Everyone I talk to seems to think that the news media, especially the old news media, has helped push the economy off the cliff by fear mongering. In this environment of rejuvenating business models and technological media, it’s a dangerous practice.
The Wall Street Journal’s — ‘How Democracy Ruined the Bailout’ – seems to think that the combination of news media and the politics of our election added more fuel to a delicate economic crisis.
The old print media, usually the goto source for info and expertise, has become the victim of their current business model of paid subscriptions and advertising. The recession, which they may have encouraged, has caused people to stop spending on the non-essentials — newspspers and magazines. And has driven them to discover great free, online sources.
Mike Elgan has a great insight and solution. And it has a long tail. He says that local newspspers should focus on making local news global. Local papers should forget about competing with global, national, statewide news coverage which many of them still carry. Their subject is local but the audience is global. Plus they have bigger brands that they could leverage unlike bloggers who have been doing this for a while.
The New York Times may have figured that out already. Well, at least they keep trying new stuff.
