An interesting article caught my eye this week concerning the sagging newspaper industry: the Hearst corporation plans to use e-readers to electronically distribute newspapers and magazines. An industry suffering from stale ideas desperately needs this type of innovative thinking. E-readers promise to increase subscriber numbers (and thereby subscription revenue) while simultaneously reducing margin-killing distribution and printing costs.
The CNN article states that media ownership is "increasingly looking to devices like e-readers to lower costs while preserving the business model that has sustained newspapers and magazines."
Hmm. "Preserving the business model" is not a viable path forward for the print industry. Newspapers currently survive on advertising dollars, and an e-reader can't change the fact that a newspaper is a blunt and inefficient advertising tool. In the long term, advertising dollars will continue to migrate to the internet where technology provides highly targeted advertising with measurable statistics. Newspapers need to find new revenue streams outside of advertising dollars to survive and I doubt that increased subscription revenue combined with lower costs can save the industry.
I'm also skeptical that print subsribers will embrace e-reader technology. E-readers offer a superior reading experience that eases eye strain, better portability when compared with laptops or even print newspapers, and instantaneous access to content via wireless network connectivity. However, the Hearst product will launch 12-18 months late to market after strong Kindle sales. Will customers want a specialized 8.5 by 11 inch e-reader just for periodicals when they may have already bought one for books?
Anyways, if Steve Jobs is right, newspapers are facing far more serious problems than declining revenue ...
The CNN article states that media ownership is "increasingly looking to devices like e-readers to lower costs while preserving the business model that has sustained newspapers and magazines."
Hmm. "Preserving the business model" is not a viable path forward for the print industry. Newspapers currently survive on advertising dollars, and an e-reader can't change the fact that a newspaper is a blunt and inefficient advertising tool. In the long term, advertising dollars will continue to migrate to the internet where technology provides highly targeted advertising with measurable statistics. Newspapers need to find new revenue streams outside of advertising dollars to survive and I doubt that increased subscription revenue combined with lower costs can save the industry.
I'm also skeptical that print subsribers will embrace e-reader technology. E-readers offer a superior reading experience that eases eye strain, better portability when compared with laptops or even print newspapers, and instantaneous access to content via wireless network connectivity. However, the Hearst product will launch 12-18 months late to market after strong Kindle sales. Will customers want a specialized 8.5 by 11 inch e-reader just for periodicals when they may have already bought one for books?
Anyways, if Steve Jobs is right, newspapers are facing far more serious problems than declining revenue ...
1 comment:
I don't think that e-readers will replace the print newspaper within the next few years but definitely in the long run. The majority of people, who are still subscribed to print papers, continue to subscribe solely because they value the tangibility. Who is this majority? I'd say it's the older generations that have lived when there was no internet or nonetheless, e-readers. However, in a decade or two when the newer generations replace them, I predict that the print industry will be gone.
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