Traditional publishing: RIP

Actually, let's see it more as a period of adjustment. Painful adjustment. We've all heard the argument: just as cinema didn't kill theatre and TV didn't kill radio, online won't kill print. Let's hope the lessons of history hold true.

Hugely valuable though, whatever the truth might prove to be, to see that a new site - Traditional Publishing Rest In Peace - is aggregating stories about closures and cutbacks in trad media. Someone had to do it.

Is there some pattern here? Are we just seeing the trad media equivalents of Woolworths and MFI - dinosaurs that failed to adapt - dying out? Too early to tell, I'd say, but the RIP site will help us decide.

It's aggregated links help us focus on what is happening.

The Telegraph's media editor says of the regional press: "Local newspaper advertising, dominated by property and motoring, has plummeted, not to mention the fact that regional newspaper groups have been slow to implement digital strategies."

Media Week charts the decline in magazines but forcasts: "If independent publishers are serving a niche, they will just scrape by."

Clearly magazines are suffering no less than newspapers. Ad pages have dropped 10 per cent and launches by 13 per cent.

According to Blogging Stocks: "Magazine publishers may have made the same mistake that newspapers did--they moved content to the web too late and did not staff up their online businesses fast enough."

Graduating without the right skills

Here's a sobering comment, on Poynter, from a journalism student who is about to graduate:

"I feel as though the industry I've been preparing to enter has changed drastically since the time I began college. The demands on reporters, as I see them, seem to lean toward someone who is at least competent in new media forms -- video, photography, audio, web production. My internships have put me somewhat in touch with what to expect, but at my most recent one I saw 10 people get fired on my last day. It was a chilling scene to leave with, and none too encouraging. My journalism department is working to restructure its program to better prepare students, but I'll be graduating as a product of the old model that didn't incorporate much multimedia training."

It's a challenge to the journalism training industry - me included - not to let this situation persist.

Journalist as brand

Maybe its the recession that is focusing minds - mine and others - on where we go from here.

The belief that things are becoming more granular, with the most enterprising and talented individual journalists establishing themselves as what we might -perhaps reluctantly - call brands, is gaining traction.

Here's an example from Sarah Lacy, from which I pluck this comforting piece of information: "I'm more successful working for myself than I was on staff for just one publication: income, name recognition, opportunities, amazing once-in-a-lifetime experiences. And, while I'm not immune, I'm safer heading into this downturn than in the past because all my income doesn't hinge on one gig. In terms of journalism, it's way more successful. I have the challenge only to find great stories and tell them. And generally any story I love, I've got a platform for it."

But Sarah, who has thought about all this much more deeply than me, also gives a highly realistic assessment of the challenges involved in gaining brand status.

Dial 200999 for a media emergency

Perceptive analysis on the future for print and online in 2009 from Patrick Smith at Paid Content.

Let's face it, in 2009:

• Print will shrink
• Titles will close, merge or turn to online-only publication
  
• Online-only will not prove viable for most titles
  
• Subbing, some reporting and advertising will be outsourced, maybe off-shore
• Online, which has already overtaken print as a news source, will close on TV
• The rise of individual journalists as brands will continue, and that might just be good news
  

Twitter and YouTube go to war in Gaza

Up to now Twitter has been lauded as a platform for citizen journalism. Now the Israeli consulate in New York has become a player by launching its own Twitter stream where it draws attention to media articles it favours and seeks to rebut statements and comment that it does not.

Also, the Israeli army now has a YouTube channel on which it posts images of its assaults on Gaza.

Aljazeera presents its take, again via Twitter, with features including an interactive map.

Last year Wire declared blogging was dead because it had been adopted by professional journalists and others with easy access to traditional media. Smaller organisations and individuals were said to be turning to services such as Twitter and Facebook to get their voice heard.

The Mumbai terror attacks were one manifestation of that. This is a counter move to that, and shows no successful means of communication will be ignored by any group or organsiation with a message to get across.

Read more here.

Top multimedia projects of 2008

A great round-up of impressive multimedia projects from Regina McCombs of Poynter Online, including this on the economic downturn from the Washington Post and this on the US election from the New York Times, alongside some interesting map-based story telling about storms and the effects of a tornado on a community.

No wonder a major US survey has revealed that the web has overtaken newspapers as a news source and is closing on the leader - TV.

Which, along with the increasing number of publishers on both sides of the Atlantic that are scaling back their print products or even going entirely online, leads Journalcetera to comment: "Traditional journalism revenue models have collapsed in the face of the internet where users expect to get news and other information for free."

Is B2B about to collapse?

Times are hard. So far they've looked harder for general news publishers. B2Bs appear to have been holding up relatively well. But...here's someone who thinks they are in as dire a situation as any other sector.

Here's an extract. It's from a US B2B specialst called Paul Conley:

1. The B2B publishing industry -- which is now dominated by giant print companies and smaller Web-only companies -- is about to collapse.
2. When the dust settles, B2B journalism will still be here -- but many of the companies that make up the industry will be gone.
3. The dominant business models of both the past and present will fail.