The New Reality of Web Versus Broadcast
Back in September of 2005 as I was preparing for New Realities - a project to engage all of public radio in thinking about and hopefully reacting to the future - I put together this slide as a vehicle for discussion.
Landscape2 The assumption was that by 2008/09, the web would be the first place where people would get the news and content that they wanted.
The question for all was how was NPR and the system to respond?
How were they to bridge the gap without killing the existing business?
Today I read on Terry Heaton's Blog that assumption #1 is now a reality.
This week’s stunning Pew Research report “Internet Overtakes Newspapers as News Source” is a wake-up call for the broadcast industry.
The Pew Research Center for the Public and the Press has been tracking media usage since the turn of the century, and for the first time ever, the Internet has surpassed newspapers as the main source of national and international news for people overall, but the big story, in my opinion, is what’s happening with young people.
According to Pew, as many people aged 18-29 cite the Internet as their main source of news as they do television. This is the canary in the coal mine for broadcasters, who, like newspapers, have been struggling with an aging mass audience for years. No longer is it a guess that the Web is the future for news and information (although it never really was a guess, the handwriting being obvious for over a decade).
television and the Web tie among young peopleNearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (59%) say they get most of their national and international news online; an identical percentage cites television. In September 2007, twice as many young people said they relied mostly on television for news than mentioned the internet (68% vs. 34%).
Figure
The percentage of people younger than 30 citing television as a main news source has declined from 68% in September 2007 to 59% currently.
In my report to the system at the end of New Realities - I urged the leadership of the system to get together and to work to answer the question of how to cope with this as a system.
It is 3 years later and no such meeting has taken place and I know of no generally accepted thinking that has dealt with this THE QUESTION.
How hard can it be to have such a meeting?
I fear that if all parties just die a little everyday - alone - all will fall.
I will wont list the cutbacks already in train - they are many and they are only the start. With State budgets in extremis and New York and California looking as if they may not make it through 2009 - there is no time to waste.
I am only one person, a low life consultant in Canada for goodness sakes? Who that has a real role in the system will step up outside their own station or organization and call the meeting?
Anyone? Anyone? Anyone
Landscape2 The assumption was that by 2008/09, the web would be the first place where people would get the news and content that they wanted.
The question for all was how was NPR and the system to respond?
How were they to bridge the gap without killing the existing business?
Today I read on Terry Heaton's Blog that assumption #1 is now a reality.
This week’s stunning Pew Research report “Internet Overtakes Newspapers as News Source” is a wake-up call for the broadcast industry.
The Pew Research Center for the Public and the Press has been tracking media usage since the turn of the century, and for the first time ever, the Internet has surpassed newspapers as the main source of national and international news for people overall, but the big story, in my opinion, is what’s happening with young people.
According to Pew, as many people aged 18-29 cite the Internet as their main source of news as they do television. This is the canary in the coal mine for broadcasters, who, like newspapers, have been struggling with an aging mass audience for years. No longer is it a guess that the Web is the future for news and information (although it never really was a guess, the handwriting being obvious for over a decade).
television and the Web tie among young peopleNearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (59%) say they get most of their national and international news online; an identical percentage cites television. In September 2007, twice as many young people said they relied mostly on television for news than mentioned the internet (68% vs. 34%).
Figure
The percentage of people younger than 30 citing television as a main news source has declined from 68% in September 2007 to 59% currently.
In my report to the system at the end of New Realities - I urged the leadership of the system to get together and to work to answer the question of how to cope with this as a system.
It is 3 years later and no such meeting has taken place and I know of no generally accepted thinking that has dealt with this THE QUESTION.
How hard can it be to have such a meeting?
I fear that if all parties just die a little everyday - alone - all will fall.
I will wont list the cutbacks already in train - they are many and they are only the start. With State budgets in extremis and New York and California looking as if they may not make it through 2009 - there is no time to waste.
I am only one person, a low life consultant in Canada for goodness sakes? Who that has a real role in the system will step up outside their own station or organization and call the meeting?
Anyone? Anyone? Anyone
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Randy Kinkel on -
maybe I'm not understanding your point, but I'm not seeing the urgency here. there are many, many stations that already have websites and put content stories, audio, links, pics, even video on them.
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Permalink Reply by Rob Paterson on -
Randy - it's not about websites or links
It is about having a new system for pub media that has as its main focus the web and a new kind of relationship with the audience and with each other
The web is not an add it - it is central
A business model has to be built to reflect that
The audience relationship has to grow out from "you can only get good content with us? To "only with us can we make a difference in our community" and "That You Are US"
The stations and the producers have to have a network relationship with each other where they can be autonomous but also share key resources with each other
None of these points are even close
Randy the urgency is that without a new model - we will all be in the same position that the newspapers are in now. With no real progress by the end of 2009 it will be too late
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Permalink Reply by Randy Kinkel on
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OK, that helps me a little bit. but,, aren't "they" already "Us" in the sense that we are already a part of their lives and provide value to them, and they support us through donations?
"only with us can we make a difference in our community"
not sure what this means.
can you give a concrete example?
Thanks!
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Permalink Reply by Rob Paterson on
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When they are US it will be when they actively use your power and voice to help each other - when you give your megaphone to them. When you help communities organize themselves to help each other:
- Give their leadership a voice
- Physically meet and connect with the people
- Tell their stories
- Give them a place to tell their own stories
- Provide the insight/context to unlock problems
You sort of do this - but it is not your focus and it is not who you are - this has to become central to what you do
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Permalink Reply by Randy Kinkel on
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Playing Devil's Advocate:
Give their leadership a voice
Don't most already do this through local shows, segments
Physically meet and connect with the people
we do this through events
- Tell their stories
we do this through local news and features... also, we have a magazine that tells stories of and about listeners. it's great!
- Give them a place to tell their own stories
you mean like a message board on the website?
- Provide the insight/context to unlock problems
already do this through news stories and features with links to resources on the website?
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Permalink Reply by Rob Paterson on
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Then you are just fine Randy
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Permalink Reply by Randy Kinkel on
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My point is most stations already do most if not all these things, some more, some less. your point is we all need to do these things more often and more effectively and have it be a larger part of our mission and resources?
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Permalink Reply by Rob Paterson on
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Yes Randy - that this become the central work of the stations the system - I think of it as the Beacon that may guide America home.
Many feel that I have an apocalyptic view of what is unfolding and hope I am wrong. I don't think I am.
I think that we cannot and will not "be saved" by the top or the centre. Only we can help each other.
I believe that the only institution that has the trust and the tools to do that is Pub Media - broadly defined as the entire system plus all those who be part of it.
You are right - it's not the detail - it's not the good steps already taken - it is a decision to make this THE focus.
It demands a plan and it needs the system to call upon all of us out there who can help and who wish to help to join - call it a crusade
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Permalink Reply by Imre Fitos on -
I would like to point out that “Internet Overtakes Newspapers as News Source” is somewhat misleading.
Internet, print, TV and radio are media, not the content. If people read the NY Times on the net, it's still the NY Times.
Public Radio can still be Public even if the delivery method changes.
The constraints and advantages of terrestrial radio define us. We are geared to create one single stream of very high quality programming, and this does not translate well to the Internet.
Our core mission is still as important as before, but our listeners are voting for the Internet, and Internet-style delivery mechanisms (browsing, grazing, lots of choices, related content) instead of the current radio model.
But changing public radio into "public internet" is akin to rebuilding a bus into a boat - while it's driving 55mph. People know they need to do it, but everyone is afraid of maiming themselves and their people in the process.
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