Alan Rusbridger also had some interesting comments about the business model Rupert Murdoch is considering for the New York Times. This ‘pay wall’ move could make his paper, The Guardian, the most read English language ‘paper’ in the world.

Here’s the video of the event:

Here’s what Brand Republic and the Telegraph thought of it.

Other sources are keeping much better track of the details of the decline. And I’m still watching the different ideas bubbling up about what the future media world might bring.

The old media business models are still in decline. Most have been participating, but are struggling, in the free web content model supported by advertising.

The ad revenue generated by the same content on the web is one tenth of what old media makes by the print version. There’s only so much ad money available, and there’s an abundance of choices for advertisers.

Some are combining advertising with subscriptions for premium members in varing doses.

And then there’s Google, who considers itself a media company, and generates lots of money from advertising.

There are those like Rupert Murdock who think there is a need for a stronger subscription model and less reliance on advertising. He doesn’t like the idea that Google has access to his news company’s content and can serve it up on their search pages with their own advertising.

And the New York Times web site is considering going behind a ‘wall’ of paid subscriptions. In an era of abundance, they’re considering scarcity.

Old media used to own the talent and the spigot to their audience and could charge a fee for access. As well as charging a fee to advertisers for access to their audience.

Now there is no more spigot. The audience is not captured nor is the talent. They have both been set free and the flood gates are open.

Besides, there’s nothing older than old news. By the time it’s printed it’s decaying.

Over the past decade, or even longer, newspapers have gradually become daily magazines. They’re not purchased, online or off, for their out-of-date news, but as a form of news entertainment.

We go to ‘newspapers,’ for opinions, analysis, and commentary. Just like magazines. They cover lifestyle, and sports, and other general fare for their readers.

Each section of the NYTimes, and other papers, is a form of weekly magazine publishing. Tuesday is for technology, Thursday is for homes & gardens, etc.

Besides, Twitter is now breaking news before journalists get it written and posted to their sites.

Paper is not dead!

This is from an interview at yesterday’s National Association of Broadcasters 2009 convention.

She also toured their HQ. Nice digs and nice guys.

Thanks Kara! Boy these lines are blurring — newspapers /video /broadcast / blogs /Twitter, etc. Old media functions with new media tools. We need some new words to describe what’s happening.

KRON in San Fransicso reported on a new idea bubbling up at the San Francisco Chronicle — reading your newspaper on your computer. Imagine such a thing!

They called it the ‘telepaper’ and didn’t think they would make money. But they also thought they ‘wouldn’t loose a lot either.’ Good reporting KRON! — who now covers news on the internet itself.

Stephan Rothman who writes the blog Steve’s Social Media Soapbox Twittered a link to this video. Thanks Steve!

It there a circle forming here?

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.

Want to know what to do in this downturn — watch this LeWeb interview of the very honest, frank, and a bit crass, Morten Lund who was just declared personally bankrupt by courts in Copenhagen. 

Mr. Lund, the ‘Rock-’n Roll’ entrepreneur, made $millions from the sale of Skype (new media) to EBay for $2.6 billion in 2005, But he says he’s not in it for the money.

Through his two venture capital firms, LundKenner, and LundXY, he currently owns 80+ startup companies all around the world. The result of his tremendous networking and self-promoting skills.

“At LundKenner we go beyond the classic venture approach. We do not believe in money as the sole purpose for success, but foremost the spirit of entrepreneurship and a vision for building great companies.”

Lund’s losses are the result of investing most of his personal wealth in Nyhedsavisen, (old media) a free Danish newspaper that shut down last August. Earlier in the year the paper had been the best-read paper in Denmark. The plan was to integrate the old media into the new with an online presence. They just didn’t make it. Their financial problems could have been affected by the falling value of the Icelandic kronur as the original partners were from Iceland. 

Lund, 36, has been an entrepreneur since the age of 19, going against his mother’s wishes to go into shipping. His blog ‘It’s all about Luck,’ expresses his values for risk taking and failure. He’s instinctive, quick on his feet and not afraid. Very unusual for a European, who usually consider failure to be shameful. Not for this Scandinavian.

“The chances are bigger now than ever . . . technology is breaking through.”

And here are some of Warren Buffett views about risk.

It was in 2004 when ‘the guys in pajamas’ brought down CBS News and Dan Rather. We were all amazed that amateurs could have this kind of media power. The monopoly of a ‘trapped audience’ was failing, as the audience started to do a better job than the professionals. And the professionals didn’t like it. 

According to Rupert Murdoch, in a recent speech, the public’s trust in the news media has pretty much evaporated and the business won’t recover until they earn it back.

“It used to be that a handful of editors could decide what was news–and what was not. They acted as sort of demigods. If they ran a story, it became news. If they ignored an event, it never happened,” Murdoch said.  – See CNET story – ”Murdoch to media: You dug yourself a huge hole.”

And there used to be fat profits in the newspaper business, but no no more,  even AP announced layoffs and the New York Times ad revenues are down 17.2%.

This is another way:

Since the profits in the news business are disappearing anyway, why not choose to not make any?

The Voice of San Diego was started, not by ‘guys in pajamas,’ but professional journalists, who have left the old media for one reason or another. It’s web-based, set up as a nonprofit, and it’s getting noticed by taking on the stories the old media didn’t cover but the public needed.

“VoiceofSanDiego grew out of a string of spectacular municipal scandals. City councilmen took bribes from a strip club owner, a mishandled pension fund drove the city to the brink of bankruptcy and city officials illegally covered up the crisis, to name a few.

A semiretired local businessman, Buzz Woolley, watched the parade of revelations, fraud charges and criminal convictions, seething with frustration. He was particularly incensed that the pension debacle had developed over several years, more or less in plain sight, but had received little news coverage.” – Read the full story in the New York Times — “Web Sites That Dig for News Rise as Watchdogs.”

Several other web-based, nonprofit, news services have started up in places like Minneapolis, Seattle and St. Louis. These kinds of organizations are often funded by wealthy benefactors or family trusts. And they will most likely benefit from the professional staff layoffs in the old media.

Go with the flow whenever you can. But watch out for those guys in their pajamas.

Such talk was inevitable given the dynamics that face the news media today. Even as they struggle to reformulate an entire profession and industry. (pdf download) One idea being passed around is that some news coverge should be formulated by ‘experts,’ not journalists, as the subject matter is becoming more complex — enter the blogger.

Why, if the press had been living up to their responsibilities in a free society, and using the powers granted to them, did they not investigate this financial debacle brewing for quite a while now? If they had merely done their job, we might not be in this crisis. They may have dug their own hole.

“There they are,” he declaimed, “those underpaid scriveners, slovenly, gin-soaked, easily corrupted, ill-clad and unkempt, malodorous and lacking either grace or charm. And yet, we who recognize the Three Estates, understand there is a Fourth Estate, the press, more powerful than all the rest.”  (Quote from James Brady, Forbes Magazine.)

Edmund Burke

“In old days men had the rack. Now they have the press. That is an improvement certainly. But still it is very bad, and wrong, and demoralising. Somebody – was it Burke? – called journalism the fourth estate. That was true at the time, no doubt. But at the present moment it really is the only estate. It has eaten up the other three. The Lords Temporal say nothing, the Lords Spiritual have nothing to say, and the House of Commons has nothing to say and says it. We are dominated by Journalism.”

The Soul of Man – Oscar Wilde

In spite of their structural and financial troubles, they have immense powers, and responsibilities. They are supposed to be our watchdogs.