Bust Through

Urlocker On Disruption

« Death of Newspapers | Main | Eight Traps For Disruptors »

The Downfall of a News Kingdom

The New York Times ran a detailed analysis of the downfall of newspaper publisher Knight Ridder, which was sold to McClatchy Co. in June.  The report is a good case study of a company and an industry that have been disrupted. Most of the analysis centres on recrimination and the specious debate of "quality journalism" vs cost-cutting:

“(The) deep cuts in expenses to satisfy Wall Street will not necessarily save a newspaper company, and may not even bring financial gains to shareholders or buyers.”

“The real story of the fall and decline of Knight Ridder is not (major shareholder) Bruce Sherman,” said James M. Naughton, once executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, formerly a Knight Ridder paper, and a retired president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. “It’s the notion that you can continue whittling and paring and reducing and degrading the quality of your product and not pay any price. CEO Tony Ridder's legacy is that he destroyed a great company.”

This mistaken focus on quality, as defined by the vendor rather than the customer, as well as the perceived need to maintain a legacy business, are at the center of every industry that is disrupted, whether it be in minicomputers, horsecarts or traditional telecommunications.

Newspapers However, this question of quality raises the entirely wrong set of questions because it is fixated on past definitions of quality, as illustrated by Knight Ridder's collection of 85 Pulitzer prizes, for example.

Four key questions are notably absent from the New York Times analysis:

  • How do customers today define "quality journalism?"
  • What services can Knight Ridder or any media company deliver that are valuable and that customers will pay for?
  • What should the company become to deliver these services?
  • What aspects of the current business should be sloughed off because they are inconsistent with customer needs?

** Other Views/ Late Addition**

BivingsReport lists nine ways newspapers can improve their websites, such as using tags and partnering with bloggers. These aren't really game-changers for newspapers but they are easy to implement and will help.

TwoPoinTouch comments on the need for old media to adapt to the new world.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c857153ef00d834e13c5769e2

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The Downfall of a News Kingdom:

Comments

Of course this is an issue for all media companies as they come to grip with the information age. I wonder though if the printed media, while vulnerable, has more time to adapt than say video or audio. In these latter cases, the ipod and the like makes portable on demand content so much more convenient. A newspaper, or book, is still far easier to read in hard copy, and so currently preferable. The trend in Europe, and particularly in London, is towards free (ad driven) newspapers which adopt the internet free to the end user model, but persist with the old world use of trees. I describe a little bit whats going on in London on my site.

You may want to remove the link to my story which appears to be erroneous. I'm sorry I reported this without more investigation, odd as the emerging story seems.

Nonetheless, the debate goes on about how old media companies can continue to offer value and remain viable businesses. I think we've agreed that in-depth journalism remains a substantially print-oriented affair. The costs around a detailed investigative feature remain prohibitive for most online-only operations which sometimes substitute volume and opinion for investigation and proof. Maybe that's what most people want...

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.

Categories

On My Desk

  • Edwin Lefèvre: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

    Edwin Lefèvre: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
    A great investment classic from 1923. The tale of the tape adds helpful insight and caution to any investor. Well written -- a rarity for this type of book. (***)

  • Benjamin Graham and Jason Zweig: The Intelligent Investor

    Benjamin Graham and Jason Zweig: The Intelligent Investor
    A wise counsel at the ready. Graham's book stands the test of time and will make better investors of careful readers. Zweig does a fantastic job flushing out Graham's 1973 book for modern-day readers. The lessons are the same, but it is great to get the additional reminders from the dot-com era and the subsequent bear market. (*****)

  • Scott D. Anthony and others: Innovator's Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work

    Scott D. Anthony and others: Innovator's Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work
    The latest from the team at Innosight. A how-to-guide for making disruptive innovation work. Several practical management tools and guides to help organizations do the tough work ahead. Curiously, one of the contributors is the head of strategy and business development for Motorola's handset business. If there ever was an organization that showed the need to disrupt and the failings of adapting successfully to disruptive innovation (hello iPhone), sadly to say, Motorola is it. (****)