The death of print media

This topic is pretty prevalent in the news these days and is at the forefront of marketing discussions everywhere. Print media is dying and newspapers are not adapting to the new world quick enough to survive. I was watching the Daily Show with Jon Stewart the other day and as much as they create a satirical news program, they still do a good job reporting on some of the major issues in the world (albeit in a different form from traditional newscasts).

The show in question had a segment done by correspondent Jason Jones, fast forward to 4:30 of the clip, http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart/full-episodes/june-10-2009/#clip180782 (canadian version, for american go to Comedy Central June 10th, part 1). He went to the New York Times and talked with employees about the newspaper situation. He summed up the entire segment with this question to the Assistant Managing Editor of the paper "Why is aged news better than real time news?" and then asks the editor to "Give me one thing in there that happened today." He then finishes the interview by asking an editor "What's black and white and red all over?" the answer being the New York Times financial statements.

As entertaining as the clip is it raises good points for both sides of the argument. Newspapers don't deliver news in a timely enough manner for the new generation, they use rss feeds, blogs, online video, etc. From the newspapers point of view, you get people on the ground where the action is happening, experts in their area, and well versed/researched in the subject they are writing about. Which often times is not the case with a blog.

So, while the battle rages on, its becoming more and more evident that not long down the road the majority of newspaper presses will be coming to a stop as more and more people get their news electronically.

Helloooo.....are you listening?

The music industry is in a tough spot right now.....well part of it is. The record companies. With peer-to-peer networks providing the world with a free way to trade music and grab the latest hot single their profits are in peril. So instead of complaining and suing 1 person for every 100,000 that download music "illegally" they should look for solutions and maybe change the way they do business.

With the new generation the CD and traditional way of releasing music is going the way of the 8-track and cassette tape. Maybe there is a better way to do it.

Bands still need the music labels to help them promote their songs/albums and get it played on radio stations, etc. There will always be a need for this, only a small handful of bands have the power to not require a label at all, ie. Radiohead, Coldplay, etc.

So why don't the music labels move away from the CD system and directly into digital version only. Forget the now standard approach of release an album once every year or two years and move to a contract that encourages bands to release a new single track every 3 months or 4 months. The label could actually invest in a sales oriented website of their own so people could buy the music directly from them and other online stores such as iTunes. This lowers the labels overhead and should help to increase profits, plus when you are just buying a single song it seems like so much less. $1 for that new single I love instead of $10-15 for the single and a bunch of filler.

Listen to your customers music labels and adapt.