News as a Commodity
Here is the latest in my ongoing series of essays, TV News in a Postmodern World. This piece examines the aspects of commoditization impacting all forms of media in the current marketplace. This is especially significant as it relates to news, for the economics of the market are quickly reducing its value to near zero. If you want to know why you’re having trouble growing your market share, it might be because news is being commodified.
The web is having this effect, and it’s a straight line from here-to-there on the road to news as a commodity.
This, of course, has pretty significant ramifications for those of us in the old media — that is to say the Media 1.0 — world. Media 1.0 isn’t going away any time soon, but it’s already gone as a vehicle for growth, and the sooner we accept that, the better. Mature businesses, especially those with shrinking profit margins, need to look elsewhere, and that’s why we’re so adamant about diversifying along a dual path strategy.
Personal note: It’s been over a month since I last published one of these, and I’m sorry about that. I have so much to write these days that it’s getting harder and harder to keep this series going. We do plan to publish the series in a book soon.
