Why Print News is on Life Support

Print news is in trouble and it is not a cost issue. The fact is, our communication has evolved. Speed of information is valued as much as depth of information. Access to multiple points of view on a subject is as important as reading an authority on a particular story. And our appetite for rich graphics, audio, and video outshines those AP photos and images in print news. The point is, those organizations that continue to say cost is the driving force for shutting down a publication is over simplifing the reality. The truth is consumers helped to shape and change the communication ecosystem and technology made it easy to get to the tipping point. Cost will always be a factor in business, online and offline, the key is to know your customer base and learning how to connect on mutual terms. Cross train your employee base and layoffs become less of an option. Keep in mind, change is the new status quo.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 9:38 pm and is filed under 1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Why Print News is on Life Support”

  1. Joe Panettieri Says:
    January 29, 2009 at 10:50 pm | Reply

    Clayton: As you know I spent the 1990s building print magazines that served high-tech readers (CIOs, VPs of IT). Finally made the “complete” transition to Web when I co-launched Nine Lives Media Inc. There are at least four problems with print news:

    1. Lack of advertising dollars – that’s the biggest issue. No advertisers = no money for advertisers. Sites like Craigslist, realtor.com and cars.com destroyed the traditional newspaper ad model.

    2. Readership is too broad: Today’s advertisers want to micro-segment and target specific highly targeted audiences. Newspapers don’t deliver that. Highly targeted web sites do.

    3. Lack of measurable returns: Advertisers can’t easily measure the impact of print ads.

    4. Savvy consumers: Millions of consumers adopted Web 2.0 technologies (RSS feeds, blogs, etc.) before magazines and newspapers had ever heard of Web 2.0. Now, those consumers have a voice on the media sites they read.

    If a blog or media site gets a story wrong, comment sections like this allow readers to INSTANTLY offer perspectives, corrections and clarifications.

    Print will die. But that doesn’t mean good content will die.

Leave a Reply