I was reading an article in Time (online) about how the Plain Dealer was one of the 10 newspapers that is sure to close or go digital by the end of next year. I am not a huge fan of the daily paper. I don’t get it. Much like the local news, I find that local papers seem to misjudge what is important to me. Add to that the blogosphere and a host of other locations that allow me to find and gather the information and news that is important to me, I am not surprised to see print media suffering. Traditional ways of doing business are no longer valid in a web 2.0 world. Print media is not paid for by the subscriptions or the newsstand price. It is paid for by advertising. As fewer and fewer Americans are relying on the delivery of a printed page to their front door every morning for their news, businesses are seeing less and less reason to shell out the money for advertising in a form that is reaching less of its audience. But that doesn’t mean it is cheaper to print the paper. On the contrary, like the rest of the world’s goods paper and ink are going up in cost. It is becoming more expensive to find and retain talent. With less advertisers to pay that cost, it becomes less economically viable to print a daily paper.
While I am no advocate of the PD or any other paper closing its doors and putting more hard working people out of work, it is clear that we need to rethink the business model of print media. The blog is here to stay. Any idiot (like me) can create his own content and stream it to the world on a regular basis. The cost of broadcasting in this manner is next to nothing. I am just one guy who writes a few articles a week about Cleveland and sustainability. There are thousands right here in town. Want to know about restaurants and what is new in the food scene? There is a blog for that. What about politics? Thousands-maybe hundreds of thousands, and each has its own slant. Want to know about the economy, arts and living, local events? There are plenty of places to find these things on the web, either blogs or websites or notices. Miss that article on the Flats project? Not to worry, with the web publications, it is likely to be available for months-if not indefinitely. You can even keep up with what is going on at home when you travel. And some of these bloggers and online media outlets are making a fine living! Moreover, because many of them have specific audiences, advertisers can easily reach their target audience. If local news media wants to stay alive, it is time for a shift and a new business model. The New York times is available in print. But that may not last. You can download a subscription for much less than having a physical paper delivered. With a digital reader, you can still read it on the subway or at lunch. It is time for this kind of a change-and I am all for it.
I know very few people who read the entire paper cover to cover. There is an entire section for classified ads that goes into every paper. How many subscribers look through all those ads every day? No one is my guess. On line, you can look for just the item you want and with the rise of eBay and Craig’s List, you can see choices from around the country. That section seems to be a waste of good paper that has only a 50/50 chance of being recycled. What about the pictures. Online, you can see images that are crystal clear. You can find higher resolution photos that are suitable for framing. What do you get in the paper? Dots and pixels and many so small they are hard to even see. How much info goes into the newspaper that is of interest to you? Traditional print media requires that everything that may be of interest to anyone be evaluated for print and a decision made. Online does not have the same restrictions. You can organize and rearrange in an instant, while including more or less information as your readers demand. Online distributions also provide you with specific information about the demographics of those who are reading your content, making it easy to evaluate your effectiveness and make changes based on subscriptions.
I think it is high time that print media says good bye. I have long been an advocate of dumping direct mail and junk mailings. I believe strongly in recycling, but not everyone else does. I know of few people that have bothered to call or write because of a postcard that they received in the mail. In order to use less resources, we need to close the loop. One way is make recycling easier, but I think it is time we start thinking about putting the emphasis on reducing rather than recycling. No one will need to recycle newspapers if they are not printed in the first place. Magazines are already available on line, why bother printing copies? Why make flyers and coupons, when you can start a blog or do some more creative marketing.
Tivo and the DVR have made it easier and easier to avoid commercials, but those who are going to do well, are those who are finding more creative ways to advertise their products (like product placement). It is time for print media to reinvent itself. Rather than dying a horrible slow and painful death, the Plain Dealer should be looking at business models like Cleveland.com and its rivals. I get the headlines twittered to my desktop and can easily link to the stories that interest me. Why are we cutting down valuable forests to make paper to print papers that may or may not be read, and that likely will go into the landfill? Nearly every home has a computer and online access, time to frop the print and make the paper available in the inbox, not the paper box. The only downside is that it is harder to do the crossword.
