Yesterday I had a piece published online at Real Clear Politics about, well, online publishing. More broadly, the piece was about the future of the newspaper industry in the age of digital delivery. Pretty good timing actually, as it coincides with two pretty big shakeups yesterday in the journalism world: the Tribune Company's bankruptcy announcement and the Pulitzer Prize Board's decision to allow entrants for prizes in journalism from online-only media outlets. From my RCP article...
The future of online publishing is clearly in trouble, but the experience of the entertainment industry makes it seem likely that news outlets will be able to find ways to profitably deliver their content the way consumers want it (usually for free). Consider things like Hulu, imeem, and (increasingly) YouTube, all examples that rely on what Rubin calls the Three Cs: copyright, competition, and collaboration. I add a fourth C to that idea: content.
With collaborative solutions between content providers and content platforms, quality improves, and the need for users to traffic in infringing content is greatly diminished.
High quality content is critical in the realm of journalism, and as the Pulitzer Board's decision shows, much of that quality content is now online. Once the traditional news industry leaders embrace the Four Cs and look beyond site-based revenue streams and the traditional business models, the quality and availability of online content will be even better. As the Trib undergoes its reorganization -- and other papers look to improve their financial operations -- these collaborative solutions are something we need to be thinking about.
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