Jeff Jarvis has written a seminal blog entry about the future of newspapers. It’s a challenging read for anyone earning an income newspaper and magazine publishing and or distribution.
Jarvis quotes Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger, talking about new presses they have just purchased: “They may be the last presses we ever own.†From there he talks about key media companies around the world and quotes their leaders as they talk about their move online. Part way through the piece he makes this observation: I’ll say it again: Distribution is not king. Content is not king. Conversation is the kingdom. It’s about relationships. He illustrates the point with Rupert Murdoch’s purchase of MySpace. MySpace is about relationships – as the Business Week cover story this week points out. So News is more of a relationship company than a publisher. It’s through being the medium in supporting relationships that the revenue model News has is supported.
Before our eyes, media companies like News, the Guardian, Random House and others are reinventing themselves while newsagents remain dormant and even oblivious to the challenges ahead.
Newsagents need to re-invigorate and re-invent if they are to have a future. That starts with a deeper community connect. The Internet can never replace human contact. We need to find good margin product and cost effective consumer traffic which fits with what we are known for. And we need to do this yesterday. And we need to have as short a distance possible between our stores and the manufacturing point for product. Middlemen cost us too much.
It is unfortunate that Australia’s newsagent associations have been silent about the approaching tsunami brought on by the media disruption of the Internet, mobile devices, citizen journalism and social software. It’s not too late for them and others to provide Australia’s 4,600 small business newsagents with leadership.
Jeff Jarvis makes sense in his blog entry. Unfortunately too few here in Australia will read it and even fewer will discuss it in the context of our unique channel.
Disclosure: I am a shareholder in newsXpress which is building a strategy for its member newsagents in navigating the changes.