…. will today’s dirge on “the death of newspapers as we know them” be replaced by “the death of radio as we know it,” and “the death of TV as we know it”?
Probably not so directly said – because TV and radio won’t provide as much “ink” to their financial woes as newspapers have in the last 24 months. But it is clearly reinvention time – not to mention redefinition time – for all mass media, not just newspapers.
There’s a decent case to make that TV and radio today are where newspapers were just a few years ago: fretting about the future, but believing and hoping the bottom wouldn’t drop out.
Newspapers had an extra hit to push them along: an over-the-cliff national economy, plus some investments that turned sour.
But all three – newspapers, radio and TV – face the same reality of dramatically changing reader/viewer habits. Newspapers just got a head start, but it’s a good bet many TV and radio companies will follow the same path.
Consider:
1. In smaller radio markets – below the top 50 -ad revenue fell 6.6 percent last year, but around 9 percent in larger markets. Sounds like a repeat of the minimally consoling conversations in newspaper board rooms two years ago that at least the smaller papers are doing okay.
2. With hundreds of channels in place today, and Internet distribution of content just starting to take hold in a big way, what does the future hold for local television stations? Pretty good bet that sorting this out will be as complicating, or moreso, than sorting out today’s newspaper issues.
The good news is TV and radio execs can study newspapers’ attempts to dig out, and reinvent.
But reinvention needs to get started, or it will be a very large hole – as newspaper companies can attest.
First step: think of each TV, radio and newspaper as an information and content business. Not a print or broadcast business.
And those remaining companies that view digital as a nice marketing tool or side business best review the focus, and seize the opportunity. Before others in their market do.
More later.