What will the newspapers morph into? Will their present business model survive another decade? Very doubtful.
The NY Times has taken the leap into charging for some of its digital content (after years of free access) and a raft of other services geared to Internet users while at the same time laying off hundreds of workers. The Wall Street Journal has charged for a digital subscription from the get-go.
News and opinion content organizations must have the money to get fast, reliable news to us. It takes money to do that and a viable, sustainable business model. Because their advertising revenue is migrating to other online companies like Google and Yahoo, the newspapers must do something about their fundamental business model very quickly.
"There is already a crisscross of intention on the part of the current content providers. The primary gesture of Google and Yahoo - search is actually content - is now being woven with video, paid columnists and, ye gads, even some reporters. Television networks are beginning to explore whether people would pay for an on-demand version of their product. Blogs are federating into verticals of quality to be sold to advertisers. Broadcast radio worries about competition from satellite radio while satellite wonders if it can get people to unplug their iPods.
That is the future that newspapers have to prepare for. Readers no longer care so much who you are, they just want to know what you know.
That may sound grim for big media brands, the kind of proposition that will not provide enough cash flow to finance a squad of reporters examining what a hurricane left behind or venturing out onto the streets of Baghdad. But in a frantic age where the quality of the information can be critical, being a reliable news source humming away in everyone's backpack sounds just useful enough to be a business."
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