Comments on: Feeble Attempts at Survival or a New Business Model for Newspapers? http://www.digitalmindshare.net/2009/09/feeble-attempts-at-survival-or-a-new-business-model-for-newspapers/ Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:21:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Drew http://www.digitalmindshare.net/2009/09/feeble-attempts-at-survival-or-a-new-business-model-for-newspapers/comment-page-1/#comment-312 Drew Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:21:13 +0000 http://www.digitalmindshare.net/?p=373#comment-312 I was involved in newspaper and magazine Interactive when we were first beginning to provide content for free. In our defense, we had NO IDEA that we were pushing a business model that had been around for hundreds of years past such an important tipping point. Unless we can figure out how to make micro payments work, or develop wholly new and more engaging modes of advertising [see Kwei comments at end of his Spotlight], I'm just not sure there are any other options. BUT THAT IS ONLY HALF THE STORY. The other half -- which I rarely hear anyone discussing -- is that these professional newsgathering organizations are the ones generating all of the underlying content [call it 'primary source content'?] that the social media is glomming on to. I recognize the value of the social media content itself, especially for the fringier activities I engage in personally for which there is little or no mainstream media, but without that 'primary source content' to wrap around, what holds it all together? It's like rain. Water vapor hangs out in the clouds, thrilled to be floating around in the sky. And it'll float up there, forever. It's not until a little speck of carbon, called condensation nuclei and usually made up of dust or smog or whatever, enters the scene that the vapor can gang-together enough to form a drop that falls from the sky. I fear that without the 'primary source content' to form as condensation nuclei in Interactive media, we'll lose the ability to form the raindrops that really make the system work. Get ready for a long dry spell. I was involved in newspaper and magazine Interactive when we were first beginning to provide content for free. In our defense, we had NO IDEA that we were pushing a business model that had been around for hundreds of years past such an important tipping point. Unless we can figure out how to make micro payments work, or develop wholly new and more engaging modes of advertising [see Kwei comments at end of his Spotlight], I’m just not sure there are any other options.

BUT THAT IS ONLY HALF THE STORY. The other half — which I rarely hear anyone discussing — is that these professional newsgathering organizations are the ones generating all of the underlying content [call it 'primary source content'?] that the social media is glomming on to. I recognize the value of the social media content itself, especially for the fringier activities I engage in personally for which there is little or no mainstream media, but without that ‘primary source content’ to wrap around, what holds it all together?

It’s like rain. Water vapor hangs out in the clouds, thrilled to be floating around in the sky. And it’ll float up there, forever. It’s not until a little speck of carbon, called condensation nuclei and usually made up of dust or smog or whatever, enters the scene that the vapor can gang-together enough to form a drop that falls from the sky.

I fear that without the ‘primary source content’ to form as condensation nuclei in Interactive media, we’ll lose the ability to form the raindrops that really make the system work.

Get ready for a long dry spell.

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