So, what’s your take? Where is the media headed, tell me? Comments below, thou enlightened souls!
Recently I asked this question to many guys in print, television and of course in the blogosphere as well. I asked it to myself. There were definitive answers from everyone, almost swear, but very little convergence. Print said it is doing extremely well, televisions felt its popularity soared like never before (a new channel is launched, guess in how many weeks?) and the new media – like us – feels the pulse getting stronger by the day too.
The question is who among us is lying?
I mean not lying in terms of news quality, but w.r.t the eyeballs. And then are we close to a conclusive analysis yet? May be yes, may be not. Read on.
Here are some glimpses from the latest Comscore reports:
We kissed Business Standard for the first time this week, and are intertwining with Mint (livemint.com) for more than 14 weeks! All this by plain reporting on new and young startups? Talking about technology that evolves from the trenches and there needs to be someone to reflect that? I mean come on, guys we are a startup too! We just did the #unpluggd2 a week back.
Now before I miss the point, and continue with the post, let me invite our friendly neighborhood advertisers to grab a space on us. We do provide a very targeted audience, and the numbers don’t lie, eh?
So where is the media headed, I ask you again? Let me simplify the call first. The traditional consists of print, television and perhaps the radio. They hire a 1000 plus army to collect the news, edit, package and deliver. There are tonnes of utilities that sit around the core brand to do the dirt – ad agencies, delivery boys on cycles, freelance reporters, PR agencies, satellite communication leasing, real estate providers, legal consultants, maintenance teams, operations teams etc. etc. etc.
Compare this with a blog: Just twenty people with a completely hosted online solution and sitting right next to news. The Internet provides the new media with special accessories like YouTube, Slideshare, Twitter etc. to bring out the effects. The only challenge is to earn credibility. Which again is something to come by, if the blog runs with a clear goal, honesty and discipline.
Print says, it is going very strong and when it comes to English dailies there isn’t much space for more competition. I accept it or perhaps believe that there can’t be better yield – money – for them. When I touched a nerve by saying that print is going to shrink very soon, bang came there a flat response: “India is NOT USA… We still earn the highest ad rates in the industry“. Sure, why not man, but how much do your advertisers get by spending a Ferrari?
Television media counts on the freshness of news that they broadcast. “No form of digital media or print infrastructure can match the speed at which TV’s deliver the news at your doorstep” said a friend of mine. Music, sensationally edited news, SOAPS and small bits of news in between. But hey, hey, hey. Did you look at TechCrunchTV using the web? If you guys don’t believe me yet, media is gonna evolve (most die, some cross-over :P) in a big way.
I am sure each one of us has a respectful place in the industry, yet we bloggers keep growing by the day. And never to date, we have covered general news like politics or Bollywood like our friends do alongside business reporting. Our website doesn’t even have listed shares of the BSE/NSE! Our traffic now sit closer to print or television media websites than ever before. And yes we are talking about India, only.
So where is the media headed, dear readers of Pi? What do you think is the future of ‘new media’ in India?
