Australia: Newspapers face "death by a thousand cuts"

Posted by Lauren Drablier on September 17, 2008 at 12:44 PM

Juan Senor, partner with the Innovation International Media Consulting Group told the news industry that newspapers needed to "innovate or die," if not they will face "death by a thousand cuts." Senor focused on the reinvention of newspapers, stating that newspapers need to reinvent the formula of the medium and "rediscover the soul of their business".

Senor compared the newspaper industry to the Ringling Brothers circus, which he said died in 1967 "because television could bring you those elephants up close." He believes that Cirque du Soleil, established in Montreal in 1984, is an excellent representation of reinventing an industry, "they reinvented the formula completely -- most importantly, they got rid of the elephants." He uses this comparison to demonstrate the ability of newspapers to reinvent the industry.

He emphasized the power of the Internet in the news industry but also talked about what he believes will be the future of print. "Paper will become haute couture and prêt-a-porter ... you will have free papers that are just commodities and you will have the quality papers giving you a different proposition," he said. According to him these quality, printed papers should give new content that is not available online.

Senor sees printed papers as a medium to present "analysis pieces, informed comment, fantastic photography, and wonderful info-graphics. And online, the breaking news business, the archives, and video, of course."

He said: "In Australia, life is too short to drink bad beer, right? So life is too short to read bad newspapers."

Source: The Australian