WHAT THE ECONOMIST REALLY SAID
INNOVATION had some internal discussion about The Economist cover story, and I got this comment from Carlo Campos (one of our directors and senior consultants, CEO of LATINO, the leading free paper for the Latin American community in Spain, with regionasl editions in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia), that deserves to be shared with you:
"I read The Economist article and think that the only problemwith it is the title which, understandably, is more sensationalistic than accurate.
I believe that what the article says is that the current BUSINESS MODEL of the newspaper is dead, as opposed to newspapers as acredible source of news, information, opinion, entertainment etc (which is something they actually also question in the editorial).
I don´t agree that the current business model for newspapers (paper platform, cover price and advertising) is dead yet, but it is certainly showing some signs of having passed maturity.
As such, I couldn´t agreemore with what INNOVATION in general reccomends:
- Improve your ways of delivering the current business model to satisfy both your clients (readers and advertisers)
- Use what you have to start a multimedia turbine and get all those people who never buy paper without forgetting those that have never been on the internet
- Experiment with new business models (and editorial models) for the newspapers.
My obvious example is free newspapers which are quickly becoming an important business world wide.
I would like to add that something that is mentioned in the article and that Karen from Arizona said at the WAN (and that we in INNOVATION also comment frequently but perhaps not enough) is quite important nowadays -newspapers should forget about "café para todos" and segment their readers properly, offering different products via different platforms for each appropriate reader segment.
And each one of them with perhaps adifferent business model as well.
In sum, I think (and I belive that is the main message from TheEconomist) that what is dying is not the Newspaper, but rather Newspaper Editorial Companies, which refuse to adapt to a new competitive environment and innovate.
And that is a message that is very favourable to INNOVATION and the work we do."
Carlo is right.
My feeling is that many people have not read The Economist pieces.
But, yes, this is the real meaning of a quite sensationalistic cover.
"I read The Economist article and think that the only problemwith it is the title which, understandably, is more sensationalistic than accurate.
I believe that what the article says is that the current BUSINESS MODEL of the newspaper is dead, as opposed to newspapers as acredible source of news, information, opinion, entertainment etc (which is something they actually also question in the editorial).
I don´t agree that the current business model for newspapers (paper platform, cover price and advertising) is dead yet, but it is certainly showing some signs of having passed maturity.
As such, I couldn´t agreemore with what INNOVATION in general reccomends:
- Improve your ways of delivering the current business model to satisfy both your clients (readers and advertisers)
- Use what you have to start a multimedia turbine and get all those people who never buy paper without forgetting those that have never been on the internet
- Experiment with new business models (and editorial models) for the newspapers.
My obvious example is free newspapers which are quickly becoming an important business world wide.
I would like to add that something that is mentioned in the article and that Karen from Arizona said at the WAN (and that we in INNOVATION also comment frequently but perhaps not enough) is quite important nowadays -newspapers should forget about "café para todos" and segment their readers properly, offering different products via different platforms for each appropriate reader segment.
And each one of them with perhaps adifferent business model as well.
In sum, I think (and I belive that is the main message from TheEconomist) that what is dying is not the Newspaper, but rather Newspaper Editorial Companies, which refuse to adapt to a new competitive environment and innovate.
And that is a message that is very favourable to INNOVATION and the work we do."
Carlo is right.
My feeling is that many people have not read The Economist pieces.
But, yes, this is the real meaning of a quite sensationalistic cover.
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