Doing Business in the Information Age
The Political and Business Landscape
JLA: Is online subscription the only way newspapers can survive?
AN: In the long run, yes. There'll be a long transition period when paper and digital exist side by side, with the latter slowly growing in share. Unless newspaper publishers establish a digital revenue model they will go out of business.
JLA: Could digital turn out more profitable than print?
AN: It might. You don't have to knock down trees, paste ink on them via capital-intensive machines then expensively distribute them. Once the legacy costs of print have been buried digital could be very profitable on a low cost, high volume basis.
JLA: With video on demand, will we soon see the end of TV schedules?
AN: Not for a while. The linear networks will continue to decline in audience share, but slowly. As X-Factor shows, even in a multi-channel world there are still huge audiences for water-cooler, event TV.
JLA: Can social media hold politicians and business to account?
AN: No. It can help on the margins, but activists don't have the resources or the expertise to do the job properly without the mainstream media.
December 2010
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