Today we find Bloomberg had rushed in at the last minute to buy BusinessWeek, which was arguably (if not lately) considered to be the bible of the business world; and The Wall Street Journal overtook USA Today as the nation’s largest paper measured by paid subscribers. Either news item on its own has enough weight to merit reflection and analysis, but one following the other so closely? Well, that’s a lot of conflicting information out of the media for one day. Although not yet fully understood, there will certainly be real implications for publishing, advertising, PR and the media industry as a whole.
The Wall Street Journal news is a little surprising given the past year’s prevailing atmosphere of media consolidation, collapses and closures. The paper seems to be bucking the trend and turning Rupert Murdoch into a “could be” prophet when he said “the philistine phase of the Digital Age is almost over.” Is it really possible not everyone on the web will demand free content? The Journal’s news seems to say so. But The Journal is The Journal and certainly–just as in all industries–there are islands unaffected by tides.
BusinessWeek’s situation likely more accurately reflects the publishing industry’s status. While the ‘08/’09 economic crash can take some of the blame for the decline in advertising revenue, the industry’s problems had been building for some time. The web has forced newsrooms to shrink, foreign bureaus to close and has hampered the ability of mainstream publications to keep up with breaking news over social tools and networks. Traditional outlets may excel at analysis, but they can’t beat the web in a number of areas which used to be dominated by newspapers, news programs, radios and magazines–especially weekly magazines. Eventually and surely, new technology overcomes old methods. Bloomberg is a data-driven organization that has learned to adapt to the web, and the web has made available more data to an increasingly wider audience which Bloomberg would like to tap. BusinessWeek’s straightforward ability to analyze and simplify market news probably fills an increasingly larger need in Bloomberg’s organization as it looks to expand its influence beyond the financial spectrum.
For the media (and for advertising, PR and other dependent industries) the signals to adapt and even plan for what’s ahead couldn’t be more clear. The media has to write for the web, business has to build for it, and the rest of us need to embrace living in that world.
As we see fewer editorial contacts at the major print outlets, we will see an increase in freelance and even “citizen” journalists with the ability to publish and build an audience at their whim. Social media savvy has become increasingly critical in reaching and influencing these new thought leaders, and the successful employment of tactics and strategies take more than just passing familiarity with the medium. The mainstream media’s mixed messages are keeping all of us on our toes, and for the best of us, on top of our game, too.