Goodbye Colorado

Today, after 150 years of news coverage the Rocky Mountain News went to the press for the last time.  With the Rocky’s presses coming to a halt, it only highlights the larger issue of the newspaper business and brings to the forefront of our dialogue on the modern media landscape where print media outlets are headed in the future.

Rich Boehne, President and CEO of e.w. Scripps, the parent company of The Rocky Mountain News captures the essence of the situation in his address to the staff of the paper, “…its certainly nothing you did, you all did everything right, but while you were out doing your part, the business model and the economy changed and the Rocky became a victim of that.”

In an unstable economy, coupled with a population that has increasingly become used to obtaining its news and information for free from the internet, it’s a poignant question to ponder: what business model can work for print outlets in this day and age?  Is it something along the lines of the model of cable channels, as Mark Cuban suggested earlier this week, or is it gated walls, which will only allow paid subscribers access to content – a strategy which has been tested by outlets such as the Wall Street Journal.  For the moment, if its not too late already it seems as if more and more outlets are going to turn toward online subscriptions, which is now reportedly being explored by Newsday and The San Francisco Chronicle.  If the industry turns toward that model, the question remains with so much content online is it possible to reverse course and alter the expectations audiences have online and convince them to pay for quality content?

Think about it – it’s a topic we’ll be coming back to in the coming months.  In the meantime, here’s a documentary that The Rocky Mountain News posted on their website today, and it provides a unique perspective as to the value newspapers have on informing and shaping their local communities.  What will provide that communal bedrock moving forward in the digital age?

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

MediaBack Page’s Quick Hits for February 27th :

• Cablevision: Newsday Deal Wasn’t (Quite) as Bad as We Feared | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD - An update on a story we discussed last summer… while Cablevision is notorious for making bad acquisitions and having even poorer management…it seems like Newsday is still in business…for now.
• Google to gobble Twitter » Adotas - How Twitter can be monetized is a big question…can you foresee a day where you’ll update your status right from Gmail?

MediaBack Page’s Quick Hits for February 26th :

• Audio Podcast Brings Help To Homebuyers | TomsRiverTimes.micromediapubs.com | Toms River Times - A smart way of communicating about some very important decisions that homebuyers will make in these economic times.
• Small Business Administration - Podcasts - In light of the recession, with the goal of driving the economy forward with the engine of Small Business the Small Business Administration has released a new series of Podcasts.

Lately, there have been reports about the fact that many people – especially given the economic times – are abandoning subscription television services.  Instead with the advances made on the web, and increase availability of high-speed internet, coupled with new online sites that allow audiences access to a wide variety of programming, today’s audiences can, for the most part, access anything their TV would have conventionally brought into their living room through their laptop.  That said, one area that still hasn’t completely matured is the area of live news and sports.  There are some minor advances in this arena, CNN has a 24/7 online stream but it is not the same on-air product, and for most major sporting events legalities prevent most games from being available online at the moment.  That said, this is an interesting trend to be aware of and yet another example of how powerful the web is to alter our communications paradigm.

While the first State of the Union Address broadcast on the web was President Clinton’s 1997 speech, not nearly as many were on the web, or had the appropriate bandwidth to see the video.  Tonight however, we invite you to tune in right here as we see another example of that platonic shift as Hulu bring’s the President’s address to the mainstream social web.

On the web:
Cancel Your Cable and Still Watch Great TV: http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Economy/story?id=6764960&page=1

In the past few years, there have been increasing signs that radio is on the verge of being dead.  Now, listen I love radio, I grew up listening to outlets in the Big Apple, and dialing in to win free tickets and to this day I still listen to and follow several radio stations.  However, with the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the ensuing conglomeration that took place, and now with the belt tightening brought on by the economic downturn, radio has taken its final steps toward its death.  Perhaps, in time we’ll look back and mark this as the end of the corporate era of radio, and the pendulum will swing back toward community owned and operated outlets, but for now radio is changing and it isn’t for the better.

The story isn’t necessarily unique or new, as a matter of fact on this very blog we discussed Satellite radio’s demise back in early 2007.  Now, we observe a similar demise for over-the-air radio, which has changed dramatically over the last decade and given audiences fewer and fewer options, and limited creativity for professionals. Today, we find ourselves with markets that are filled with competing music outlets that serve the same audiences, syndicated talk shows, and what seems a Top 40 has been boiled down to the Top 10, which has the Jonas Brothers and Beyonce on repeat on virtually every station.  The result is detrimental on a number of levels; it’s hard for new music artists to break through, listeners are challenged to find any differentiating factor between most radio outlets, and talk radio has become monotonous making it harder and harder to find local talk shows.

After radio went through its conglomeration phase in the late ’90s, much of the creativity in radio had evaporated.  At that time at least, it seemed like Satellite might be radio’s savior, as personality after personality signed with either XM or Sirius as the two organizations set out to earn subscribers.  Fast-forward to the last few years and the climate has again shifted, and terrestrial radio outlets have had to drop even more talent and Satellite is beginning to sound like one big Juke box.

So, while it is a sad state of affairs for radio; the silver lining is the opportunity that is provided by the web.  For talent who have been tossed off the air, the web, and specifically Podcasting offers endless opportunities.  Case in point, CBS Radio on Friday flipped its man-talk outlet, KLSX-FM in Los Angeles for - you guessed it another Top 40 outlet - and left radio vet Adam Carolla without a job.  Carolla, who loves long-form talk has decided to take matters into his own hand and has launched his own Podcast on the web at The Adam Carolla Podcast.  While Carolla and his team are figuring out the new arena (and probably will be for some time) what they’ll find is refreshing; a blank canvas that will allow for endless creativity, new opportunities to engage their audiences, and the ability to reach an even larger audience then terrestrial radio.  The move is reminiscent of what Bubba the Love Sponge did after his initial dismissal in Tampa years ago; which gave him a platform to showcase his talents and ultimately sign a deal with Sirius.

While a deal with Sirius may not loom in the future for everyone, as audiences become increasingly used to finding niche content that meets their needs we’ll see new business models develop.  Subsequently, artists like Carolla will be able to enjoy that newfound freedom, while developing something that is their own and affords them the opportunity to return to their creativity and entertain audiences.