Human Ventures

Filed under: information

Newspapers Need to Learn How to Share

I shared in an earlier post the idea that many media companies feel they made a huge mistake by making their content available for free in the early days of the internet. They believe they commoditized their own product.

I contend that their decision acknowledged the near-zero marginal costs of distribution online, combined with the reality that people often pay for infomation based on what they think it costs to create and distribute (mistakenly emphasising the physical product), rather than the value they derive from it, which is nearly impossible to calculate.

In this way, information does want to be free. Still, I think there remains ample opportunity for media companies to differentiate and continue drawing on subscriptions as a source of revenue. 

For example, the NY Times is free online (for now), yet I pay good money to subscribe to the NY Times on my Kindle.

Why? Because I value the ability to receive high quality news in an accessible, convenient, and ad-free format. 

So there's one, and one that companies are already exploiting - differentiate in how you deliver content to readers.

Number two, and the Nook and the WSJ can teach us much here, is making online subscriptions more attractive by allowing some sharing.

Information's value is largely a function of the size of the network that has/can have access to it. It does me minimal good to pay for a subscription to Fortune if I the great ideas contained therein can't be distributed among, and used to influence, friends and colleagues. 

Indeed, my access to a subscription-only publication actually increases the need for, and value of, good sharing capability.  I'm subscribing because I want to be a hub of info, not just because I want the info for myself.

This is the way it has always worked. People subscribed to WSJ in print largely to be "in the know." But that never meant knowing for themselves alone, but rather in order to increase their value to others in their ability to be a great source of info. 

Maybe we need a new mantra. Not so much "information wants to be free" but "information wants to be social," whether free or not.

Lessons to Learn from Going Analog when Designing for Digital

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I captured this shot in a Minneapolis lunch spot after I found myself transfixed by the publication that I otherwise never would have picked up.

I thought it a great example of how digital design processes can benefit from doing and observing what Garr Reynolds calls "going analog."

Four things I took away from this:

1. Show people the big picture. The typical reading format forces people to take in information sequentially and in bites. But consuming info that way requires a pre-existing interest or level of commitment on the part of the reader. We often try to manufacture this by plastering attention-grabbing copy and fancy graphics on the cover. When you allow people to quickly and easily scan an entire publication, you raise the probability that they a) will actually understand the essence of your publication and b) find something that genuinely interests them. New touch screen technologies could make this alternative way of presenting information much more feasible.

2. Open it up for them.  Similar to the above, people aren't likely to open up your book or magazine unless they already know you and/or are interested in what they see on the cover. So open it up for them and facilitate their exploration.

3. Make it uber-contextual. The photo shows a copy of a newspaper dedicated to downtown Minneapolis news. I assure you, I am not a connoisseur of downtown Minneapolis news, but when I'm in downtown Minneapolis, that kind of information takes on an air of immediacy and relevance that makes it hard to ignore. What if local or neighborhood publications could push you interesting articles when you wander into their neck of the woods, and perhaps even based on your personal reading/search trends?

4. Catch people in their "micro" spare time. The placement here was optimal for catching people eating a quick lunch and/or waiting 3-5 minutes for their order. Mobile technology could give periodicals the ability to detect when a subscriber or potential subscriber is on the move, away from their computer, and willing to be distracted. 
Posterous theme by Cory Watilo