Newsagents wondering about what the future holds would do well to look at the program for the Digital Media Summit to be held in New York next month. Keynote speakers include Rupert Murdoch. Session topics include:
User Generated Media – The Transformative Revolution in Entertainment, News Media, Personal Communication, Search and Advertising
Publishing 2.0: How Multi-Platform Newspaper and Magazine Strategies Are Transforming the Publishing Landscape
Television 2.0: Cable, Telco, Satellite, Broadband & Mobile Redefine the Future of Entertainment and Communications
Contextual Media & Advertising: Transforming and Redefining the Relationship Between the Consumer, Advertising and Media Platforms
Advertising NEXT: Social Networks, User Generated Video, Blogs, IMs, Podcasts, Broadband and Mobile, – It’s the Breakthrough Year!
Personal Media Redefines Entertainment, Communications & News: As User Generated Video, Social Networks, Blogs and PODs Become Mass Media and Big Business
Embracing the Connected Consumer – Entertainment and Technology – From the Digital Home to the Mobile Universe
Reinventing Advertising: Broadcast vs. the New Platforms: VOD, PVR, Broadband & Mobile
As the pitch for the conference says:
Disruptive technologies are changing the face of the media and entertainment industry and Media Summit New York is the conference at the epicenter of the disruption.
Newsagents are feeling the impact of such disruption today and this is why we need to refine our model from the shop floor up. I emphasis we because this is our problem. It is our capital invested in our businesses and it is time for us to act on that investment for our future.
I am not saying get out. Rather, I am saying we need to respond to media disruption and the other changes going on around us and develop newsagencies for the future. Our future has to come from within us.
‘Our’ problem indeed. I only fear that many newsagnecies will die in years to come with the current trends in media. The challenges being faced cannot be done so alone and it is only collectivly that newsagenies can survive and prosper into the future.
We cannot let the time pass as the media world changes around us. It will unfortunatly be far too late it we decide to be reactive reather than proactive. There will of course be initial costs and burdens to the industry, but results in the future will undoubtably be worth it.
Its not the easiest road ahead for the industry. Newsagents should not look at it as a burden or a deterant, but embrace it as a new chapter for the industry and for themselves. The time to change has to be now.