PressEthic

On Monday, the American Press Institute reported that they would invest $2 million on a project called “Newspaper Next: The Transformation Period.” The goals of the the project will be to discover the trends that are hurting newspaper sales and to develop innovative strategies and products with a collaborative task force of 25 creative thinkers. According to the article, the goals of the group will include:

assess the threat to newspapers in the next decade, including emerging competition

 

Determine opportunities for newspapers, including implementation of available new technology

 

Suggest executable new business initiatives – products, services an d strategies – with detailed rationales

 

Provide implementation guides for these business plans, addressing the management of change and risk.

Something that I found odd about this little article is that it doesn’t mention the internet anywhere, although by not mentioning it, it becomes the elephant in the room. The threat to newspapers in the next decade? How about the threat to newspapers in the past decade. And the simplistic answer is...the internet!

I am curious as to what the group will come up with for innovative ideas, new technology, and business initiatives. I hope it won’t just be annoying readership blocks such as TimesSelect. Perhaps in order for newspapers to survive, it will mean the end of free reads online. If that is the case, will the new model be a success? We already know that individuals are making thousands of dollars in the blogosphere (excuse the cliche) with zero dollar start-up fees, but that sort of thing is small potatoes for major news outlets. Or will the internet become one major conglomerate (or more likely four or five) as the independent groups get bought out--as Sarah wrote about in her blog today. Gawker has joined in a "syndicated partnership" with Yahoo, and Myspace has recently been bought out by Rupert Murdoch. My guess is that API will find similar models of syndication and conglomeration as a solution to the problem with print.

The fundamental question I would be asking if I had been commissioned for the task force is: Do people read news online (including mainstream news and secondary sources such as blogs) because it is free, or because it is convenient? If the answer is the former, then good luck to the American Press Institute in finding a successful business model. There will always be free sources online, and whether they are considered "real" or not may come to matter less and less.