Good day, all. After some resistance, I’ve decided to enter the blogosphere, primarily out of boredom at my current job where the new world is colliding with the old mindsets that control modern media today. It amazes me that, at a time when newspapers should be embracing the new media, they still hold the print edition as central to the process and delivery of news. Isn’t it time to wake up and realize it’s no longer the paper portion that is the core of the business’ survival, but news. And by news, we’re talking about information that is useful to readers. That goes beyond what’s happening with my village hall. It’s where I can get a pizza in my town at 2 a.m., or what is the best place to get an oil change, or what my neighbors think is the best place to take my family on a Saturday night. In the new world, a newspaper web site is also a yellow pages, information guide and community forum. I see few papers getting it, and none of them are in the Chicago area where I live.
I’m not advocating newspapers abandon print. There still is a viable market for print that, despite the doomsayers, will continue for at least another generation or two. But that market will continue to get smaller, and the powers that be need to realize that the future competition will not only be from other papers, but from libraries, yellow pages, niche publications, etc.
I’d love to hear what those not in the media think, and what you look for when you think “news.”
This Is Rich Media blog 