Newspaper sales are falling. Or that’s what we’re told. In our newsagency we are experiencing double digit growth thanks to relentless hard work by our front line team.
Having said that, we are watching with interest the move toward citizen journalism. Today I stumbled across this report, published April 3, from the Carnegie Corporation in New York.
Here’s the riveting opening paragraph:
There’s a dramatic revolution taking place in the news business today and it isn’t about TV anchor changes, scandals at storied newspapers or embedded reporters. The future course of the news, including the basic assumptions about how we consume news and information and make decisions in a democratic society are being altered by technology-savvy young people no longer wedded to traditional news outlets or even accessing news in traditional ways.
I’m interested in the report since it goes to the heart of products which are critical to the future of by retail business and 4,600 like mine in Australia. 50% of our traffic is generated by newspaper product sales.
The world is changing around us at a rapid pace and we need to not only embrace change but create a model which will serve us and our employees for the future.
We will not allow this business to become a white elephant.
We accept that News Corporation and other newspaper publishers and mainstream media generally need to put the needs of their shareholders ahead of businesses in their current supply chain. However, we’d like to be part of the conversation about the future.