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It is a When not an If How valuable is Twitter to the newspaper industry The future without news on paper. The news on paper was a "need" of the 20th century but the necessity to read the news or obtain information via paper is no longer a requirement of the population in the 21st century The public have other means; they are not limited to the web as brought about by the utilization of the Internet as a way of transmission, as the news can also be received via television and radio. But the widespread use of the Internet was probably the final straw, the tipping point, as news on print (newspaper) has been under threat for a number of years, firstly by radio, then television. The news will always exist as there is a thirst by the population for information; it is that the method of delivery is changing. It is not a case of "if"the newspaper industry will fully embrace the Internet as a means of spreading and disseminating information aka the news but "when" The newspaper business model is broken, the positioning is now for who can compete profitably The next battlefield The question is who is in the position to provide the news on-line in the 21st century. The old media are staking their claim on-line. Newspapers having the most to lose in this changing world have websites and actively they promote them. Journalists who once turned their noses up at writing for the Internet believing it beneath them now willingly participate. The television stations place their video online along with written sound bites and the radio stations use the web as an extension to their audio offerings. Whether these latter two have the infrastructure in place to collect, deliver and provide comprehensive well rounded news is debatable. They are in the entertainment business not news. Will the news gathering and publication be left to the bloggers and citizen journalists? They certainly have the tools for publication and are capable of serious comment. But at the end of the day, a structure and infrastructure is necessary to gather the news and present it to the wider reading public and do it with a profit. It is a question of economics, people have to eat, and therefore people have to be paid. We are also looking for an industry that is capable of collecting information and presenting on-line, the focus is on-line. And in this regard the newspaper industry (as we know it) may be found wanting. Their management style, direction and culture is print, on paper and while they are trying to position themselves for on-line, they also have a foot planted firmly in the other camp. And attached to this foot is the cost and infrastructure associated with operating a newspaper off-line, a trending non profitable dead weight. Over the years they have accumulated buildings and printing presses, assets which on the books have value because they have been used in the production of newspapers but these assets are turning to liabilities as they are not required in an on-line business model. The newspaper industry as we know it has a big economic problem in their books. The Newspaper Industry solution, as they see it Charge for the news; treat the news as a commodity. But except in specialised areas the news is not a commodity to be bought and sold. In the off-line world news is a commodity bought and sold within the newspaper industry but at the public level, the providing of the news was funded by the advertisers. (No advertisers, no news) And charging for the news online as a profit centre is fraught with danger as the public online is not limited and they can and will click away. The solution is to bring the advertisers on-line and they will pay for the news to be provided as they have always done, but in this regard the newspaper industry has shot itself in the foot. In order to extract the last economic benefit from their assets which are fast turning into liabilities they keep a foot in the other camp and encourage the advertisers to stay with the newspapers. You tend to wonder whose targets are being met, when the public is trending to on-line Most valuable asset a newspaper has Journalists and reporters are the most valuable asset a newspaper has, the people who write the stories and articles, the news people want to read. Very few people obtain a newspaper for the advertisements, the advertisers know this, the business model is, people read the news and while they are reading they may see the ad. People will go where the news or information is most valuable to them and they are going on-line to find it In the off-line world the newspapers industry operated in a walled garden, if you want to know, you had to see them, but this has now gone, but the public still wants to read the news. And who has the structure and infrastructure to collect the news, yep the old newspaper industry, the problem they face is how do to get the public to the newspaper website to read what their journalists and reporters have written. But while the industry has been debating their demise and the charging for the news, Mr and Mrs Public have been sending customers to them. Hitwise Report The "Hitwise" report for June 2009 noted Twitter is the 39th most visited website in New Zealand and the industry that benefited the most from the downstream traffic was the newspaper industry. (Other Hitwise reports from around the world suggest this is the trend elsewhere) People are on-line reading the news and while doing so think someone else may be interested, so they link to the article on the newspaper website The newspaper industry should stop shooting itself in the foot, and cease the contemplation that they should restrict access on their websites. They should embrace the social media; it is working in their favour. The problem they will face is the retention of quality journalists whose writings the public wish to read. More readers, more advantage for the advertisers who pay the bills. The old business model is passing, the new one not yet born. It's sure going to be a disruptive next few years PS: A thought just crossed my mind, several in the old newspaper industry complain bitterly that the search engines in doing the job they do, steal their readers and they wish to restrict the activities of the search engines and / or charge them for carrying news items. The sending of readers to the newspaper websites via Twitter or other social media sites, surely this is of benefit to the newspaper industry, should not they be looking to compensate the people who do this Cheers Contact Firstsearch