Comments on: How newspapers offer less Unique Value than before

By: The Times behind a paywall: Can Rupert Murdoch win? | BetaTales

The Times behind a paywall: Can Rupert Murdoch win? | BetaTales — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 20:39:41 +0000

[...] How newspapers offer less Unique Value than before [...]

By: Future of newspapers? Let’s talk about the future of storytelling instead | BetaTales

Sat, 15 May 2010 10:25:07 +0000

[...] check the news on smart phones. Tablets will be one more platform moving into the breakfast table challenging newspapers advantage of “unique convenience”. The same happens in other user situations. So yes, tablets will further weaken the position of [...]

By: Per Helge Seglsten

Per Helge Seglsten — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:24:57 +0000

Seeing how news consuming changes from meal eating to snack munching I really can’t understand how there would be a future for digital general newspapers even if they manage to provide the uniquenesses in your article. Actually I’think we’ll find that there will be no such thing as general news, and the general newspapers will not be able to compete with all kind of niche newsproviders. What the general newspaper should do, in my opinion (and if I had any gründer guts, I’d take this idea further myself, but I will of course clame part of the revenue from anyone who uses it §;c]`) is 1) splitting up into several niche channels and 2) providing a publishing channel/portal for both internal niche providers and all the external niche providers that is going to pop up. As the drawback with many different newspapers of course is that news will be hard to find for the news consumer.

By: Per Helge Seglsten

Per Helge Seglsten — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:34:58 +0000

Thanks for taking the customer’s feedback seriously!;c)`
The article itself? I think it’s spot on! You could write a bestseller on that. I think you have isolated the key issues in a splendid way.
The challenge, of course, is coming up with recepies on how to create the unikenesses, especially for the newspaper industry. I think both magazines and niche newspapers stand a good chance at thriving well on pads and phones. But I am more worried about how the general newspapers will do. With better translation tools the competition will be global, and we might face a situation with only a few global news providers and the only norwegian news reporters will be their Norway correspondents. In a situation like this one might see a even stronger need to continue the licence fee system of NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) just to maintain an all norwegian news provider.

By: John Einar Sandvand

John Einar Sandvand — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:30:39 +0000

Per Helge,

Thanks for your comment!
I am using a service called BackType which integrates all Twitter comments that are related to the URL of this article into the comments.
In that way readers can see everything which is being posted about this blog post at the same place. In my opinion this adds value to a blog article.
But I will try to adjust the settings for a while so that the BackType imported comments are separated from the original comments and see how that works.
What did you think about the article itself? I would love to hear your comment.

By: Per Helge Seglsten

Per Helge Seglsten — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:28:56 +0000

Is it something I’m not getting here? Or does Twitter more than anything else just pollute the comment section of every blogpost? Why would anyone want to swim through ørteen “How newspapers offer less Unique Value than before: http://bit.ly/cFiHZH via @addthis” to find something that makes any sense? Beats me! But then again, I’ve never understood what Twitter really is good for, and I suppose it’s the 50 million twitters that can’t be wrong. Or can they?

By: Adam Gardefjord

Adam Gardefjord — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:18:50 +0000

Yes, I would also say that a site like ft.com benefits tremendously from its brand value. Financial Times is an enormous global network. But what I meant was the perception of scarcity amongst smaller sites, say aftonposten.no or dn.se?

By: Tine

Tine — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:47:56 +0000

Forfriskende klartenkt og godt oppsummert, John Einar )

By: John Einar Sandvand

John Einar Sandvand — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:45:42 +0000

No, I don’t think that it is naive to talk about the perception of scarcity. But it all depends on the strength of the brand value.
I think a site like ft.com benefits tremendously from a very strong brand value, which typically also might mean that users perceive the content to be more unique than it actually is. In determining the value users will put on products users’ perceptions cannot be undervalued.
That being said, a major challenge for media companies is that news are being disaggregated. Traditionally news, as music, was consumed in edited packages. In the digital world news to a much larger extent can be consumed as individual pieces – and thus also repackaged with content from other sources. In the long term that will change the value proposition of content.

By: Adam Gardefjord

Adam Gardefjord — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:28:48 +0000

I liked your reply very much and your blog. I understand that you use different terms and words. The point of the article seams much clearer. When you talk about the perception of scarcity, isn’t that a bit naive? Yes we know that there is a big target-audiance out there that isn’t that close to the source of a news article but don’t you think that that is just a matter of time? I understand that Jeff Jarvis is bound to the english-market, but shouldn’t you be as well? Your strong local brand want be as strong when the value of your content is less. Your readers wants to get closer to the source and that is easier done if the source is local i.e your strong local brand lose in value?