Newspaper publishers are devoting more and more newsprint to the disruption to their businesses brought about by technology – the Internet and mobile access. Yesterday the Australian Financial Review devoted two pages in their marketing section. (I can’t link because the stories are available to subscribers only.) It will be interesting to revisit some of these articles in five and ten years. On the one hand the publishers are all telling us it is business as usual while they invest hundreds of millions of dollars in online plays. If I were them I’d be making the same investment and I’d be more open about the future prospects of newspaper sales based on over the counter sales data.
Out of yesterday’s coverage was this quote from David Kirk, CEO of Fairfax, when discussing online classified advertising: “We need to be realistic. There are some forms of classified advertising that work better on the internet, such as low-end jobs and general merchandise trading.” He goes on to say that newspapers have responded. Well, some would call it a response. Taking newspaper classifieds and putting them online is not a response. The offerings do not compete with the innovative online advertising players. Newspaper online classifieds are too expensive. Newspaper publishers need to view their online portals as entry points with the data they gather being accessed from a myriad of sites and locations. This is where they can make money – from gathering content rather than by being the exclusive distributor.