Schibsted, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, And The Future Of News
There has been a flurry of interest in the coming death of newspapers (although others aren't referring to it that way), what with the Rattner piece in the WSJ (se Steve Rattner, You Are Cracked), and the recent NYT piece on the McClatchy Company (see The Coming Death Of Newspapers Is Slowly Becoming More Obvious). I read with interest a piece by Eric Pfanner about Schibsted, an innovative and successful Norwegian publishing company that has rapidly moved toward the web in a way that American publishers should be -- but aren't -- emulating:
[from Norwegian newspaper publisher finds the secret to profiting online - International Herald Tribune][...]
Starting in 1995, Schibsted started investing heavily in new media, and it stuck with those commitments during the dot-com bust, when some other publishers turned skeptical. In recent years, the investments have started to pay off, and Schibsted is now the biggest player on the Internet in Norway and in neighboring Sweden. It has also expanded aggressively into new markets like France and Spain, starting free newspapers under the name 20 Minutes and acquiring classified advertising businesses that it is moving onto the Internet.
Kjell Aamot, chief executive of Schibsted, said the company recognized more than a decade ago that "being a traditional Norwegian newspaper company would not be sustainable over time."
While other newspaper companies tried to cling to their existing business models, "we changed from a defensive stance at the beginning of the Internet age to a very offensive one," he said during a telephone interview from Oslo.
Anand said one reason Schibsted may have been able to shift gears so quickly was that some top managers were from outside the newspaper business, including several executives hired from McKinsey, the consulting firm. Instead of being wedded to print, analysts said, they were willing to cannibalize existing businesses in order to develop new ones on the Internet.
Rather than trying to insulate VG or Aftenposten, a more highbrow paper, from competition, the company created internal rivals by developing Internet- only brands that do some of same things as the newspapers, only better. Circulation and ad sales have fallen at some of the print titles. VG sold an average of 316,000 weekday copies in the fourth quarter, down from 344,000 a year earlier.
Smart: willing to undercut their own lines of business because they knew that if they didn't someone else would. And where did they get this out of the box thinking? By bringing in people from outside the media world: not just the same old newspaper execs.
Rafat Ali has a few choice words, calling Schibsted's moves a "flanking strategy."
Some Americans are finally breaking out of the cobwebs, accepting the inevitable need to rethink everything in order to survive. A Feb 15 memo from Julia Wallace, the Editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, lays it out:
[from Poynter Forums][...]
We must make these changes to respond to our readers. They now have more sources than ever for news and information, and we must fundamentally alter the way we operate. Online, we will show that we know Atlanta best, providing superlative news and information and becoming the preferred medium for connecting local communities. In print, we will really listen to our core readers and create a newspaper that offers distinct and valuable content. As we think about this future, we have four clear jobs:
Grow digital
Reinvent print
Create more regular local enterprise (distinctive content) that readers cannot get elsewhere
Improve our news and information gatheringWe must organize ourselves to meet these goals. That means a major shift in the way we work. Our current structure is fine for the pace and demands of a printed newspaper, but isn't structured for online's immediacy and evolving needs. Additionally, as we have evolved over time, we have added layers and bureaucracy and have become less nimble. Rather than tinkering with the old newsroom, we need to start over.
I am uncertain if the planned changes are in fact so fundamental as to represent starting over, but I agree with the spirit of what Wallace says. She mentions consolidating to four departments, instead of more than a dozen, in the news room, and removing layers of bureaucracy. Moving in the right direction, certainly. Will it be enough? If "going digital" means getting socialized, and starting to participate in the online conversation going on here online, well, maybe. But I think that editors like Wallace are still too wedded to the old media broadcast dynamic: can she see what is really going on? The McKinsey guys that Schibsted brought aboard may have been a bit more adventurous: Wallace still sounds like she is tinkering with the old Model T, not designing a Prius.
Comments