As industries and communication channels like cable, the Internet, XM radio and even book publishing migrate toward an on-demand, highly targeted model, the future of news media depends on leveraging new trends and opportunities and harnessing new technologies. And today, advanced digital printing technology makes the vision of creating totally variable newspapers a practical reality.
So opens the website promoting the Second Annual Conference on the Individuated Newspaper. The conference was held two weeks ago. The program looks like it would have been fantastic, all about the newspaper of the future. Read what Vin Crosbie had to say at his Digital Deliverance blog about his contribution to the conference – you can read his keynote speech.
Newsagents need to be across the changes around distribution of news. Not to add to our fear but to show us opportunities which we can leverage.
Mark:
Thanks for the kind words.
One thing that’s amazed me about how the newspaper industry is wrestling with change is that few , if any, of the newspaper trade associations — either the global ones or most nationals — are really addressing the role of newsagents in these changing times. I’ve read about PANPA doing a little work in this area, but WAN, Ifra, NAA, and others haven’t really included the news agent business into their formula for success in the 21st Century.
Perhaps in countries where only a fraction of newspaper circulation is generated by news agents (such as the U.S. where it’s only 15% of circ.) this disregard might not be a major mistake. But in most of the world’s countries this gap in thinking could ruin the newspaper industry.
My speech in Denver was aimed at the U.S. and Canadian markets. It’s obviously easier to customized (‘individuated’) editions when the publisher is delivering that edition directly to the reader and knows that reader’s identity. However, customization of editions in other markets must include the newsagents in the process.
Cheers,
Vin