E-mail this post
If you look at the innovation being tried at newspaper companies, most of it is on the editorial, content and technology sides. But according to Kyoshi Martinez, that’s not the right approach at this point in time, when newspapers’ business model is under attack and the industry is struggling. Concentrate on reinventing the ad model, he urges.
Check out his blog post, “Advertising plunge will kill newspapers — and there won’t be a bailout.” Here are some excerpts:
“The focus should no longer be about the details, but instead about the big picture: The loss of advertising dollars. This is the immediate problem journalism faces. The bread and butter revenue stream is about to hit new lows and there is no solution to replace that money right now. Forget everything else. This should be priority number one. …
“Newspapers won’t be around long enough to reinvent news, right now they need to reinvent how to make money — and here’s a hint in case you haven’t gotten it yet: advertising-only revenue streams aren’t the answer.
“If you’re looking to change the news business, then start thinking about how to find new ways to make money from content or paid services that haven’t been done before in newspapers.
“No longer does ‘building cool shit’ count as worthwhile. The focus should be on ‘building cool revenue streams.’ …
“Innovation is a great thing, but right now you’re only draining one of your newspaper’s precious resources — your time — if it’s not helping keep the company ledger out of the red ink.”
Does he have a persuasive argument? How can newspaper ad departments get the reinvention/innovation forces with their organizations focused on ad and business-model innovation projects?
Tags: innovation, revenues
RECENT COMMENTS