Newspapers: Disrupt This!

Blog Maverick and entrepreneur Mark Cuban has some tough words to say about the print media, especially newspapers and their dicey relationship with advertisers.  Cuban is a pioneer in HDTV, a film distributor, as well as a sports team owner (big advertiser) so what he thinks about newspapers is important. And challenging:

"Every single company in the entertainment business is looking for a way to never ever have to spend a nickel with you again."

Here's the important part: Cuban is not just talking about dropping prices, although that's part of the agenda. He also posts that he wants a new kind of media, which he is creating.

If you look at Cuban's comments in a disruptive framework, he seems to be saying:

• The media business is not delivering value to its advertising customers
• Segments of the media consumer market are undershot, especially twenties & younger
• There are new attributes that customers value but can't get from traditional media

Conclusion: Cuban is signalling the print business is ripe for disruption. And he is ready to start disrupting the business himself.

**Other views**

Are newspapers declining? By some stats yes, but Mark Evans says proper use of the web  can offset that decline. As Evans says,  "falling circulation does suggest there are people who don't read newspapers but still want to get the news."

PC guru John Dvorak has some views on why newspapers are declining and he doesn't blame the web, which makes him almost as much of a renegade as Mark Cuban.

Investor genius Warren Buffett is quoted at the HyperGene media blog saying the newspaper business is in permanent decline, which speaks to the need for media companies to either disrupt or die.