Three Tenets for Saving the News Business from Certain Death (Synopsis)

Yesterday’s post on the necessary rebirth of news was, I admit, very lengthy. I thought the background was necessary. That being said, it is not conducive to quick reading. This post contains the synopsis of my points from yesterday.

• News businesses that try to copy their print media ways to the Internet are dead in the water.
• Contrary to what print news companies believe, readers never paid for news. They paid for the paper on which the news was printed. Having something tangible made it seem as if it should be paid for.
• Internet users will eventually pay for content. They, however, will not pay for content that they don’t feel they need. News as presented on cnn.com or msnbc.com or even nytimes.com is not news the average person NEEDS. There is no compelling reason to pay for it. The results of this poll by PaidContent UK and Harris Interactive prove the point that consumers aren’t interested in paying for news online.
• B2B news outlets face a larger uphill climb to the pay wall. Their news can often be found on blogs, forums and Twitter long before the small staffs at B2B media companies can even write a story and vet their sources. By the time they post the story, readers have already moved on.

The second part of the post pointed out that print media companies are still living in the days of the Internet boom. They’re presenting news much in the same way they did on print. Essentially, they are stuck in uni-directional print mode rather than harnessing the bi-directional benefits of the web. To get out of this rut, they need to focus on three core ideas (or tenets):

1. Be a Resource – Create products/applications online that are compelling to users. These products will keep users coming back even when they believe your news is boring. Organize your content in ways that establish your site as an expert on relevant topics. Become almost encyclopedic on those topics and offer numerous ways to browse relevant content.
2. Make Life Easier – Use all of the tools in your online toolbox – behavioral modeling, personalization, customization, site search, path tracking and others to learn what your customers want. Then present them with that functionality wherever they want it – mobile apps, web and desktop widgets or on your site. That’s how people start associating your brand with innovation, new thinking and value within your industry.
3. Focus on the Money – Both of the tenets above have to be done with the idea of how you’ll generate revenue from them in the short-term and in the long-term. Ideas for which you cannot demonstrate ROI are ideas that should not be pursued.

Success is dependent upon thinking about the news differently. Come to see your company’s core competency as providing functional access to information and you’ll win. Stay stuck in the thought that you’re providing news and it’s likely your company will join the dead pool.

I suggest checking out Bloomberg, L.P. for a company that gets news right. Also, while I focused on the news business, the tenets here are applicable to every print media company in the process of transitioning to the web.