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I know that giving your customers what they want sounds like a novel idea. But a lot of people only think they know what their customer wants. This is why you see huge difference between companies that listen to their customers and the ones that refuse to (or at least are very very slow to). Recently the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have been cutting a lot of jobs in order to make up for the losses that they are receiving from a lack of subscriptions and advertising.
I really want to know why so many newspapers across the country are shelling out millions and millions of dollars to run AP (Associated Press) articles while continuing to watch their advertising revenue go down the drain. If one of your primary sources from news costs a lot of money to maintain and your readership is going down, something will need to change in order to stay afloat. It couldn’t possibly be that the same people reading your newspaper already read those AP stories online. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen an article in the paper that I read a day or two ago online. Wow, no wonder people are running from newspapers. They are old news.
In order to stay relevant and remarkable in a world that is instant, businesses have to change. The business of media, such as newspapers, radio and television are being flipped on their head because of the light speed of the Internet. So what can they offer that the Internet can’t? How about local news for a change? I know newspapers do report local news, but I can’t remember the last time I read about a debate outside of the Letters to the Editor section. Remember the days when reporters were more than reciters and were more objective in their reporting? God forbid if someone writes from their own opinion or stirs up some debate between two opposing groups in town. That used to be good news. It was entertaining and fun to participate in. Even if the news or facts were slanted people would talk about it even more, stirring up even more controversy. As long as the paper didn’t go to the length of offending people, they would sell lots of subscriptions. Could this be why blogging has shot to the moon while traditional media has fallen flat? I’ll let you decide that for yourself.
(Picture thanks to Get Clippings)
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I agree with your blog. As you may recall here in Ephrata Washington that the local newspaper called the Grant County Journal is wonderful because it prints local news. Its refreshing to know that Joe is home from the service, and the Smiths had a five generation family reunion. True, the news is not life changing for the most part but its also not depressing. The editorials are biting at times but you don’t feel slimed at the end of the paper and need to take a cleansing bath. Its for the news network reports that helped me pull the plug on the tv seven years ago.
I personally think people love the open information of the Internet and being able to discover things on their own. It seems that more often than not Newspapers and Television dictate what we should and shouldn’t want to know. The top three stories of the day are…. you know what I mean. Who cares about Paris Hilton when the country is sinking in debt. No wonder people are getting sick of it.