Guest comment: Out with the old, and in with the (online) news

Recent statistics from the Pew Research Center have revealed that the way we consume news is changing, with 61% percent of those surveyed saying they typically choose to access news online. While print newspapers continue to face decreasing advertising revenues, falling readerships and redundancies, the online media are thriving.

This is not surprising; the web is an ideal platform for news reporting. Stories can be uploaded instantly to reach huge audiences and they can also be updated in real time with new developments. Additionally, these news portals are accessible from any device, allowing us to be kept up-to-date on the move. The convenience of being able to access the latest news from anywhere, at any time, with no charge is a powerful driver towards online news consumption. Of course, online news sites can also provide a rich multimedia experience that is currently impossible with newspaper or magazine journalism.

Yet the story does not end here; the dynamic between the media and consumers is also changing. Consumers now have far greater control of the news that they consume. News aggregation services can allow consumers to easily pick and choose the stories they want to read, essentially meaning that they act as the editors of their own custom publications. Consumers now commonly build and maintain relationships with the three of four publications they trust, rather than being restricted to purchasing just one newspaper. These stories from multiple publications can then be aggregated into one place. Of course, the interactive nature of the web also means that consumers can voice their own opinions on news (either through commenting on stories directly, in forums or via social media) and created user generated content (UGC).

These changing consumer habits have created a significant business problem for the traditional media, who are becoming increasingly frustrated with news aggregators like Google, who (they claim) are making money from their journalism. This has led to several online publications, like The Times and The Wall Street Journal, declaring that they will charge visitors to view their stories. Of course, the difficultly of trying to apply a subscription model to the internet is that many consumers may simply choose to access their news on an alternative free source. Publications will have to add value to their paid-for news coverage if a significant number of users are to be attracted to subscribing.

One solution to this conundrum may come from the technologies that publications use to maintain a persistent relationship with their readers. Consumers may well be willing to subscribe to their favourite news services, if they are able to provide a much easier way to digest their news, media and downloads. For example, the Topix news service will aggregate news by postcode and deliver it on demand, while Fox News now makes all of their news and video available via a browser app.

Technologies like mobile apps and news alerts are proving popular with consumers, but the future may well see the rise of software platforms that unify a publication’s online presence. The 2010s will see far greater use of packages that bundle many different elements of a company’s web presence together – including their websites, RSS feeds, Twitter alerts, iPad, Kindle, and other social media. Publishers who take advantage of these platforms, making it easy for their audience to follow them online, will remain a step ahead in the race for readership.

Enabling these platforms to engage users via the browser is also a powerful tool for ensuring continuing audience engagement. The advantage of this approach is that publishers do not have to convince visitors to consistently return to their website, they simply have to find a way to motivate customers to install one app, which will then keep them updated automatically from their browser.

Publications must change their revenue models to leverage relationships with consumers who have already self-selected that publication as their preferred news source. The media will also need to create intelligent subscription models that can be applied across delivery platforms (such as websites, smartphones and new technologies like the iPad). These models should present a flat rate for access to content, no matter where the consumer chooses to receive it, keeping the process of accessing news online as simple as possible.

Yet, it is now incontestable that the game has changed forever for news publications. Increasingly they must look to harness smaller groups of dedicated subscribers online and provide them with a high-quality experience worth paying for, rather than pursuing their traditional mass-distribution model. Unfortunately, with the pace of change increasing, many publications now have months, not years, to make these changes - or face extinction.

By Adam Boyden

CEO

Conduit

Conduit enables web publishers to distribute their offerings directly and through its global network of more than 220,000 publishers and their 100 million users. 

www.conduit.com. 

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