Online vs newspapers

In $2B in newspaper print ads periled, Alan Mutter has an excellent post about the challenges to the print newspaper model. While the perspective and numbers are from the US, they relate to the Australian experience except that we are behind in terms of online migration and benefiting – in terms of publisher action – from this. As Mutter says:

Publishers may get away with short-changing loyal newspaper readers for a time, if they can successfully reposition their businesses, rapidly recover their profitability and use some of the new earnings to refurbish their tattered core products. Failure to do so, however, may irretreivably damage a business that once seemed so preternaturally invulnerable.

Newsagents need to read what Mutter and others have to say to be fully informed in planning for their future. By understanding the position of publishers we can better set our own direction.

Paul Gillin has written an excellent article on the consequences of what Mutter had blogged about.

My concern is that newsagents don’t get it. They don’t understand the iceberg in front of them and the impact on their business whey they hit it. Publishers do and are reacting. Newsagents, however, are expecting publishers and other old media partners to “look after” them.

This has been on my mind as I prepare my presentation for the ANF Convention next week on the Gold Coast. I’ll be talking about the Newsagency of the Future with a focus on IT best practice providing a roadmap. But more on that here another time.