Can anyone feel sorry for Washington Post?

Maybe the solution for such business incompetence is the same for our sorry (and also disrepected) congress. FIRE THEM ALL. This Internet distruction of the newspapers may be the best thing that has ever happened to journalism. It will force a new and smarter business model. Witness the 2008 winner of the Knight News Challenge: New Journalism funding model. Community funding for news they actually want to read! Knight News Challenge 2008 winner. http://bit.ly/D3sKN 

Why am I on a rampage this morning. Open the sports section of the WP. Check out the MLB standings. See the little “x” next to the Orioles. That “x” means: “We don’t give a damn about our readers.” (Forget that its the end of the season and they are in last place. This has happened all season.)

WHY…the “x” means there was a late game and presumably too late to update the standings. Okay…I get it. Physical papers have to be put to bed so they can be printed and delivered to our door step by the time coffee is brewing.

SO THEN TELL ME WHY THEY HAVE A STORY ON THE PREVIOUS PAGE THAT IS ABOUT THAT LATE NIGHT GAME. The story even has the new won-lost tally. So if it could be in an edited story, why in the hell couldn’t a table be updated at the same time. The answer is they don’t care about their readers.

If they were run like a business and one that had to actually compete, the person responsible for the sports section would be summarily fired. How can you have an article on one page about how the Orioles dodged the 100 loss season milestone and have the “I don’t care” X on the standings page?

Well wake up Post. You have to compete. You have to want readers. You have to respect readers. Show it by delivering what the readers want.

BTW…good move teaming up with Bloomberg for business news. Hopefully, you’ll put what resources you have left over to cover local business instead of cutting. We’ll see.

Disruptive technologies is nothing new.

Every industry has had to deal with technology disruption. Sometimes its even regulation that disrupts an industry, but it’s not new. In 1896 Congress passed the “Rural Free Delivery Act of 1896″. This ensured that all mail would get delivered even to remote areas. Equate this with regulation requiring telcos to serve the mid-west where homes are miles from each other. It would have been more cost effective to abandon those markets and just serve the high density cities.

Anyway, Sears-Roebuck the year before put out their 532 page mail-order catalog. Imagine how this disintermediated the general store. The customers got wider and newer selections, delivered to their door at competitive prices including delivery. Was there a government bail out for local stores? Did local stores go out of business? Did they have to change…probably. Service and fairer margins and providing credit were probably their value-adds.

My point is, it is no different today. Capitalism rewards change…change that the purchaser wants…not those that whine the most. So journalists…stop whinning, stop riding the broken tangible newspaper model and find a business model that delivers what your readers want.

Better, faster and cheaper communication is better. Distribution is free and your potential audience is world-wide…perfect for your mission. Never has journalism been positioned so well to deliver value.

Newspapers as delivery vehicle for journalists is dead.

It’s done, it’s over…distribution of commoditized content on paper by a paperboy is dead. Journalists need to focus on new B2B distribution models to reach the consumer…which btw will be exclusively electronic in 10 years or so. B2B distribution models not anti-consumer DRM or news consortiums so the news corps can continue their previously enjoyed monopolies. www.tinyurl.com/cwt-ecextra for more on this diatribe.
(originally posted July 09 on cwterry.wordpress.com

Perfect environment to start an enewspaper

RT @tdefren Mainstream Media Relations: More Important Than Ever http://bit.ly/hhTGc  

What you describe is an environment ripe for creating an all new news organization (Like USA Today did…an instant national newspaper using the new then satellite technology).

Consider: free distribution (no trucks), world-wide audience, zero incremental cost per reader (no paper or ink costs), the next generation of readers are exclusively dedicated to the medium (to hell with the old farts who still want stock prices in 5pt), extend your voice with hyper-distribution of stories, near-zero cost of creating community (by supporting volumes of feedback), end-user controlled customization of layout and content, real-time updates (no press deadlines) AND actual proof that ads placed get read and reacted to…

WOW, there must be a journalism pony in there somewhere! It’s the perfect storm for journalism: infinite audience and zero cost of reaching them.

What’s missing? Credibility, editorial oversite and the guts to start a world-wide e-paper. While the papers are whining about Craigs list, they’ll also watch someone come in add wipeout the remaining franchise they have.