Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Future Media Models

David posted on the Globe's growing subscription troubles, which I saw as a good opportunity to discuss one of my old, favorite topics: the media. Ryan's Take hasn't focused on the local media as much as it used to, but it's still an issue that's important to me. Basically, I think there's only a few ways forward.
  • Go digital, go lean -- focus the staff on news, not distribution. If they don't outright nix all distribution, these papers should put their offline content on an even footing with their online content and stop making people pay for it. Given that the profits from the sold papers really come from the ads anyway, this isn't as big a deal as it sounds, but it only works if the papers become leaner and greener -- by cutting down the sections and focusing on the content hard to find elsewhere (local and regional).
  • Go subscription. Since distribution is so expensive, offering free content online not only cannibalizes readers, but it doesn't really save a full-scale daily any money... because the trucks still have to go out and those printing factories still need to churn, daily. If there's a strong online presence, it would have to be for-pay, but even if it's for pay -- it's still probably a sink to the company, since the company is still having to pay for all those trucks even though it would have fewer papers to deliver. One way to make a website available to subscribers, without causing that sink, would be to only give access to the articles on the web to those who are subscribing anyway, or at least make online subscribers pay more than print.
  • Go nonprofit. For local and community papers, this probably makes the most sense. If it's really just about keeping a local news presence, a nonprofit starts to make a lot of sense, because eliminating the need for these companies to make a major profit would be liberating for them.
There may be others ways, but if they don't involve focusing on a way of delivering the news and the type of news they're going to deliver (and then making sure that news is good), the subscription decline will only hasten.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry to go off topic but you don't do ask Ryan anything anymore.
Hey what about Ariz making something doubly illegal? Even Mass almost voting to cut benefits for illegals? I think this issue will be more divisive, but more important than health care.

Ryan said...

Immigration reform is a fundamentally important effort. Hopefully, we'll see Arizona's actions necessitate it -- and if we don't, more states will follow Arizona, making federal action that much more important.

That said, I'm not sure how long Arizona's horrendous law can stand, because there's more than one aspect to it which seems blatantly unconstitutional.

Anonymous said...

So what's your solution?

Ryan said...

My solution to immigration?

I think the McCain-Kennedy bill of a few years ago was a sound approach. It tightened the borders significantly, did more to make sure employers weren't hiring undocumented people, recognized the importance of migratory workers and would allow companies to hire them legally through temporary visas.... while also giving people who have been here for years and years a path toward citizenship, so long as they paid back their taxes and learned English. It was a very reasonable approach -- and one of those rare and intelligent compromises that works to solve the problems coming from all sides of this debate, and it would have worked.

Anonymous said...

As much as Bush tried to push it through the Senate wouldn't go for it. Why not bring it up again now.

Ryan said...

It should be brought up now and there are certainly many parties trying very hard to bring it up, but unfortunately the president made a gaffe and said he didn't think there was the will to do it... which really sends out a message to DC politicians not to do it. As we saw with HCR, if the President isn't actively pushing for it, any major issue isn't going anywhere without him.

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