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.

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.