In the session on “The changing face of newsrooms” at the WAN-IFRA meet on September 6, Larry Kramer, founder of CBS Marketwatch.com, U.S., emphasised the four Cs of the media world.
As detailed in his book C-Scape, which he distributed freely (a copy of which is with me for reference by my close colleagues), the pivots of the changing face of newspaper and media business are: Consumers, Content, Curation and Convergence. Consumers, the kings, cannot be ignored. So, listen to the consumers; how they use the products, what they think of you, and engage them in making you more relevant.
In content creation, the ultimate person is the one who produces content which can be got from anywhere and in whatever medium. “If you are not creating commodity content, i.e. what people want, you are dead,” he said.
As content is king, distribution systems are being usurped by digital platforms. As content will win out, it has to be refined based on changing consumer habits.
Curation is a process of filtering from the mass of information on various subjects according to the wants of the consumers and offering the same quickly. Online news aggregators like Huffington Post, Answers.com, Wikianswers.com, and other alternative news sites such as blogging sites are the curators.
“News is combination of words, audio and video.” In the area of convergence, tablets are currently the preferred way to get information. More people learn about earthquakes from Twitter rather than the regular sources. Consumers converge with producers; companies invite customers to create content for commercials and news, and even products.
Every company will become a media company.
New competition has emerged from businesses like Bestbuyon.com, Starbucks and Fandango.
The newsroom of the future will be built around target audience, NOT a medium; businesses not newspapers; sports, not TV. The key tasks will be controlling delivery of content to all possible outlets; having revenue models; and curating outside sources of valued content.
The Politico is a great example of a curator whose website, newspaper, email and new media sources earned a big influence in the U.S. – its 4.30 a.m. political bulletin was eagerly read in New York. It has an editorial staff of 150. The printed paper was delivered free of cost to select influential people who numbered about 30,000. But it had a digital publishing revenue of $3 million to $4 million with its site recording 5 million hits.
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