Competition is really heating up in the Internet/Web world, as new players try to capture market share from “holes” left by traditional media companies no longer in business. I have read with interest many stories about newspaper companies struggling. Reports are on television, radio, and in newspapers.
As a member of a medium whose primary income source is newspaper advertising, I view some of these reports more as self-preservation than actual news. Television, cable, radio, magazines and most media companies are struggling in this economy.
Most are suffering worse than newspapers, but it is more beneficial to their industry to promote the perception of the demise of the press.
Most newspaper operations are turning profits, but the companies that own the newspapers are struggling to pay the debts acquired from buying other newspapers and hefty real estate investments. Mega profits of days past aren’t there to pay for the debt on declining revenues.
At the same time, it is interesting to watch startup companies try to fill the gaps of fallen newspapers in communities across the country.
San Diego has three Internet start-ups that are netting significant visitor and page views. There is big money backing some of these startups and manning them with people of good journalistic integrity. A Scripps sister paper in Denver Colorado recently closed its doors. Some of its misplaced employees are trying to continue strong journalistic efforts by launching their own news site. They have had to adjust their business model many times since they began and adapt to changing directions. Things just never go the way you plan them.
Locally, we’ve seen hundreds of sites launch, all trying to claim their piece of the news pie. Launched on shoe string budgets, it has been hard to overcome the dominance and dependence of consumers to rely on longtime local favorites such as the Naples Daily News, part of the Naples News Media Group.
A new company was recently launched by retired Naples resident Paul Mongerson. It is www.ourblook.com. A recent article in Gulf Coast Business Review depicted him as a person who is tired of biased and opinionated blogs and wanted to create a place where reliable information could be found. He’s hired full-time employees and has set out to create his version of what the news should be.
No one has the silver bullet for providing news coverage. The traditional model has broken and is limping along. These new forms of media all are trying to provide what they believe is needed. For the fortunate, making money isn’t the issue, providing the news service is the drive. But eventually, a free market model, based on revenue, will have to evolve in order to have a dependable and reliable news source. The free market creates honesty and reliability, or else those news media will go out of business.
There is a little to be taken from each new venture. Nearly daily, we learn of new ways to tell a story as technology improves, making production and transmission easier.
We met with a group of community members this week who are avid newsprint fans. They were adamant that the Collier Citizen not cut, but expand, distribution in their community. In addition to trying to offer them what they wanted, we pitched the many additional benefits of the Collier Citizen’s online news and the many ways that these less traditional, but rapidly growing, news sources can help them. They didn’t want to hear it.
When we are able to give them a hands-on demonstration, they will be sold and want more. Most people just don’t realize what opportunities are available to them to tell a story, sell a message, and communicate with the public. I guess the biggest challenge of our industry, right now, is our inability to demonstrate what we really can do.
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