As newspapers struggle to figure out the future of the industry, there will be some good ideas and some bad ones. This is the time for everyone to innovate and be bold. Everyone should be trying new ideas. But this idea, even on the surface, seems a bit still-born.
The MediaNews Group, which operates the fourth-largest newspaper chain in the country and owns the Los Angeles Daily News and The Denver Post, has announced that it will test a new media-delivery system that includes placing a specialized printer in the homes of its subscribers.
The printer would reportedly allow users to format the news to be printed it out or sent to another device such as a mobile phone or computer.
“You’ll be able to choose the news you want about anything, whether you’re a Detroit Red Wings fan or if you’re green-oriented,” said Mark Winkler, executive vice president of sales and marketing for MediaNews Group. “You become your own editor and publisher.”
The company trademarked the term “Individuated News” or I-News for a new media-delivery system that will be tested this summer in Los Angeles.
As you can imagine, the announcement has been greeted by ridicule and snickers. The Neiman Journalism Lab mentions the efforts by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and its radio station to delivery the newspaper by facsimile to subscribers in 1939.
Commenting on the Neiman Journalism Lab story, Stephen Keating, who says he is working on the MediaNews project, makes a few points:
- The totality of this service, both in technology and content, is not yet public and will anyway evolve over time. So comparing it to something from 1939, while cute, is not as meaningful as imagining what it may be by 2019.
- The operative concept in I-News is choice. The demand by individuals for choice in media drives innovation and new business models. File-sharing music sites innovated and iTunes made the market. Blockbuster built a video store franchise and NetFlix brought the video store home. Starting with choice and figuring out how best to deliver that is the constant question.
- The critique that this “method eliminates or minimizes serendipity” overlooks the possibility that subscribers could choose a “serendipity” option.
Those of us in glass houses (newspapers) under Chapter 11 should not be throwing stones. But here are my issues with the idea:
- Is MediaNews in the hardware business, the information business or the distribution business? In this era of niches and focus, is it smart business to be so broad-based?
- Technologically speaking, this is not innovative. As reported, this plan increases the amount of hardware in a person’s home. It doesn’t leverage the peripherals most of us already own.
- This is bad environmentally. One of the issues people between the ages of 25 and 35 have with newspapers today is that they waste valuable natural resources. In this age of LCD and LED screens, is killing trees still a viable option in a business plan?
- A company called FeedJournal is already doing this.
In addition to FeedJournal, both Google and Yahoo already allow readers to customize their news and if we wanted, we could print it out. But I don’t because I’m tired of killing trees even though I’m older than the demographic. If it already exists on paper, I’ll seek it out and purchase it from a news stand.
Mr. Keating mentions some good examples of other industries adapting to give users more choice. But he misses the point. It isn’t about choice. Our choices are many today. It is about connections. Netfix connects us to videos we want to watch. Apple brought iTunes to connect us, in a more convienent manner, to the music we already want to listen to.
The future in the news industry is going to be about connecting readers to the news that interests them in an innovative, convienent way.
Related posts: