Home » Business » Ask The Audience!

Ask The Audience!

Posted by Brian Reich on May 5, 2009 in Business, Business Models, Journalism, People, Power & Policy, Social Media | 2 comments

The Senate Commerce Committee announced announced the lineup for their hearing about the future of journalism. The list of speakers includes:

Senator Ben Cardin
Marissa Mayer – Vice President, Search Products and User Experience, Google
Alberto Ibarguen – President and Chief Executive Officer, The Knight Foundation
David Simon – Author, TV Producer and Former Newspaperman
Steve Coll – Former Managing Editor, The Washington Post
James Moroney – Publisher/CEO, The Dallas Morning News
Arianna Huffington – Co-Founder and Editor in Chief, The Huffington Post

There is, of course, one notable person missing from the list of speakers: ME.

I’m not suggesting that I should be invited to speak to the Committee (though that would be cool) — but I think the voice of the customer is missing. I read newspapers and magazines, watch network and cable news, listen to the radio, and more. Sometimes I get my media fix online, other times its in print (or other offline formats). For the stuff that I find really valuable, I have no problem paying. For other stuff, I think the price point of nothing is just about right.

As I see it, the biggest challenge for the news industry today is that they are producing content that their audience isn’t willing to pay for anymore. Most of the content is generalized, re-purposed, bland, or worse. The format for delivery, whether its online or offline, doesn’t matter. If the customer doesn’t find the news worth paying for, the news industry is doomed. No business model, ad format, or government bailout will change that.

The Commerce Committee has assembled a good group of people to testify — including some friends of WeMedia. But the voice of the customer is missing. And you simply won’t hear the message that the quality of the content and focus of the media isn’t good enough from anyone who has one foot inside the industry’s door.

So, Senator Kerry and others on the Committee — pick me, choose me, ask me what the news industry needs to survive. I will tell you.

PDF

Brian Reich

Brian is Managing Director of little m media which provides strategic guidance and support to organizations around the use of the internet and technology to facilitate communications, engagement, education, and mobilization. He is well known for his expertise in new media, web 2.0, social networks, mobile, community, ecommerce, brand marketing, cause branding, and more. Reich, the author of Media Rules!: Mastering Today’s Technology to Connect With and Keep Your Audience (Wiley 2007). He blogs at Thinking About Media and contributes as a Fast Company Expert. Previously, Reich was a principal of EchoDitto, one of the most successful online communications agencies in the nation, Director of New Media for Cone Inc, a brand strategy and communications agency in Boston and a Senior Strategic Consultant and Director of Boston Operations for Mindshare Interactive Campaigns, an interactive public affairs agency. From 2000 – 2004, Brian ran how own strategic communications firm, Mouse Communications. Reich has worked in and around politics, including helping to direct dozens of campaigns across the country. He spent two years as Vice President Gore’s Briefing Director in the White House, handling both official activities and activities during his 2000 presidential campaign. Brian serves on the board of Investigate West, independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to the art and craft of investigative and narrative journalism. Brian served as an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University in Washington, DC and is currently teaching a course on consumer behavior and marketing at Columbia University in New York. Brian attended the University of Michigan and is a graduate of Columbia University. He and his wife, Karen Dahl, live in New York City with their son, Henry.

Website - More Posts

http://www.mediaflect.com Dorian Benkoil

Glad Ibarguen (whose Knight foundation under his leadership is a we media game changer award-winner) is invited. He'll be as frank and forward looking and unafraid as he usually is, I trust.
http://intensedebate.com/people/WeMedia WeMedia

Dorian is right about Alberto – he's going to offer a valuable perspective. I suspect Marissa Mayer will too given her work with the Knight Foundation's Commission on the Information Needs of Communities. I wonder if anyone will question her on rights, media economics and Google's role in news distribution.

These hearings are clearly skewed toward institutions, but that's what they're about: the downfall of institutions. They don't seem to be about the rise of We Media. The context is a proposal to provide a government bailout for failing news companies. Perhaps alternative viewpoints will be included in subsequent hearings, including We Media, social investment and entrepreneurship.