Via Peter Kafka's MediaMemo (All Things D), comes a concise view of the state of the news media market from John Byrne, whose last day as Executive Editor of BusinessWeek is today.
And while many have weighed in on that topic, Byrne's comments carry a lot of weight. Not only has he watched the value of BusinessWeek plummet, culminating in its sale to Bloomberg for less than $5 million, Byrne has been an innovator among his peers in exploring new media and models. Among non-tech publishers, he was an early adopter and avid user of Twitter (@JohnAByrne), while overseeing the BusinessWeek.com website. Between stints at BW, he served as editor-in-chief for Fast Company. There are few "old media" journalists with a better understanding of alternative media than he.
OK, now to his comments, captured on MediaMemo:
I have three fundamental beliefs that inform my thinking:
1) Print advertising will never come back. There are just too many options for advertisers today and too much pressure on rates. Sadly, success in print will be measured in single-digit declines, forever.
2) Online advertising will never offset those declines nor save print. There’s far too much competition online and far too much available inventory; and
3) Users will not pay for content, unless they’re convinced it has immediate and tangible value. Very little journalism meets that standard today. Do we really need 57 versions of a story on Bernie Madoff pleading guilty?
Not that different from what's been written here and elsewhere, but well-said and from someone worth listening to.
