Most of what my colleagues and I write about in this space back in some way to the tsunami-scale scale changes overtaking the legacy media and the absence of a roadmap for what they should do. We can only track what seems to work for others, try to prognosticate the future (iffy beyond, say, six months), observe forces and trends at work, cajole and suggest.
There is, in short, much uncertainty surrounding where the business models for media are and should be headed.
One area that legacy media can control and should know something about is content. Newspapers, broadcasters, publishers of all stripes, have absolute control over their content. Newspaper publishers constantly need to ask themselves “What do consumers want when they subscribe or take $.50 (or $1.00) out of their purses/pockets to buy the publication. Broadcasters certainly ask, ‘Why should viewers tune us in?”
But I’m constantly amazed at their lack of insight and therefore the choices they make. And here I’m referring in particular to the broadly defined “news” segment of the media. Research shows that there has been a range of motivations that are involved in getting individuals to buy a newspaper or tune in a news program—or click to a Web site bookmark. One of the top motivating factors is the interest in learning what we do not know. What happened in the world while I slept? Who won the game last night? What is the weather forecast for tomorrow? What did my stocks close at? What does some “expert” think about a new movie or show? Surprise me!
What we don’t need the news media for is to be told what we already know. The Internet has, of course, made it possible for more people to know more of the answers to the above types of questions before they are available in print or even on a regularly scheduled broadcast. Still, there are many things we know even without the Internet. For example, most of use know if it is hot outside. Or wet or windy or cold. We look out the window or open the door. Anyone who drives a car knows the price of gasoline. Anyone who flies knows the airports are crowded and lines at Thanksgiving are long.
So where am I going with this rant? I’m astounded—and hopefully some of you are as well—at how the editors of news media shoot themselves in the foot everyday with the non-compelling nature of their many of their content decisions. For example, most days I turn on “American Morning” on CNN, even before the computer is fired up. And what do I hear, at length, each day lately? A business reporter, Ali Velchi, telling us the price of gasoline. “Pain at the pump” is the not so original refrain. And the usual “B” roll of someone filling up, with the obligatory quote from the woman in the street who is driving less and someone who will give up their “gas guzzler.” And the anchors commiserating over the latest record. And a reiteration of where Lundburg or AAA thinks the price is going in the “peak driving season.” Compelling stuff, no? Maybe the “Today Show” isn’t so lame.
Not long ago I was asked by a small chain of newspapers to spend a few days with their editors in a session to help them understand and strategize for the challenges facing them. They sent me a large stack of their newspapers so I could get a flavor for them. In the sample were issues from several of the papers with a variation of the headline “It’s Hot Out There.” Immediately I created in my head what this would say. By the third paragraph it would quote some gardener about the heat and how he is coping with it. And sure enough, in the first article I read I was both pleased and disappointed with the copy. There, in the third graph, was a quote from Pedro something, with the Generic Landscape Co. “Yeah, it’s hot. So we start really early and quit by two o’clock,” he explained. I mentally patted myself on the back. But there was more disappointment that the article was so very predictable.
However, the larger point is that, with both CNN and these newspapers (and many others that could be included) that these prominent “stories” were not about news. They were what anyone knew.
In this space I have recently been critical of The Wall Street Journal for a new editorial approach that has often reduced prominence of analysis and surprise in favor of featuring in many cases material that most readers would already know: A who-what-where-when accounting of an earthquake. A routine summary of the previous night’s primary results (and, with its early deadline, less timely that what was in the local newspaper). It is telling readers what many, if not most, could be expected to learn from other media they are likely to have seen.
The legacy “news” media cannot materially change the trend toward whatever is coming via technology. But they can slow their demise by concentrating on the content of their products. And they can enhance the position of their digital products as well by providing audiences with the serendipity factor and with a value added quality that is needed to have users buying, tuning or clicking to their products. That has been the not-so-secret sauce behind the strength of The New York Times, USA Today, Fox News and, until recently, The Wall Street Journal. Give people what they don’t know, not the current weather or yesterday’s price of a gallon of petrol.
There is, in short, much uncertainty surrounding where the business models for media are and should be headed.
One area that legacy media can control and should know something about is content. Newspapers, broadcasters, publishers of all stripes, have absolute control over their content. Newspaper publishers constantly need to ask themselves “What do consumers want when they subscribe or take $.50 (or $1.00) out of their purses/pockets to buy the publication. Broadcasters certainly ask, ‘Why should viewers tune us in?”
But I’m constantly amazed at their lack of insight and therefore the choices they make. And here I’m referring in particular to the broadly defined “news” segment of the media. Research shows that there has been a range of motivations that are involved in getting individuals to buy a newspaper or tune in a news program—or click to a Web site bookmark. One of the top motivating factors is the interest in learning what we do not know. What happened in the world while I slept? Who won the game last night? What is the weather forecast for tomorrow? What did my stocks close at? What does some “expert” think about a new movie or show? Surprise me!
What we don’t need the news media for is to be told what we already know. The Internet has, of course, made it possible for more people to know more of the answers to the above types of questions before they are available in print or even on a regularly scheduled broadcast. Still, there are many things we know even without the Internet. For example, most of use know if it is hot outside. Or wet or windy or cold. We look out the window or open the door. Anyone who drives a car knows the price of gasoline. Anyone who flies knows the airports are crowded and lines at Thanksgiving are long.
So where am I going with this rant? I’m astounded—and hopefully some of you are as well—at how the editors of news media shoot themselves in the foot everyday with the non-compelling nature of their many of their content decisions. For example, most days I turn on “American Morning” on CNN, even before the computer is fired up. And what do I hear, at length, each day lately? A business reporter, Ali Velchi, telling us the price of gasoline. “Pain at the pump” is the not so original refrain. And the usual “B” roll of someone filling up, with the obligatory quote from the woman in the street who is driving less and someone who will give up their “gas guzzler.” And the anchors commiserating over the latest record. And a reiteration of where Lundburg or AAA thinks the price is going in the “peak driving season.” Compelling stuff, no? Maybe the “Today Show” isn’t so lame.
Not long ago I was asked by a small chain of newspapers to spend a few days with their editors in a session to help them understand and strategize for the challenges facing them. They sent me a large stack of their newspapers so I could get a flavor for them. In the sample were issues from several of the papers with a variation of the headline “It’s Hot Out There.” Immediately I created in my head what this would say. By the third paragraph it would quote some gardener about the heat and how he is coping with it. And sure enough, in the first article I read I was both pleased and disappointed with the copy. There, in the third graph, was a quote from Pedro something, with the Generic Landscape Co. “Yeah, it’s hot. So we start really early and quit by two o’clock,” he explained. I mentally patted myself on the back. But there was more disappointment that the article was so very predictable.
However, the larger point is that, with both CNN and these newspapers (and many others that could be included) that these prominent “stories” were not about news. They were what anyone knew.
In this space I have recently been critical of The Wall Street Journal for a new editorial approach that has often reduced prominence of analysis and surprise in favor of featuring in many cases material that most readers would already know: A who-what-where-when accounting of an earthquake. A routine summary of the previous night’s primary results (and, with its early deadline, less timely that what was in the local newspaper). It is telling readers what many, if not most, could be expected to learn from other media they are likely to have seen.
The legacy “news” media cannot materially change the trend toward whatever is coming via technology. But they can slow their demise by concentrating on the content of their products. And they can enhance the position of their digital products as well by providing audiences with the serendipity factor and with a value added quality that is needed to have users buying, tuning or clicking to their products. That has been the not-so-secret sauce behind the strength of The New York Times, USA Today, Fox News and, until recently, The Wall Street Journal. Give people what they don’t know, not the current weather or yesterday’s price of a gallon of petrol.
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