Steve Outing in his Stop The Presses column at Editor and Publisher yesterday grades newspaper websites. Ahead of the article itself is this introduction:
Just about everyone — finally — is on board and working to address the big problem: How to transition a significant part of the newspaper business to online and new media while keeping enough money flowing in during the transition period to fund quality journalism, and prevent newspapers from entering a downward spiral. So how’s this going?
Newsagents need to read this and understand what is being said. Newspapers are transitioning revenue. This means newsagents must transition revenue as well.
Outing’s article rates newspaper sites and, overall, says newspaper publishers are not doing enough to drive the transition. He opens his conclusion with:
With all the hand-wringing in the industry about how to cope — and the acceptance at the corporate level that big changes are required right now to address the challenges faced by newspapers — I’m surprised in looking at today’s state of the newspaper website that the changes aren’t more dramatic.
At least newspaper publishers have started. Newsagents have not. Our shopfits continue to be the same, the supply model of newspapers and magazines is the same, our product mix is the same, the earnings multiple for purchase is the same. Newsagents are not embracing change. They are waiting for someone else to deliver the changes to them.
The biggest transition newsagents face is that of moving from being a servant to being an entrepreneur. Some have done this with excellent success. Most have not.