8 Comments to 'Help - I need somebody'
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Help - I need somebody
Posted By Sam
For those that don’t know me personally: I manage the New Media Business at the New Zealand Press Association, and about half my job is business development, the other half is online news strategy and project management.
But news for me isn’t just my job, it’s my passion, it’s my love that stretches from the 6am bulletin on National Radio, throughout the day, and on into the night. There isn’t another industry I could imagine working in; but this business I love is facing a crisis.
The internet is double damaging the integral fabric of the industry with the inability of anyone in it to even understand, let alone take steps to deal with, the impending disaster before us.
I know revenue from the royal out does NZH online by about ten to one but New Zealand is a few years behind international events; and even still, think about it: printing news articles on paper and then carting that paper to people is fucking dumb.
The music industry is gone, the movie industry is next, and news is set to follow shortly after. I wonder whether we can stop it from happening, however.
May 3rd, 2008
The news industry really needs to get back to basics. If it one of my pet hates, it’s going to NZH or stuff.co.nz and seeing news stories that are poorly written and have spelling or grammatical errors in them - all in a rush to be first to market.
Any monkey with blog can produced news or opinions. But the medium shouldn’t matter. It’s the quality of product that counts, simple as that.
I’m not sure that I agree that the news industry is gone, Sam. It is going through a tremendous upheaval and some organizations don’t seem to be adapting all that well…
As an avid consumer, I reckon that those outfits that can at least stay abreast of changing consumer habits/expectations (torrents, mobile access, RSS etc.,) will prosper. News is the most social of all commodities, you would have to be fairly clueless to f*ck up the basic business model…
Garrick thanks for commenting: The lack of quality of news content is partly the result of poor pay and on the job training journalists recieve. The media don’t need to pay very much because every year they get a full class of bright and eager short sighted students and the middle of the proffession, the heart and soul of experience, has moved into PR/Comms. Especially in this town, with the amount of money being paid by the Government to comms staff (seriously it is obscene: $120 - $160 /hr on contract for 3 - 5 years experience).
Jason thanks for commenting: You are so right about news being the most social of commodities, it is interesting to think about it like that; but my feeling is, it isn’t going to be enough to sit back and watch. We, as a business (and I include you in this industry too); need to get the basics right; and the first step there is start to agree the things that are wrong. The sad truth of it is that there are only a handful of media companies who actually understand the business model; for the rest of them it is about protecting revenue generated from killing trees, or powering broadcast antennas.
Thanks Sam. I’m a wee bit embarrassed by my earlier comment. Me taking the high ground on grammatical errors when my comment had a couple of them. I blamed tired eyes at 4am
Picking up on Jason’s point, the news industry has always gone through changes (the advent of printing press, radio, television) and I’m certain it will adapt to the information/internet age. It is full of opportunities and it’s about what makes it different from rest. Maybe less ‘reporting’ (regurgitating) and more investigating.
Why pay for a paper when I can view online content for free (and it is exactly the same as in the print edition). But I would quite happily pay for higher quality content that is more indepth and targeted to my information needs.
No problem Garrick and while I am still getting around to a policy page for pellacor editing comments is definitely allowed. Having everyone’s comments locked here for all time in the form they were first posted reeks of pen and paper… (and not so coincidentally I am working on a post on this theme).
But please feel free to email me an edit (samuelfarrow@gmail.com)
I have a few ideas on the add value to encourage people like you to pay for news content but think Jason is wrong and believe the internet is an unprecedented paradigm shift for the news media and am not convinced the news industry can survive the change. Printing presses and radio and television frequency licenses have been exploited by media companies, particularly in NZ, as single point of control monopolies to monetise mass audiences.
The internet sidesteps this single point of control, and as the mass audiences dissipates to the fracturing channels of information - advertiser dollars will shift to smarter demographic targeting and expensive news gathering operations become a dinosaur of an age of ignorance.
This risk to revenue is what I fear, and the end to the exciting and action packed environment of a newsroom.
I am going to pick up on some of these ideas soon; but the bottom line is that thinking about these kind of issues is my day job - and I would welcome any ideas you have as a comment, an email or indeed face to face.
Hey Sam. Just on that last point you made regarding the potential risk to revenue and the end of newsrooms…
While I agree that subscriptions and off-the-shelf sales of print news are going to diminish over time, probably rapidly as we draw closer to 2009/2010, I’m not sure I agree that newsrooms will suffer for this. Sure, certain companies that produce print news are going to need to embrace the web to ensure the continuity of their businesses. However, start-ups and old-hats alike ARE embracing new and varied ways of delivering their content to people, and are doing so in the way that gives people options on how they consume that content. More-and-more I see social news sites and blogs popping up, but more-and-more the content on those sites is the same no matter which site you go to. Additionally, as more sites pop up the percentage or ratio of trusted sites decreases.
The content on these social websites, blogs, and podcasts, still comes from a traditional source, be it AP, Reuters, the town radio station website, or the journalist in the field. However we now have the great addition of Joe Blogs (no pun intended) being able to take some photos of a gas leak in Lambton Quay and upload it to his blog before any newsroom or journalist even knows about it. The aggregation and social aspect of news 2.0 (to coin a phrase) only survives because the traditional newsroom environment survives. You could call it a symbiosis if you like.
There are blogs, podcasts, forums, Usenet, etc….and they provide a great way to complement, or supplement, the traditional sources of news. However without those newsrooms, stressed out journalists, cranky editors, I think there would be a lot less trusted and reliable information reaching you to help you embrace your passion.
hi pleas i need someone to produce a reall story for me i have i reall story hapend to me pleas i have dream pleas help me to do it thx
Hi Rita, I am happy to help you; but I don’t understand what you need.