Comments on: Google is a friend to the news business (but it’s got to evolve) http://www.tonywright.com/2009/google-is-a-friend-to-the-news-business-but-its-got-to-evolve/ Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:51:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Dan http://www.tonywright.com/2009/google-is-a-friend-to-the-news-business-but-its-got-to-evolve/#comment-409 Dan Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:57:21 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=131#comment-409 I agree, media is mostly inefficient. I disagree, however, that it's desirable for a news organization to link "Learn More" to some co-opted elance content. I disagree that it's a good idea to just hire someone over the internet to write the story.<br><br>The few people that still do pay the news organizations for their content largely do so due to a perception of quality. When I read something crazy on somebody's blog, I always go back and check the Economist or the NYT to see if it's true. I value the fact that they actually did fly somebody over, had them investigate, etc. It's important. <br><br>So yes, they're bloated - but it's not all fat, there's muscle there too. I agree, media is mostly inefficient. I disagree, however, that it's desirable for a news organization to link “Learn More” to some co-opted elance content. I disagree that it's a good idea to just hire someone over the internet to write the story.

The few people that still do pay the news organizations for their content largely do so due to a perception of quality. When I read something crazy on somebody's blog, I always go back and check the Economist or the NYT to see if it's true. I value the fact that they actually did fly somebody over, had them investigate, etc. It's important.

So yes, they're bloated – but it's not all fat, there's muscle there too.

]]> By: Dan http://www.tonywright.com/2009/google-is-a-friend-to-the-news-business-but-its-got-to-evolve/#comment-408 Dan Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:57:21 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=131#comment-408 I agree, media is mostly inefficient. I disagree, however, that it's desirable for a news organization to link "Learn More" to some co-opted elance content. I disagree that it's a good idea to just hire someone over the internet to write the story.<br><br>The few people that still do pay the news organizations for their content largely do so due to a perception of quality. When I read something crazy on somebody's blog, I always go back and check the Economist or the NYT to see if it's true. I value the fact that they actually did fly somebody over, had them investigate, etc. It's important. <br><br>So yes, they're bloated - but it's not all fat, there's muscle there too. I agree, media is mostly inefficient. I disagree, however, that it's desirable for a news organization to link “Learn More” to some co-opted elance content. I disagree that it's a good idea to just hire someone over the internet to write the story.

The few people that still do pay the news organizations for their content largely do so due to a perception of quality. When I read something crazy on somebody's blog, I always go back and check the Economist or the NYT to see if it's true. I value the fact that they actually did fly somebody over, had them investigate, etc. It's important.

So yes, they're bloated – but it's not all fat, there's muscle there too.

]]> By: Tracy at WSB http://www.tonywright.com/2009/google-is-a-friend-to-the-news-business-but-its-got-to-evolve/#comment-407 Tracy at WSB Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:45:57 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=131#comment-407 Fat, happy, and inefficient is a great way to describe The Old Way. I can attest from having been part of it. Six figures to sit in an office and boss people around, till I walked out of old media 16 months ago. I directly produced content when people were sick or quit abruptly, but otherwise, mine was a job they really didn't need to have around. And in my gut I knew I wasn't doing something that really mattered. <br><br>But the clearest view of the fatness/inefficiency came in summer 2006, when Tribune (owner of my last old-media employer, a tv station here in Seattle) sent me to a leadership conference of some sort at its West Coast fort, the LA Times. I shared tables with nice people whose name tags were crowded with long, granular titles like "Co-director of revenue analysis management audits for Orange County classified ads that start with the letter A and end with the letter C but never at dusk." <br><br>It was overkill that they spent maybe a thousand bucks on airfare and hotel to send me down there in the first place, when the information I received could have been distributed via webinar or even e-mailed PPT. Saw the same thing working for Disney at the turn of the millennium, when I was flown from Seattle to San Jose almost weekly for a while, just for the day, to participate in meetings that could have been dial-in. And I was nothing/no one special, so imagine that kind of financial inefficiency multiplied by thousands, in so many different ways. <br><br>Ultimately the plug was pulled on the Disney project I was on, after it lost a billion dollars. 400 of us lost our jobs. So I wince in reminiscence as I see what's happening with the newspaper folks now. Fat, happy, and inefficient is a great way to describe The Old Way. I can attest from having been part of it. Six figures to sit in an office and boss people around, till I walked out of old media 16 months ago. I directly produced content when people were sick or quit abruptly, but otherwise, mine was a job they really didn't need to have around. And in my gut I knew I wasn't doing something that really mattered.

But the clearest view of the fatness/inefficiency came in summer 2006, when Tribune (owner of my last old-media employer, a tv station here in Seattle) sent me to a leadership conference of some sort at its West Coast fort, the LA Times. I shared tables with nice people whose name tags were crowded with long, granular titles like “Co-director of revenue analysis management audits for Orange County classified ads that start with the letter A and end with the letter C but never at dusk.”

It was overkill that they spent maybe a thousand bucks on airfare and hotel to send me down there in the first place, when the information I received could have been distributed via webinar or even e-mailed PPT. Saw the same thing working for Disney at the turn of the millennium, when I was flown from Seattle to San Jose almost weekly for a while, just for the day, to participate in meetings that could have been dial-in. And I was nothing/no one special, so imagine that kind of financial inefficiency multiplied by thousands, in so many different ways.

Ultimately the plug was pulled on the Disney project I was on, after it lost a billion dollars. 400 of us lost our jobs. So I wince in reminiscence as I see what's happening with the newspaper folks now.

]]> By: suzi orman http://www.tonywright.com/2009/google-is-a-friend-to-the-news-business-but-its-got-to-evolve/#comment-406 suzi orman Sun, 12 Apr 2009 14:21:33 +0000 http://www.tonywright.com/?p=131#comment-406 The problem with the industry is not that Google owns the middleman slot. The problem is that the news industry as we know it is fundamentally inefficient. There were local walls around the supply, and little fiefdoms of news grew fat and happy inside these walls. Now that innovation has removed those walls, an oversupply of news has spilled into the world and the girth of these news organizations just canot be supported. The problem with the industry is not that Google owns the middleman slot. The problem is that the news industry as we know it is fundamentally inefficient. There were local walls around the supply, and little fiefdoms of news grew fat and happy inside these walls. Now that innovation has removed those walls, an oversupply of news has spilled into the world and the girth of these news organizations just canot be supported.

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