The Billion Dollar Opportunity: Newspapers 2.0
As print newspapers fail, where’s the business opportunity?
We’ve heard ahead of that traditional print media was on its way to extinction. But in this recession it’s finally becoming true. 100-year-old city newspapers are dying.
Staring at fresh media startups is one of the biggest opportunities in a century. It’s not just regarding blogging and the low costs of competing with traditional media. It’s regarding becoming the local media and replacing printed newspapers.
I see three types of print organizations standing five or ten years from now:
1. Major, nationwide or international publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The Economist. These premium publications can charge for online and print subscribers since they provide a good product covering multiple beats.
2. News bureaus. These are the ones sending reporters around the globe to cover international events, wars, etc. They sell their content to #3.
3. Local online newspapers. This is the billion dollar opportunity.
Individual blogs cannot replace local newspapers. Most blogs are merely echo chambers reporting on what the traditional media states. Blogs don’t cover some of the notable minutia that local newspapers grasp.
The local online newspaper of the future will have paid reporters covering beats. Many of these reporters will be part-time, but they won’t be like typical bloggers. They’ll be real reporters. Other content will be sourced from the news bureaus, as well as local topical bloggers. It will look similar to most newspapers’ existing online web sites, but without the traditional print fuss.
These online newspapers will charge subscriber fees for most of the content and also sell ads.
There are two ways to enter the market. One is to have a city’s category-killer domain name, such as Austin.com. While good, I think the better approach is to buy up the existing newspapers’ web site (assuming it has a good brand), such as Statesman.com here in Austin .
The good news for entrepreneurs is they shouldn’t expect much of a fight from the existing local papers. These papers won’t switch to an online-only structure until it’s too late. We’re by now seeing papers that fold deciding to spin out the online edition. The biggest source for competition is likely the local TV news networks.
Mark my words, this is one of the biggest opportunities staring us in the face in a long, long time.
