[LINK] Five Key Reasons Why Newspapers Are Failing

[Kim Holburn]

Interesting and well argued article.
http://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/five-key-reasons-why-newspapers-are-failing

> Five Key Reasons Why Newspapers Are Failing
>
> Bill Wyman
>
> …and why they don’t get talked about much.
>

> 1. Consumers don’t pay for news. They have never paid for news.
>
> The problem of the daily press in the U.S. is exclusively this: the  
> collapse of its business model. That model used to be, plainly put,  
> making money—a lot of money, oceans of money—delivering advertising  
> on newsprint into peoples’ homes. Subscribers didn’t pay for news.  
> Advertisers did.
>
> Remember “shoppers,” the poorly designed throwaway publications  
> filled with tacky little ads? Daily newspapers are high-end  
> shoppers. They spent a lot of money on original content to class up  
> the operation and give people a reason to ask for the ads to be  
> delivered. Long before the web displayed the power and leverage of  
> critical mass, newspapers benefited from it; once you got the  
> franchise in your particular locale, you tried not to stir up  
> trouble, because it just distracted you from time better spent  
> cashing checks.

......

> 2. Newspapers are the product of monopolist thinking


> 3. Timidity doesn’t work on the web

> 4. The staffs of the papers, from management down to the reporters,  
> deserve a big share of the blame

> 5. Newspaper websites suck


-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request