Collapse Of Newspapers, Why It’s Embrace Social Media Or Die
Can the newspaper industry survive? The recent Philanthropy Social Good podcast asks this very question. Jessica Clark, the director of the Future of Public Media Project addresses the current struggle the industry is facing and discusses the tough choices ahead:
- How often should they distribute on paper?
- How do they distinguish print from their online version?
- How can they better serve niche markets in their communities?
The rise of citizen journalism has really challenged large news organizations as the primary source of news. Social media and blogs has allowed individuals to rise as experts in a field. For example, I would much rather turn to Chris Brogan for current business trends in social media than I would to the NY Times. In fact, the video Epic 2014 which gave a glimpse into the future of media predicting the NY Times will eventually go offline due to citizen journalism. Although the video was released back in 2004, it’s still a scary prediction of the future.
Newspapers are also being challenged in the consumption of news. Not so long ago, the newspaper was the only source for the daily news. Now this information is being consumed over an increasing number of formats and devices; RSS feed, mobile phones, Kindle.
With challenge comes opportunity, as Jessica points out “rather than coming up for mandates for old models, what we need are convergent solutions that reflect convergent media.” The newspapers that survive this storm are the ones able to adapt and re-invent themselves.
Checkout Philanthropy Social Good, an excellent podcast exploring ways new media and mobile technologies can be effectively used for social good.