The Third Age of News
There have been some very clear stages in the long evolution of news delivery, and now, News International’s Abba Newbery argues, we’re about to enter its Third Age.
The idea of industry paradigm shifts can sometimes seem clichéd, particularly in the digital world where a new era is seemingly proclaimed every few minutes. However, it’s clear that in the news industry we have been through a sea change in the way our business works. Moreover, I would argue, it seems that this change is not the end of the matter.
Even as the shift from traditional to ‘new’ news continues, the first rumbling of a new paradigm – a third way – is beginning to emerge from the murk.
The progression of the news industry is easy to track. In the beginning – we’ll call this News 1 for convenience – we had the newspaper and then, after a few hundred years, broadcast media.
These outlets had a team of professional journalists creating high-quality, edited content for one-way distribution to a more or less mass audience. In this era monetisation was simple; you sold your product for money to the end user and you generated income by selling access to that audience to your advertisers.
Because quality was high, space on the page was finite and alternative channels to reaching that audience limited; advertising rates remained at a level which could support the industry.
And then along came the web. In the second era of news – which I shall unsurprisingly call News 2 – many of the assumptions of News 1 were shattered. Journalists were no longer necessarily professional. Information flow was no longer one way. Perhaps most importantly, real estate became infinite.
All of this fundamentally changed the way that consumers and publishers engaged with news content. On the positive side, News 2 empowered individuals around the world with a voice of their own, and gave people the ability for people to discuss and question the news they were reading.
On the downside, it fundamentally undermined the business model that made high-quality news content a viable product.
Now, I truly believe, we’re seeing the beginning of a new era, the start of News 3.
Consumers are beginning to recognise the limitations of what the web has done to the news industry and are beginning to appreciate some of the benefits of the News 1 model. People are, increasingly, willing to pay for high-quality content and readers are recognising the value of curation and editing in making an enjoyable news experience.
Moreover, the value of news brands – once seen as dinosaurs in the web age – is once again on the up as the search for truth and reliability in news content underlines their value.
The other intriguing aspect of News 3 regards formats. The accepted orthodoxy is that print is dead and that the market that will shortly expire.
But I don’t know if that’s true. Yes, people are consuming more and more web content, but many also appreciate the form factor and experience of a paper product. Moreover, new technologies such as AR and personalisation mean that both paper and the web can work together in a ‘second screen’ experience, adding interactivity to paper products and the offline convenience of paper to web readers.
This has clear implications for advertisers who can reconsider how to leverage the mass, quality audience that only print papers can provide.
The final shape of News 3 is by no means clear, but it’s certainly emerging. At News International we’re making sure we stay ahead of the game by committing resource and time to investigating its possibilities and how we can maximise its value for our readers and advertisers.
This might just be early days but – to finish on another cliché – watch this space.