Finally got around to watching Media Watch from the ABC last night and was fascinated by how the AFL is developing a model of providing content which would usually have been produced by news outlets. While the development of iPad and similar platforms is shortening the supply chain of news and information, this move by the AFL is another thing entirely. To see the program click here. The link will stop working in 9 days BTW.
Newsagents should be fascinated by the AFL model as it is the next evolution of the news model – dramatically reducing the supply chain between content generator and news consumer.
Newsagents should be equally fascinated with what Herald Sun editor Simon Pristel has to say about the pay wall and where it is expected to sit in the News Limited model of the future.
Newsagents have survived as middle men (people) for over a hundred years. the AFL story shows how dynamic our world is.
Interest point, Mark.
Where I’d disagree is that while the AFL are trying to cut out the middleman, it’s more about evolving distribution channels.
Once upon a time to set up their own media operation, the AFL would have had to setup printing plants and buy television licenses.
Now they can do it at the fraction of the price over the web.
Those changed news and information distribution methods are the real challenge to both newspapers and newsagents.
Personally, I struggle to see how News Limited is going to entice anybody to pay for what passes as content on the HUN or Australian, but that’s just me.
And the result, if the AFL is successful is a shorter supply chain. It makes sense that they and other content originators do this.
I saw the media watch segment on the AFL handling its own news and my concern
is that the AFL handling its own “spin” would not be the same as the Sun (or any other newspaper) handling the same story
with a non-partisan approach which is the
true value of journalism, surely?
Maybe Rupert has stuffed it up so much that no-one believes his “journalism” any
more and the AFL has just stepped into the breach.
Wouldn’t it be the same if only real estate
agents were reporting on the state of
sales/auctions etc.? Would consumers be
able to trust them to report the truth or would we only hear the good bits.
Journalists should surely be appalled at this happening and as Mark would probably say – they now have a real chance of selling their wares to the consumer who should/could be worried about the truth being reported.
Maybe I’m just idealistic, but I like to hear
both sides of a story.
June, you’re spot on with this. Australian sports organisations are notorious on how they try to control their message and the AFL’s media platform will be no different.
What I think is really interesting is the rise of upstart sites like The Roar coupled with some of the instant publishing opportunities like Mark described a couple of years back.
http://www.newsagencyblog.com.au/2009/10/01/dust-storm-magazine-shows-off-innovation/
One thing is for sure, the Herald Sun and other incumbents are challenged as their model is an “all you can eat” service where I’m forced to buy business news, horseracing results and showbusiness gossip when I want to read about the footy.
That model’s dying before our eyes yet News Limited’s strategy is trying to recreate it online.
Mark, you’re right it makes the distribution chain shorter, but it’s the changing delivery methods that are the real game.
Middlemen are going to continue to exist as we see Amazon replacing bookshops and iTunes replacing record stores.
Paul
I certainly agree with your Post 1 last sentence.