

What's Really Killing Newspapers - kennyroo
http://www.slate.com/id/2196485/

======
kennyroo
Newspapers are dying because the half-life for headlines today is much, much
shorter today than it was in the past and because other options are faster and
free. Today's printed newspaper is by definition yesterday's news. Who wants
to pay for old news? Imagine a web site that charged for yesterday's news.
Wouldn't it fail miserably too?

The problem is that online news isn't really free -- it requires funding from
the dying offline business because online news doesn't have a viable business
model. In fact, a lot of people don't start with the news provider's site at
all -- we start with news aggregators and then do quick dives into provider
sites without leaving a trace of revenue in their pockets. This simply can't
last. The offline business will go broke before the online business can be
made workable at this rate.

Successful news providers in the future will need to start with a much cheaper
cost structure to match a much lower revenue model. Current media companies
may not be able to make that transition. None of them are moving fast enough,
and most won't even acknowledge the simple reality that there is simply no
future for the printed daily newspaper.

~~~
netcan
"The problem is that online news isn't really free -- it requires funding from
the dying offline business because online news doesn't have a viable business
model."

Very True. An online reader is just not worth much. Even if they do get you
onto their site.

"Successful news providers in the future will need to start with a much
cheaper cost structure to match a much lower revenue model. " The business
model might just be collapsing. And that does not necessarily mean a new one
takes its place. I mean I can't take the 'new music business models' (t shirts
and personalised songs & stuff) seriously. Sometimes industries collapse.
Print news might be one of them.

"Successful news providers in the future will need to start with a much
cheaper cost structure to match a much lower revenue model"

How about 0 cost (99% of blogs) & 0 direct revenue. BTW, for writer I think
the alternative business model is more feasible. Books, appearances, lectures
etc. A good few big name journalists could pull this off. Quite a few bloggers
(in the business blogging field at least) do.

------
brandnewlow
Shafer's a friend and a very sharp guy. There's a lot to his point that
newspaper no longer carry as much social currency.

But I tend to agree with kennyroo's point about cost structure a lot more.
Newspapers are used to spending X to get the news out there and making X+1 on
the transaction. Now they're making X-1 on the transaction, but are still more
or less spending X to get the news out there.

They're trying to change, but they need to more or less lay off their entire
print production staff to really make it work. The unions will never allow
this. So major papers will continue to drift downwards until they either shut
down or take the steps necessary to be profitable, lean businesses.

As a journalist who recently finished up a master's degree and had to decide
what to do next, I chose to turn down my job offers, teach myself Drupal, hang
out on Hacker News and bootstrap a new Chicago news site at
<http://www.windycitizen.com>

More than a few classmates, most of whom are now writing for B2B publications,
dailies and magazines thought I was being foolish, but it seemed like the best
bet out there in the long run. The papers are only going to keep falling
apart. I believe I can develop something from scratch with a cost structure
that will let us either become an acquisition target for an existing media
company or get back to X+1.

The Citizen is a blog network focused on Chicago, produced by a growing
community of local media makers who want to expand the local conversation.

This past weekend, we attacked Lollapalooza
(<http://www.windycitizen.com/blogs/lollapalooza-blog>), and by approaching
our coverage with a startup mentality, the two of us who attended scooped the
big dogs all weekend long with video, pictures, reviews, links and news from
the festival.

If there are any Chicago-based hackers out there interested in getting
involved, hit me up through the site. Scooping MTVNews at one of the major
music festivals is a real rush.

There are a lot of reasons why newspapers are dying. My vote is for the "our
business model fell apart" explanation. And unlike most of the journalists
I've met, I'm putting my money where my mouth is by trying to bring something
new to the table.

~~~
kennyroo
<http://www.windycitizen.com> is really interesting. Someone will figure out
how to make local work online, and this looks promising. Good luck!

~~~
brandnewlow
Thanks. Chicago's got quite a lot on the news startup/citizen news front,
we're trying to bring new stuff to the table.

------
mojonixon
Most still have big profit margins, which is one of the reasons they are
getting their ass kicked. For the first time in decades they are faced with a
strategic threat, and instead of cutting margins a bit and investing their way
into better position they've been cutting full time beat reporters, their only
advantage over the talking heads. (I used to be a Newspaper Guild member, but
never worked for a paper per se. It's complicated.)

~~~
netcan
A good few are not as hot as they used to be. The 'cream' areas, mostly
classified ads, are drying up. And they were the areas with big margins.

------
joseakle
I´m not really sure we can talk about news as a single entity.

News are made of many different kinds and groupings of information. For
example financial, sports, classifieds, tech, auto, regional, local,
international, entertainment , ... oh programming and hacking, etc.

I think newspapers have fullfilled diverse roles such as, Aggregating,
Distributing, Reporting, Investigating, Opinion writing

Some of these are now irrelevant, such as aggregation and distribution. While
others are still up for grabs.

------
njharman
People have it stuck in their minds that cews companies are unchangeable or
something???

Newspapers are in or moving to all the new media places as much as anyone.
They've been blogging for ages, have facebook pages, use twitter, have reader
comments and voting ala /. or reddit, or HN, produce video, host live
chat/blogging, etc. Or at least the one I work for does.

Technology and industry is changing. Newspapers are trying to change with it,
just as they have with other tech innovations. Unlike say Music Industry who
is fighting tooth and nail to keep their broken ass business model.

~~~
netcan
Down here (Australia), 'Fairfax Digital' the online version(s) of 'Fairfax
Media' - the 1 ton gorrila of Aussie media, probably has kept it's market
share of the key areas online. The have the #1 job site, real estate & they
are doing ok with cars, personals, buy/sell and other traditional media cash
cows.

In terms of market share, I wouldn't be surprised if the (society's) move to
online media has not been a net gain for them.

However, they were in a pretty cushy position before. They had to compete with
2-3 other media giants. Now they are in constant danger of assault from under
the radar. Google maps may make real estate sites useless.

It seems improbable that 5 more years will pass & noone will figure out an
online dating or car selling or something that will take out their sites.

Basically, if I were them I'd feel like it's almost impossible for them to
hang on to dominance for long.

------
netcan
Here's a potentially interesting angle: Digital print isn't killing
newspapers.

One major barrier to entry (bottleneck) was printing. You needed a certain
volume & a certain infrastructure to print papers.

Digital print really lowered that barrier. You can now get in at a fraction of
the distribution volume. But we haven't seen a proliferation of papers. What
does that mean? Could this mean that they are already dead in the air?

What're the other options? That the bottleneck they used to control is not
something they've been leaning on? That seems unlikely.

------
kenver
Interesting read and some good points. My own opinion on newspapers (mostly
tabloids) is that they are generally full of reams of inane comment,
sensationalist reporting, and too much space is given to celeb culture.

With the internet I can skip all that rubbish and not have to pay for the
privilege.

------
mixmax
Interestingly a lot of the social currency has shifted to usergenerated news
sites such as HN, Slashdot and Reddit. Maybe this is where the future of news
lies?

~~~
gaius
LOL! In the real world _no-one_ cares about Slashdot "news". Stuff that
matters indeed. Yes it matters a lot to the tiny demographic of self-
proclaimed "Linux nerds" but to 99.99% of the population it's utterly
irrelevant.

------
globalrev
Onlline aggregators are great but what will replace those deep-digging
articles done by journalists?

And then I am not talking about tech stuff, professors and business people
have an income.

I am talking about investigative reporters. How will they get financed?

~~~
netcan
\- Maybe amateurs (some future form of blogger).

\- Maybe free lancers building a name & readership for monetisation via books,
lectures etc. (This should at least salvage the top tier journalists)

\- Maybe none. Who said a change has to be 100% for the better. When the
printing press was born, illustrated books (hand illustrated) died.

------
pavelludiq
Now instead of asking someone I met, if they like soccer, i have to ask them
if they read HN :D

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albertcardona
Worth a read if anything for the concept of "social currency."

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time_management
The author clearly knows next to nothing about Facebook.

