FAIRFAX -- What’s happening now and next in journalism was the topic of discussion with Mark Potts and George Mason University's Online Journalism class on Tuesday!
Potts, a journalist, spent 15 years as a print editor and reporter before switching his focus to his current role as a product and business consultant to media and Internet companies.
“Newspapers will be going out of business this year,” says Potts. An “enormous change” in the media landscape has taken place that’s been brought by the web. The web has changed everything. Newspapers are no longer the sole source of information. Today, people can receive national and international news from everywhere in real-time.
In Potts article, They're Just Not That Into You, he says that the newspaper companies and AP wire service were suggesting they go on strike for a few days to emphasize the importance of their services. Potts believes they will not be missed.
When a GMU student asked whether or not people will still be as aware of what's going on in the world without newspapers, Potts explains that newspapers were a great business in the past because that was the only written form of news people had available. Today, however, people find other ways to find out what’s going on. They can get their news from magazines, TV, radio, and the Internet (Twitter and blogs).
To help newspaper companies cope with this, he suggests they focus on what’s going on locally. He says that, “Iraq I can get, politics I can get, what’s happening in my kids school, I can’t get.” It’s local news that people have trouble getting. He believes that there is a local media ecosystem that people don’t understand, but that will fill the gap, bringing the web and traditional print journalism together.
Another aspect he focuses on is the transition from print advertising as a primary source of revenue to online advertising as becoming the sole source of revenue. Even though print journalism is moving to the web, Potts estimates that it will take about five to eight years before the online revenue is capable of supporting the news industry.
Newspapers are falling behind their competitors in the new online technology. To ensure that newspapers transition successfully to the online world from print, some suggestions Potts makes to newspaper companies include:
- Think Outside The Box
- Engage Your Audience
- Don’t Just Create Content—Aggregate It
- Embrace The Competition
- Get Local. Very Local. Hyperlocal.
- Stop Covering The World
By making bold decisions to change the old way of doing things, Potts believes that newspaper companies can remain relevant in the new age of news.