Nokia, the Finnish broadcasting company and others have commenced a mobile TV pilot project in Finland. This goes beyond the clips currently available on mobiles. While this project is about testing the mobile technology and consumer use patterns, once completed it will go live internationally. This will drive more rapid mobile technology change and this will, in turn, increase options for publishers.
The line between broadcast media outlets and print outlets will become further blurred as both will use the new consumer access channel. We’re already seeing it now with newspapers podcasting and providing video news services online to augment print coverage of news. (While uptake in Australia has been slow, once one newspaper podcasts others will follow quickly. While newspapers are writing stories about podcasting they are more about the implications for radio. They have not got it yet.)
The existing news and information supply chain needs to have its own strategies for this new world. It needs to support development of content which will use the existing supply chain. We, each of us, ought to be playing in the space to connect with the consumers; we ought to be seeking out content development opportunities; we ought to develop the local connect (like we are doing in my own newsagency with the local news site); we ought to uncover other content we are not currently providing access to and add that to our retail/ distribution mix; we ought to DO SOMETHING.
The inaction on the impact of mobile technology in the news and information supply chain (newsagencies mainly) is at best an economic slump and at worst an economic catastrophe waiting to happen. How we react will be a case study for business schools in decades to come. Currently, the head in the sand approach dooms the channel to failure. Sure the big impact of change is years off, that’s we need to start today. We are already challenged in consumer minds.