
News You Can Lose - davidw
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2008/12/22/081222ta_talk_surowiecki
======
rationalbeaver
"By extension, many argue that if newspapers had understood they were in the
information business, rather than the print business, they would have adapted
more quickly and more successfully to the Net."

I think this is the key point of the article, but I feel the author didn't
really do much with that finding. He says that papers could have done better
with online classifieds and should probably do something with aggregation.
These are pretty standard conclusions at this point. More importantly, these
conclusions still cling to the traditional role of the newspaper as a provider
of news specifically.

If newspapers are really in the information business, and I believe they are,
they should act like companies that sell information. There are plenty of
examples of successful information businesses on, and off, the web: Comscore,
Nielson, Hoovers, Marketing Sherpa, Motley Fool, the credit reporting bureaus,
Google(!), etc.

While newspapers may not be equipped to compete in the same areas as all of
these companies, they are more than prepared to enter into a variety of niches
within the information market.

My local paper, for example, routinely compiles data into little online
features where you can go and find out, for example, what the weather was like
on the last 5 Labor Days. They also keep track of and print the latest
executive-level stock trades from local public companies. Why aren't they
packaging that data for investors and selling it as an online subscription?
Why don't they sell local housing data to realtors or speculators (granted,
they'll need to wait for the next bubble)? Political contribution lists to
watch-dog groups? Names of new hires/fires to recruiting firms/departments?

It seems to me that while newspapers may be getting over the print business,
they still think they're in the news business. If the advertising revenue from
the news is getting thin, newspapers might consider augmenting that revenue by
selling higher-margin information.

~~~
brandnewlow
The "we're in the business of selling news not paper" is a trope from a guy
named Rob Curley, the "hyperlocal hero" of the newspaper industry, currently
working away at the Las Vegas Sun.

[http://elapsedtime.blogspot.com/2007/03/rob-curleys-
google-v...](http://elapsedtime.blogspot.com/2007/03/rob-curleys-google-
visit.html)

------
sethg
Matthew Yglesias points out that the revenue that newspapers get from dead-
tree subscribers does not make up for the cost of printing and delivering the
paper. So the real problem is not that consumers would rather not pay for
news, but that advertisers don't want to buy the online ad space.

[http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/12/news_with...](http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/12/news_without_the_paper.php)

(Personally, I suspect that the problems are interrelated, because IIUC
advertisers are more willing to buy ad space in a publication with paying
subscribers--I guess the assumption is that if people are laying down their
own cash, then they must respect the content, and that respect rubs off on the
ads.)

------
blackswan
"But it would not be shocking if, sometime soon, there were big American
cities that had no local newspaper."

This has been something that I've thought about quite a lot of late, and think
is definitely going to be the case. My personal idea is that there will be a
lot of people who would previously have read local newspapers but would rather
read a social news site online.

The problem with current social news sites for these people is that they are
too focused on particular subjects, for instance tech or business. So in
between university and another proper startup I'm working on I built a site
that lets each user view their own stream of stories agnostic of what the rest
of the user base is doing - unless other user's stories or comments overlap
with those of the first user. You can check it out at <http://memescout.com>!

Now the difficulty is getting people to use the site!

------
someperson
Rupert Murdoch gave a lecture where he thinks media is headed - It's actually
quite interesting.

It's the 3rd lecture is part of this years (6-Part) Boyer Lecture series. It's
basically Rupert Murdoch's view on where the world and humanity are headed in
the next decades.

Anyone interested can listen/read it here:
<http://www.abc.net.au/rn/boyerlectures/default.htm>

