No surprise that Greg Hywood, the latest CEO at Fairfax, said on his appointment that print media businesses must adapt to the today’s conditions. Newspaper publishers started publicly saying this, in the context of technology driven disruption, six years ago, in February 2005 in coverage in Business Week magazine.
What Hywood has said equally applies to us newsagents. We must adapt if we are going to have a future. How we adapt will depend on our local circumstances. Plenty of newsagents are doing this already. Not enough however. More need to embrace new product categories to build a healthier overall margin.
Whereas in the past our channel has relied on suppliers for leadership, we have to find this within ourselves and the local, state and national levels. Newsagents have to create their (our) own future. Individually and collectively we must adapt … or die.
Mark
How spot on! A very well writen post. Thankyou
He also said printed newspapers had a future