What’s wrong with the newspaper business is the “paper” not the “news.” And paper is also a metaphor for the old centralized news, ink and engine business that hasn’t really changed for hundreds of year.
I posted yesterday about how Rupert Murdoch and News Corp are best positioned to transform the newspaper business. No one else has amassed the resources and other media expertise to translate the news “paper” business into the news “digital” business. Microblogger sites such as Twitter have shown us a glimpse of the future, in terms of real-time reporting, but we all know that the best news and analysis come from professionals — with editors and fact checking as part of the equation. All of which in the digital age should be easier, not harder.
News gathering and reporting are a special competence of news organizations; printing and distributing are not. The former must be brought up to date.
Today it was reported that Rupert Murdoch’s #2 executive, Peter Chernin, is leaving. Allowing him to go is a huge mistake. Mr. Chernin is the entertainment, social media, non-newspaper guy on the team. My timeframe for News Corp’s delivery of newspapers 2.0 was 2 years. Jeff Dachis — a transformative executive himself – is on record as saying 2 years is too soon. Now I wonder if it can be done in 4 years. Or at all…by News Corp.
