[p2p-research] Stop Giving the Newspapers Your Advice - They Don’t Need It

[Michel Bauwens]

Everybody who doesn't work for an institution should read this <g> ...

On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 7:20 AM, Ryan <rlanham1963 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Exactly right...newspapers die because they are...not P2P.
>
>
>
> Sent to you by Ryan via Google Reader:
>
>
> Stop Giving the Newspapers Your Advice - They Don’t Need It<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/oreilly/radar/atom/%7E3/73la32dz8gY/stop-giving-the-newspapers-your-advice.html>
> via O'Reilly Radar - Insight, analysis, and research about emerging
> technologies. <http://radar.oreilly.com/> by Joshua-Michéle Ross on
> 9/15/09
>
> Speculation about the demise of the news business and advice about what
> they should do about it is everywhere. It makes for great,
> self-congratulatory sport but it won’t help the news industry.
>
>
> Why?
>
>
>
> Because the news industry doesn’t suffer from a shortage of ideas or
> possible revenue models, it suffers from a different but more acute malady:
> being an institution during a time of disruptive change.
>
>
> While we have all been busy telling the newspaper institution what they
> should do differently we have missed one big point: Institutions are
> structured to precisely NOT do much of anything different.
>
>  The number one thing that ails newspapers? 70% of all costs<http://www.fitzandjen.com/2009/06/behind-newspapers-junk-ratings-a-structural-disconnect-in-cost-structure.html>lie in physical distribution and printing while readership and revenues have
> dramatically moved away from paper. This leads to a simple-minded but
> commonsense conclusion (and my superfluous piece of advice): maximize your
> online presence, build your online community, concentrate on journalistic
> talent, and jettison all costs associated with print; stop the presses.
>
> Even if I you think I am wrong, just play along with me for a moment and,
> for the purpose of this exercise, assume I am right. If you can’t go that
> far substitute your own radical therapy (you know you have one!) in place of
> mine and answer the next question. *Which major newspaper could have gone
> to its board anytime before 2009 and successfully proposed such a radical
> solution? * The answer if you have ever worked in a large,
> “institutionalized” organization is zero. The scenario is so horrific,
> involves pains so great, outcomes so unknown and certain near-term revenue
> loss such that no institutional body would be capable of acting on it - much
> less restructuring around so medieval a remedy.
>
>  The failure of newspapers is not a failure of imagination or foresight
> nor is it a failure of individuals. * This kind of failure is the hallmark
> of all institutions in the face of tectonic disruption.* Institutions<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institution>are a set of agreements that perpetuate a social order beyond individual
> intention or tenure. Changing those agreements is costly and time-consuming.
> So when the rate of change accelerates beyond the institution’s adaptive
> capacity - extinction follows.
>
> The question is not “what should newspapers do?” but “how can a large
> institution effectively organize in response to disruptive change?” Taken
> thus, it is not only the fundamental question to ask of newspapers - but to
> ask of ourselves in relation to a host of big-ticket game-changers such as peak
> oil<http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/commodities/why-we-must-take-peak-oil-seriously.aspx>,
> environmental collapse and climate change that simultaneously require and
> defy our capacity for institutional response.
>
> The stakes are much bigger than news. Let’s put our mind to that question
> instead of making more to-do lists. From the Radar audience I would like to
> ask for historical examples of institutions that have effectively responded
> to disruption? What are the lessons that we can draw from them?
>  <http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=73la32dz8gY:z9IQflE7Zxo:V_sGLiPBpWU>
> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=73la32dz8gY:z9IQflE7Zxo:yIl2AUoC8zA>
> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=73la32dz8gY:z9IQflE7Zxo:JEwB19i1-c4>
> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/oreilly/radar/atom?a=73la32dz8gY:z9IQflE7Zxo:7Q72WNTAKBA>
>
>
>
> Things you can do from here:
>
>    - Subscribe to O'Reilly Radar - Insight, analysis, and research about
>    emerging technologies.<http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fradar.oreilly.com%2Ffeed?source=email>using
>    *Google Reader*
>    - Get started using Google Reader<http://www.google.com/reader/?source=email>to easily keep up with
>    *all your favorite sites*
>
>
>
>
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-- 
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