Transforming old-school media
| August 11th, 2009News has always been a commodity. Media organisations never sold news. They sold advertising. Classified columns. Full-pages. Half-pages.
Now, in the connected age, it is ever more true. News is a commodity and nobody wants to pay for it. Which is a problem, because to report news professionally costs money.
There is one way that a media title can transform to survive in the connected age.
Become a movement. Create a point-of-view. Follow a focus.
The rise of social media has proved again that people want to belong. They want to share. Media organisations should drop the pretence of objectivity, state their allegiance and congregate their followers. Develop and promote rockstar journalists. Sell merchandise. Convert their readers into followers. Give them a sense of tribe. Be honest about what they stand for.
Objectivity is not dead. It just never existed. Now, in order to survive, newspapers need to acknowledge that and turn it into profit.
