Bootstrapping the publishing biz (Part 2)

Filed in archive Bootstrapper News on September 28, 2006

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST

It is clear the newspaper business is living in denial.

In a Sept. 17 post, blogger and publisher Joe Wikert says he has hopes that a column in his hometown paper, The Indianapolis Star, shows at least a glimmer of recognition by traditional media that there has been a change in the landscape.

However, as a veteran of the business both full-time and part-time for 15 years now, I have attended far too many meetings on "convergence" (actually one is far too many for any intelligent human being) to believe the industry has any grasp of what it faces.

In fact, Ryerson's observations on what he calls "technoworld" (sounds like a place where you buy cheap digital cameras and audio equipment, doesn't it?) are so similar in content (and cluelessness) to things I've heard come out of colleagues' mouths, it's frightening.

Sure, "Indy Star.com, received more than 30 million page views a month" last year, and is "now getting 200,000 page views above last year's daily level".

Now compare that with the stats of a columnist and lone news portal proprietor like Matt Drudge whose website last year drew a reported 3,542,326,255. And though this site is fairly new, it is my understanding that a successful blog can easily draw many more visitors a day than my current newspaper's regular readership.

That's one person working in the living room on a relatively inexpensive PC that can probably also be used to balance the household books and download free computer games for the kids.

And we haven't even mentioned POD (print-on-demand) technology yet. It won't be long until outfits like this will be offering to print single on-demand copies not only for traditional newspapers but for anyone who can format a PDF file.

What does that mean? The frustrated copy editor across the room who would have started her own paper 10 years ago if she could have found someone to loan her $100 grand is now your competition. And all she needs is a lap top and a digital camera.

The thing that newspapers really don't understand is that they are on the frontier of a seismic shift in free trade economies.

It is a change in emphasis from capital--the ownership of stuff like printing plants and delivery trucks--to capabilities--the skills to coble together a product people will pay for from available, cheap and sometimes free technology.

It is a subtly the bootstrapper understands well, but it may well be the death knell of the industry as we know it.

Thoughts?

READ THIS TWO PART POST FROM THE BEGINNING