Paper loving fools forecasting for new media.
It never ceases to amaze me that individuals and I mean single individuals with only their life experiences and perspectives continue to believe that newspapers and magazines can continue as a viable business model on paper. It kills trees, adds pollutants to the environment and the audience for paper is dying off, one person at a time.
Then they will have no one left. The newspapers will never be able to compete with their infrastructure costs AND continuing to base their business models on what is free and thriving on the Internet…think Craigs List. Which would you rather do, squint down a page of micro-print searching a list of ads that no longer has the full inventory of choices of what you are looking for OR go to Craig’s List and do a search and exchange a private email.
- Wasting trees advertising for paper-based classified.
Yes, I like to read the paper paper in the morning. But I didn’t grow up with smart phones with more memory and storage capacity than an IBM 360. The iPad will do to content distribution what iTunes did to records and CDs. Not today, not tomorrow, but if you were running a publishing business…you’d at least want to try to serve the growing market not just a shrinking one.
Market leaders often have developed huge overheads in their path to greatness…then the overhead becomes an anchor as new technologies come and supplant the old. Every industry has dealt with it. Autos, camera/film, transportation, communication.
Aim for where the market is going to be or begin working on your exit-game.
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