But what if the old media dies much more quickly? What if a hurricane comes along and obliterates the dunes entirely? Specifically, what if TheNew York Times goes out of business—like, this May?
Michael Hirschorn poses this question in an article published a couple of days ago in the Atlantic magazine. But rather than concentrating on the closure of a print operastion, Hirschorn looks at life beyond.
This is what we should be thinking about, life beyond print or at least with a significantly changed print media product mix. Newsagents give over between 25% and 50% of their retail real-estate to print. In some cases, the monthly rental for this space is upwards of $10,000. Do we have a fall-back (disaster) plan if, say, 25%, 50% or more of the revenue coming from this space disappears.
If the newspaper challenges in the US start to appear here, and some say they are already, we need a plan – just as we need a plan should our businesses be hit by any disaster.