Journalism: Past, Present, and Future, the future of social journalism will be driven by disintermediation, the replacement or removal of middlemen in the supply chain, and the author feels this has already started. This is also mentioned by a Japanese authority in this field in his online article series about IT and media/content business that he posts regularly on a prestigious media website.
Disintermediation is KFS for many traditional offline company businesses (manufacturers, retailers etc.), Dell model being an excellent example, and is indeed crucial KFS for online business. Some examples to name a few include Amazon, eBay, Yahoo! and iPod of Apple to name a few, all of which resulted to development and establishment of new business models. Such companies stimulated potential customer demand, created new market, and became the market leader, leveraging first mover advantage.
3) Collaboration is the key to achieve and leverage both quality and distribution channel of content.
With the objective of effectively and efficiently produce high quality content meeting customer needs and delivering them directly to online customers, collaboration has become a trend among news media organizations. This is quite natural when many companies in other industries (including offline traditional industries) are making alliances and collaboration to improve their competitive advantage.
Lavruski (2009) introduces with concreteness how news media are doing this in his article 7 Ways News Media are Becoming More Collaborative, mentioning the 7 points below. These are in line with what the author described as ideal social journalists in the previous article Vol.19 – What is Ideal Web 2.0 Social Journalism / Journalist?
- Curating and filtering the stream.
- Working with the audience.
- Leverage collaborative tools (e.g. Google Wave)
- Social media partnership.
- Large news partnering with blogs
- Local news organization teaming up
- University partnership
5. What do news (and other content business) organizations need to know and do immediately?
News media and all other content business organizations are required to change their mindset and overcome the mission in the next few years to survive. Curley (2009) describes this by saying “get all the way across the burning bridge, from analog to digital journalism, and make the difficult choices that this crossing presents”.
Leveraging learning from, for example, Crocker’s article 4 Things Old Media Can Learn From the Music Industry’s Last Decade, news media and other old media need to know that myth is exaggeration and change their mindset. They need to fully understand the essence of the paradigm shift in their business environment triggered by web 2.0/social media ecosystem and determine correct KFS. Social media ecosystem introduced in the previous article Vol.5 – What Social Media Ecosystem Does Web 2.0 Realize? could be of reference. Then they would be able to develop and establish new business model meeting the new era to win the new game.
It is with successfully adapting to paradigm shift and developing/establishing new business model that the value and importance of professional mainstream news media would increase more than ever, as Defren (2009) insists in his article Mainstream Media Relations: More Important Than Ever.
In the next article, the author would like to further discuss some of the actions news media (organizations), one of the primary content business players, are expected to take survive in web 2.0 world. The author believes that marketers, communicators, PR representatives and online business owners can learn from such actions how to succeed in their web/Internet marketing and online business.
References:-
Betancourt, Leah (2009) How Social Media is Radically Changing the Newsroom
http://mashable.com/2009/06/08/social-media-newsroom/
Crocker, Nick (2009) 4 Things Old Media Can Learn From the Music Industry’s Last Decade
http://mashable.com/2009/10/08/news-industry-music/
Curley, Tom (2009) Crossing the Burning Bridge
http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/internet/crossing-the-burning-bridge
Defren, Todd (2009) Mainstream Media Relations: More Important Than Ever
http://www.pr-squared.com/index.php/2009/09/mainstream-media-relations-more-important-than-ever
Fisher, Lauren (2009) 10 Industries That The Internet And Social Media Will Revolutionize
http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/10-industries-internet-social-media-revolutionize/
Joel, Mitch (2009), Six Pixels of Separation – Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. Business Plus
Lavrusik, Vadim (2009) 12 Things Newspapers Should Do to Survive
http://mashable.com/2009/08/14/newspaper-survival/
Lavruski, Vadim (2009) 7 Ways News Media are Becoming More Collaborative
http://mashable.com/2009/12/29/7-ways-news-media-are-becoming-more-collaborative/
Lewis, Woody (2009) Social Journalism: Past, Present, and Future
http://mashable.com/2009/04/07/social-journalism/
Mohsin, Umair (2010) The Future of Paid Content
http://animoney.thoseinmedia.com/2010/01/07/the-future-of-paid-content/
Steiger, Paul (2009) Investigative Reporting in the Web Era
http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/internet/investigative-reporting-in-the-web-era
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