New challenges for the media barons as they seek new ways to stay rich

Featured, Media — By ken on January 4, 2011 at 4:37 pm

The media is in a state of flux with younger generations moving away from television and newspapers to the internet, portable smartphones and tablet computers as a mean of not only socialising but gaining information and being entertained.

Computer games are also challenging the cinema for the youthful generation’s attention, amassing enormous sales and growth.

Computer Game Addicts

This presents considerable challenges for the conventional media as the trend for people to choose what they do and how they do it accelerates in ways not anticipated decades before.

A convergence is taking place with greater interactivity which all caters for the more mobile attention deficit mindset of people who want it now, no matter where they are, with infinite variety.

Its not just channel jumping, but an instant, unlimited and ever changing array of amusements to select from.

New Media

The ability to pacifily watch a program and during the dull moments reply to messages from friends or peruse titillating images and information. Then suddenly launch an interactive game with players spread across the globe.

The old media forms dish out vast streams of content, of which only a little may interest the individual. A newspaper can be very thick, populated heavily with adverts and obscure stories that may never get read. Stories determined by an editor rather than the reader.

News happenings result from sudden changes of luck, often bad, leading to stories of disaster and tragedy. Much of this comes as a surprise to the reader, as they chart a course of discovery for as long as the content holds their interest. Stories that directly impact on their lives will be more attention grabbing, or that affect people they can relate to. Then there’s stories about what the others do, whether that be celebrities, royalty or the eccentric. Giving people a taste of others lifestyles without a commitment or risk.

How current these stories are has an important bearing on their attention grabbing capabilities, for stale news can be as unpalatable as last week’s lunch scraps in the trash can.

The internet has the ability to serve up current information that is ever changing and refreshing, as the process of dissemination is more fluid and rapid. No restrictions such as the printed editions of a newspaper or waiting for a scheduled news bulletin.

As newspaper distributions decline, particularly in the U.S., followed by other regions as trends catch up, advertising revue will suffer. One of the reasons the Murdoch news empire is seeking alternate ways to generate an income stream from their vast news gathering resources.

Rupert Murdoch now has plans for an iPad-only newspaper, ‘The Daily’, which he hopes will make it cheaper to distribute content to a broader audience, using Apple’s iTunes payment system to gather subscriptions. The iPad app-only publication will have no print or web page versions. Readers will not be able to share content easily via Twitter, Facebook or Digg. Cut and paste will be disabled.

The Daily will be produced by News Corp with a staff of 100 journalists and a budget of $US30 million, to be launched some time in 2011.

Interestingly, the very internet based organs that enable content to go viral will be denied an easy interface, unless the reader is prepared to rekey in content the hard way, or hack the system. Twitter, Facebook and Digg get the word out and draw people to content, but Murdoch sees that as content stealing rather than heralding its existence or review. Particularly the Blogs which plagiarise his organisation’s stories. Much of his walled garden concept is counter to current internet philosophy, so it will be interesting to see if the power of Murdoch can overcome the ever increasing momentum of the internet.

The problem for Murdoch is that people can gain free news from the BBC in Britain and the ABC in Australia. Both with vast news gathering resources of their own and who work under legislation that guarantees it is made available without charge. Probably a reason News Corp has been so vocal against these institutions.

Program time shifting by video recorders with hard drives

Broadcasters are also impacted by viewers recording and time shifting the shows they watch, often winding through the advertisements.

New technology usually brings with it new challenges, which then requires fresh solutions to counter the latest problems generated.

Getting a more attentive audience

Electronic readers can replace paper and also make the content delivery more current, its just a case of encouraging people to pay for the service, which up until now has generally been free on the internet. Broadcasters, who are also content producers, are looking at ways to generate revenue from both new shows and old programs.

The latest innovation comes from MirriAd who have signed up the Seven Network in Australia for digital product placement. Those who object will most likely think of this as Spam and a detraction from the content. How people will react to this yet needs to be determined, if in fact many will react at all? Product placement has been taking place in movie productions for some time.

In Back to the Future, Michael J. Fox’s character Marty McFly goes into a 1955 cafe and orders a Pepsi Free, Pepsi’s diet drink. The soda jerk tells him if he wants a Pepsi he’s gonna have to pay for it. In the mid 90s, Apple Computer (now Apple, Inc.) used movie product placement to get its products in the public eye. Car manufacturers also employ this technique to place their products in everything from James Bond movies to Mission Impossible.

One of the most blatant examples is the placement of soft drinks in plain view as American Idol judges adjudicate.

Now video games are indoctrinating the young in the same way, as they play with their computer consoles.

To add a little levity, the actors in the television comedy show ’30 Rock’ made sly winks and nods toward the camera to lampoon the appearance of placed products.

MirriAd digital product placement

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