Media Future

„The fox in the henhouse” – Rupert Murdoch in Time Magazine:

„You’ve really got to worry,” he says. „Tribune Co.’s revenues [in May] dropped 11% across broadcasting and newspapers. That’s huge. The Times dropped 8.5%. Half of men under 30 aren’t reading print newspapers, and there’s no sign that they come back as they age.”
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How does he respond to this bleak picture? By musing about investing even more in newspapers. „What if, at the Journal, we spent $100 million a year hiring all the best business journalists in the world? Say 200 of them. And spent some money on establishing the brand but went global–a great, great newspaper with big, iconic names, outstanding writers, reporters, experts. And then you make it free, online only. No printing plants, no paper, no trucks. How long would it take for the advertising to come? It would be successful, it would work and you’d make … a little bit of money. Then again, the Journal and the Times make very little money now.”

IMHO plausible, if you have the money to build it up. And there is InfoWorld:

As of April 2, 2007, InfoWorld is discontinuing its print component. No more printing on dead trees, no more glossy covers, no more supporting the US Post Office in its rush to get thousands of inky copies on subscribers’ desks by Monday morning (or thereabouts).

And Europe/Austria? Still nothing. If you are not writing for a print publication, an established press agency or the online-branch of a print-newspaper, you are still a second class journalist. Online-Ads? Yeah, forget it, if you do not operate one of the general news portals.

All I hear are bloggers, blog-consultants and new media experts talking about how important Web 2.0/Blogs/Wikis/… are for companies (and therefore generating revenue for these conslutants) and others saying that there are „opportunities” that have to be seized.

I do not see them. I see no point in locally emulating something allready established elsewhere. I do not see a (advertising) market in Austria – I do not know someone who can live of Google Adwords in Austria. Right now it is therefore not possible to establish a commercially successful online-only publication in Austria without cross-financing it.

So, is there someone out there that can proof me wrong?

Tagged as: direction, future, media, mITtendrin, murdoch, plam, press | Author: Martin Leyrer
[Dienstag, 20070710, 22:29 | permanent link | 0 Kommentar(e)