“Societies or companies that expect a glorious past to shield them from the forces of change driven by advancing technology will fail and fall.
That applies as much to my own, the media industry, as to every other business on the planet. Power is moving away from the old elite in our industry — the editors, the chief executives and, let’s face it, the proprietors.
A new generation of media consumers has risen demanding content delivered when they want it, how they want it, and very much as they want it.”
Rupert Murdoch delivered the 2006 Livery Lecture two days ago at the Worshipful Company of Stationers And Newspaper Makers, a City of London livery company. The full speech is here at Times Online. This speech will be as quoted as his speech on April 13 last year to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. It is a well crafted call to arms to all content creators and publishers and visionary in its outlook.
Rupert Murdoch gets it! He gets that people want content yesterday, no matter where they are. he gets it that people want the content they are interested in and not necessarily everything a publisher produces. He gets it that consumers are in control.
News Corp and the local incarnation, News Limited, gets it. While newspaper sales are strong in Australia, compared to overseas, News is evolving, ached of the wave of disruption. They are setting the agenda in many areas.
Newsagents, the distribution and retail channel established by the publishers in the 1800s need to get “it”, they (we) need to adapt or die.