New York Times Releases An Amazing New Application, Misses The Point

Hello Kfir
I'm not sure I agree with this assesment i think this new feature could get people hooked in. I am surprised though that they didn't automatically link this news feed to a twitter account we can follow any where we want to.

David

David - which feature are you referring to?

Yoav - thanks a lot for the lengthy comment - it was very interesting to read it. please email me.

First, I apologize for writing a comment longer than the post, but knowing this industry I had to share some thoughts and news. Print publishers have seen nothing but doom and gloom lately. Borders is bankrupt, Barnes & Noble not too far, book imprints are closing down and 4 out of the big 5 publishers are in financial mayhem. Over 500 publications have closed their doors since the beginning of the year, amongst them are the Rocky Mountain News which was 150 year old giant from Denver, Colorado. It i very likely that San Francisco will be the first major world city without a daily newspaper as the San Francisco Chronicle is on its death bed - but they could very likely be beat by the Boston Globe. The firing of 300 employees of the Miami Herald pales in comparison to the 1700 that lost their job at the L.A Times (Well, does anyone in LA still read the paper?). The New York Times, like others have been feeling the pressure. They closed many sections and lost many great journalists that did not bring home the buck. Last week, I pulled out a razor thin copy of Newsweek and was amazed to count 8 ads through the entire magazine, the largest of which was a double spread for a product that is offered on late night infomercials. Today I heard that the Metro International group is shutting down all of its daily papers in the US.

This is not just about losing ad revenue at financially difficult times. It's gaining people's attention in times where life is over-saturated with instant free news at the palm of youre hand. It's people entertaining themselves with Internet and games rather than opening a book.

But the weak link here is obvious; Like the stubborn record companies and media conglomerates, the publishing industry too had chosen to ignore obvious signs of impending shift in consumer habits and delivery mechanism, even though they had 15 years to prepare. In their arrogancy, they believed they are too big and powerful to ever need to stop dictating the public on how to consume media, where to get it and for how much. They stuck by their comfortable, lazy old ways. The music industry was fighting its fans and lost big time. The media companies run a losing battle over rights management and piracy instead of selling product in a fitting model. The publishers didn't suffer from piracy so they just stick with their 500 year old business model. The old saying that in business you either innovate or vegetate couldn't be more true in this case.

But it's not all bad; there are now finally signs of an awakening, and even if it seems silly, we should give them the benefit of the doubt. They are finally trying something new after 5 centuries. Amazon's Kindle is expected to amount to 4% of Amazon's sales this year (Of all sales, not just books!) - their readers hold thousands of books and get a fresh bunch of daily newspaper and premium content subscriptions to your favorite journalists. A 3rd generation is already in the making. Paperless books work. I have one at home and it's incredible. Look it up on eBay and you see that they sell far beyond retail price because Amazon has a 3 month waiting list! Publishers and authors love it too - finding instant audience and low production costs.

Publishers too are showing signs of life. Time magazine had launched an exciting new print publication called 'Mine'. (I know, a new print magazine in 09??? Yes!) It's a magazine customized to each consumer. Pick the content you want to subscribe to, they print it and mail it to you. Not only is the content related to your desires, but advertisers get to customize their ads to you too. It's FANTASTIC! Where was this model 15 years ago?
And just yesterday, the Wall Street Journal had announced their intention to implement micropayments for content on their site.
While arriving very late to the boardroom, something is finally clicking. I welcome any attempt to innovate this stale industry. Will consumers finally get great value for a reasonable modern pay-per-content model? Will the NY Times jump on the bandwagon and inject enough value into subscription feeds to get some ad conversion or micropayments? Only time will tell. One thing for sure though, having this industry finally breaking away from its old ways to seek exciting innovation is the tipping point to saving it altogether.

Ok - so how are they supposed to make money? Do you have a solution - because the ad revenue model doesn't work either.

Shira,
If I had the solution I'd probably won't write it here, open my own company and become filthy rich... What triggered this post was the statement that this application the future of newspapers. It is merely another way to try to make money, without solving the underlying issues in the industry. Shirky was right - Nothing can fix what the internet broke in the newspapers' business model