Turn down that darned radio!
Hence the imperative for the newspaper industry: engage young adults on the Web.
That's the advice of Rich Gordon, an associate professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Gordon compares the newspaper industry's reaction to the Internet with the electronics industry's reaction to the transistor radio in the 1950s.
The transistor radio's portability also drove its popularity among a generation of young people who came of age in the 1960s. Foreshadowing today's earbud-wearing iPod users, teenagers and young adults in the 1950s and 1960s were able to take their music with them wherever they went.
American manufacturers, through their own inaction, allowed Sony and other Japanese companies to serve this growing market. They could make more money on black-and-white TVs, then color sets. And they didn't think the Japanese firms could become competitive any time soon in the TV market.
Of course, they were wrong.
It's a powerful essay that confirms everything I've read and observed in my own house.
His conclusion: Rather than capitalize on the technology to serve a new consumer market, traditionally successful companies seek first to use it to enhance their services to their traditional customers.
Newspapers that take disruptive technologies seriously should, instead, be creating new interactive products geared to young people. And web sites are only part of the picture.
We've been experimenting with podcasts and mobility. Looks like we need to ratchet it up, at the same time we learn how to more actively engage with younger readers in the civic debate.
Comments (3)
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Podcasts, IM, SMS ....
Remember: If it's too loud, you're too old. ;-)
Posted on June 28, 2005 11:38 AM
We never experimented with TeleText here in the United States. In Europe, 20 years ago, TeleText was going to replace the printed paper with electronic versions delivered to set-top boxes for reading on your television.
Image Truman holding up an Ipod.
Supplementing the paper is the best solution, where you can be the ONE source for audio, video, and written news & features.... Just like the old days before the FCC and Government broke up the newspaper/broadcasting monopolies.
Ooops - monopolies - here we go again.
Posted on June 28, 2005 9:17 PM
...more actively engage with younger readers in the civic debate.
A tangential semantic quibble, or thought experiment, or something - what would happen if the press were to encourage dialogue instead of debate?
Posted on June 29, 2005 3:35 PM