…. Apparently a lot. Have you seen what’s been happening to the share prices of companies like New York Times, Gannett, Knight Ridder and Dow Jones? Down, down, down, down – from 25% to 35% in the last year. Why should such great companies be struggling?
I always thought of these companies as news companies. But they think of themselves as newspaper companies. Seem subtle. Until you realize that newspaper readership is down across the board, as is advertising for newspapers. As we all know (and this blog demonstrates) most of us get most of our news from the web now. Instantaneous, customized, searchable news. We don’t wait for a paper to arrive and take time to browse it.
It would seem obvious that the best newspapers, who have the best news bureaus, would be leaders in taking news to the web. And leaders in attracting readers to those sites. But, alas, they spent most of their energy in early web days Defending & Extending their hard-copy business. They feared the web and the uncertain revenue model. They waited, and waited. Now, people don’t go to those sites first, or second, or often at all when they want news (for more detail see Chicago Tribune story.) And, most importantly, younger readers completely ignore these venerable names for finding their news, prefering web sites more customized to their interests.
These companies got themselves into trouble because they didn’t see themselves as News companies. They ignored the challenges the web brought in the 1990’s. They Defended & Extended their old Success Formulas. They reassured themselves their business would return. They failed to Disrupt their Lock-in to newsprint (what a simple, and obvious Lock-in), and they never created White Space teams with the PERMISSION to actually develop leadership in on-line news delivery (as well as a profit model for the emerging new market). Now they have a HUGE Re-invention Gap as they struggle to find a way to catch up with their customers, who are leaving them in the proverbial dust. And once again we see their employees (layoffs), vendors (cost cutting), customers (forced to find new ways to advertise effectively) and investors (losing billions of dollars in equity value) suffer.
Be careful how you refer to your business. Deadly Lock-in might start with something as simple as calling your business News versus Newspaper.
