Saturday, November 25, 2006

What is the future of MSM?

Joan Tintor has uncovered a little gem of insight in the Globe's Report on Business Magazine. It highlights some of the challenges of MSM in an interview with ex-Star editor Giles Gherson.

As I have previously stated, I have to be careful what I say about the Star due to familial connections, but the bias is right there in black and white. However, Gherson feels that he adhered to the Atkinson principles, and that the decision was due to political reasons more than anything else.

What I find interesting is how the newspaper industry still measures success according to subscription rates. Gherson seems to be suggesting that MSM needs to move into a more multiplatform approach to news delivery as subscription rates for the "broadsheet newspaper" continue to fall in this electronic, tree-conserving age.

This is where blogs are light-years ahead. Instead of feeling threatened, MSM should try to update their approach. They need to look at more innovative methods of acquiring revenue, such as through increased on-line advertising, etc.

There's no turning back now.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

They might be wise to be threatened. Ifbloggewrs got together to form their own online newspaper, what would happen to their circulation then? Want to be the local reporter for a new national paper?

OMMAG said...

MSM- needs to focus on doing what they do best..that is acquiring and disseminating information.

The growing masses of web based aggregators and commentators will continue to be the check and balance to any incompetence and dishonesty ..just as happened throughout the scandals of Reuters and AP, ABC, BBC, CBC, CBS, NYT, WP and so on all through the last several years.

Anonymous said...

Personally I much prefer getting my news from blogs rather than any sort of MSM. I really don't read the newspaper anymore, I rarely listen to the radio news, and I never watch TV news. Thank goodness there are people like you bloggers to sift through the confusion and information overload to give it to me straight up.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

lol! Happy to be of service, Steph!

Red Tory said...

Bloggers are, to a large extent, just kibitzers and parasites. If it wasn’t for the dreaded “MSM” that you and the likes of Sweater Guy lovingly decry, you’d have precious little to talk about. That is, unless you’re happy feeding off the puerile tripe coming from LifeSite, Newsmax, World Nut Daily and such dispensaries of rubbish.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Bloggers are, to a large extent, just kibitzers and parasites.

Red, I assume you're including yourself in that definition.

;)

Red Tory said...

Most certainly!

I’m an observer and a commenter -- nothing more. I try to draw strings together from different sources to form an opinion, but I really have little if anything original to contribute otherwise. This ludicrously pretentious idea that the MSM is archaic and past its “sell-by date” makes me laugh. Sure, there are some intrepid bloggers out there who are doing valid investigative work, but they are few and far between.

Anonymous said...

I think swift's first hand account of the Caledonia rally last month is the only example of original reporting I can think of having seen on any blog.

The rest is a giant editorial page. Valuable in itself for sure, but not news gathering like traditional reporters do.

But that will certainly change over time.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

L.S. - That's very true. Swift's account was awesome. One of the best I've seen on the topic. Certainly better than any MSM report!

I feel very privileged that he chose to reveal that story on my blog.

:)