Everyone is talking about it – the newspaper as we know it, is dying. Media moguls in the developed world are scrabbling, thinking of ways to save their one-way communication empires.
What will save them? Making people pay for online content? Being more niche driven? Embracing social media?
All the above might work, but what is going to drive profits as the margins are simply no longer worth the effort?
Here are a few unorthodox strategies that media moguls should be implementing:
1. Stop Chopping Down Trees: Yes, you have a massive infrastructure with a goal of delivering a paper newspaper. Scrap it! As there are too many costs, bringing your margins down. At the same time you save the environment and appeal to the eco-friendly mindset
2. Invest in the Future: Figure out a way to bring down the cost of e-readers such as the Kindle. Subsidize the costs, build your own, or work out a deal. Think what your margins would look like by delivering your publication to the masses via an e-reader every morning.
I know… I know… you have Kindle versions of your papers available but the reality is that the Kindle is TOO EXPENSIVE for the public. The first company to produce an affordable mass market e-reader will be the Google of e-readers and be able to take the market by storm. What is affordable? $49-99
3. Educate the Public: Many people love reading the actual paper. Before you make the switch to e-readers, educate people why it will be a better choice – environment, convenience, readability, accessibility, etc.
4. Close Your Offices – Rent is expensive and you are actually killing your workforce’s productivity and creativity. You are probably thinking – “Are you crazy?” Please read next point. Keep
5. Implement ROWE – After you have closed your offices, you have to implement a Results Only Work Environment (ROWE). Dan Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and an advocate of ROWE recently described the science behind true motivation in the TED Talk below.
What is ROWE?
“There are no schedules, people don’t have to work in the office, employees can work wherever and whenever they want and meetings are optional. When companies implement ROWE policy, he says, productivity always goes up and turnover goes down.
For more evidence, he discusses two different models that were posed for creating a digital encyclopedia. The Microsoft model which included hiring researchers and experts and extensive planning, and the Wikipedia model where people would participate because they were interested. Pink asserts that 10 years ago, you could not have found two economists who would have said that the Wikipedia model would work better, but it does.
Science knows that motivators only work to solve narrow problems, Pink declares, but they destroy creativity. Maybe, he says, if we can increase productivity in solving the candle problems everywhere, we can change the world.”
-TED Running Notes from Session 12: Dan Pink
However, even implementing these changes will not lead to permanent solutions. There will always be a need to embrace changing trends.
What are your thoughts on the future of the newspaper industry?
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Thanks for visiting and keep in touch ~ Alex.
