I could see a high quality publication like the AFR morphing its main delivery methods into a YouTube channel, Podcasts and a WhatsApp channel. End of the day people want quality media delivered to them when and where they are.
I remember sitting next to a journo whose dad ran a newsroom many years ago why they would spend all the money to send a reporter to stand outside the MCG on a random Wednesday night to talk about football, when there was no game on and the MCG was closed. The view was that it built audience trust, and I am sure that was true but while it might have invoked audience trust, there's also no arguing with the costs involved in doing a live cross to an empty and barren MCG just to provide an update about a player injury or tribunal outcome, etc.
Local media disappearing is sad, but maybe we all need to look in the mirror and ask whether local news about a car accident, the birth of a new panda at the zoo or other information was ever really worthy of documentation and narration at great expense.
I would also suggest that there is a fair amount of... shall we say... animosity about particular owners of very large media companies that have made billions of dollars selling news and pushing an agenda, that few will shed a tear for.
But I absolutely agree that should we find ourselves in a world one day where there's no news, no truth being sought or talked about, it will be a dark day indeed. That said, there is hope - just look at all the various specialist investigative news YouTube channels out there - Coffeezilla, Friendly Jordies, Fern, etc. All working very hard at their respective niches and building global audiences as a result.
What news delivery looks like in the future and how it evolves will no doubt shift with technology. And while it may not be delivered by the behemouths we've been used to, any gap that results from a 'major' shutting down will no doubt be picked over and the valuable niche's filled by entrepreneurial journo's.
Hey Rowan - I agree in that I am not lamenting the downfall or decline or particular powerful companies. I see it as a more structural problem about surfacing information that is useful but perhaps not that competitive compared to other attention grabbing content. Also like to focus on the different ways information can get out there. I suppose I think it's important to tell the world in general that general news is dead commercially, and if we like it, we better be prepared to publicly fund it. Thanks for the comment mate!
I could see a high quality publication like the AFR morphing its main delivery methods into a YouTube channel, Podcasts and a WhatsApp channel. End of the day people want quality media delivered to them when and where they are.
I remember sitting next to a journo whose dad ran a newsroom many years ago why they would spend all the money to send a reporter to stand outside the MCG on a random Wednesday night to talk about football, when there was no game on and the MCG was closed. The view was that it built audience trust, and I am sure that was true but while it might have invoked audience trust, there's also no arguing with the costs involved in doing a live cross to an empty and barren MCG just to provide an update about a player injury or tribunal outcome, etc.
Local media disappearing is sad, but maybe we all need to look in the mirror and ask whether local news about a car accident, the birth of a new panda at the zoo or other information was ever really worthy of documentation and narration at great expense.
I would also suggest that there is a fair amount of... shall we say... animosity about particular owners of very large media companies that have made billions of dollars selling news and pushing an agenda, that few will shed a tear for.
But I absolutely agree that should we find ourselves in a world one day where there's no news, no truth being sought or talked about, it will be a dark day indeed. That said, there is hope - just look at all the various specialist investigative news YouTube channels out there - Coffeezilla, Friendly Jordies, Fern, etc. All working very hard at their respective niches and building global audiences as a result.
What news delivery looks like in the future and how it evolves will no doubt shift with technology. And while it may not be delivered by the behemouths we've been used to, any gap that results from a 'major' shutting down will no doubt be picked over and the valuable niche's filled by entrepreneurial journo's.
Hey Rowan - I agree in that I am not lamenting the downfall or decline or particular powerful companies. I see it as a more structural problem about surfacing information that is useful but perhaps not that competitive compared to other attention grabbing content. Also like to focus on the different ways information can get out there. I suppose I think it's important to tell the world in general that general news is dead commercially, and if we like it, we better be prepared to publicly fund it. Thanks for the comment mate!