Newsosaurs: How Long Do the Newspaper Cos. Wait to Go 100% Digital?
I think this article ignores the managerial inertia present in existing media companies. Newspapers aren’t going to go 100% digital until the have to, even if it is inevitable. It would be like the automobile companies shutting down because they know we will eventually run out of oil… like that would happen… Er, that’s a bad example… maybe I should re-read the post.
It’s Hard To Watch The Newsosaurs Turn A Blind Eye To Their Own Extinction by Erick Schonfeld: “Sometimes it is obvious where the world is headed, but some people and industries become frozen in place and time. They are like the duckbilled dinosaurs happily munching on the still-abundant plants around them when the meteor strikes instead of the small furry mammals underfoot who take cover every day by natural habit. In the print newspaper industry, it’s the same story. Everyone wants to wall off the Web and keep grazing on declining ad revenues.
A week ago, I wrote a post based on a conversation I had with Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Marc Andreessen in which he made the case that print media companies would be better off shutting down their print operations now (“Burn the boats”) and move forward unencumbered into the digital age, no matter how painful that may be. That suggestion hit a deep nerve, and continues to do so.
Just yesterday, Allan Mutter, who writes the blog Reflections of a Newsosaur, took exception to Andreessen’s advice. By his estimate, in 2009:
Print-driven newspaper revenues still are running at better than $30 billion a year. It doesn’t take a certifiable Silicon Valley genius to see that no business can walk away from some 90% of its revenue base without imploding.
Mutter’s indignation is typical of the response to the article, even among enlightened newsosaurs. But that is exactly what Andreessen is saying.
Newspaper reading makes a man conscious. It bears the sign of good taste and wisedom. By reading newspaper a man can keep pace with time. So the uses of newspaper reading can not be described in words.
Hi I have been reading your blog for the past two weeks and it is interesting, do you have a RSS feed?
It’s the top left of the home page under “SUBSCRIBE”
Thanks for reading,
Bad Science