Links: On Google’s AP move and newspapers as a “change organization”
Howard Owens has a solid post about five attributes necessary for newspapers to continually cope with the changing information landscape. Number four is my favorite:
Fourth, measuring success won’t be a matter of dollars and sense only. I think Hagel is right on this point: We need to develop metrics that help us gauge our ability to drive business decisions via leading indicators (audience engagement, say) than lagging indicators (revenue). The need for profits will never wane, but the best way to ensure growing revenue is to know think of the audience first.
Ryan Sholin writes three bullet-points about why Google hosting AP news content is a good thing. I agree. Last month I wrote a bit about ways newspapers could fight Google News’ new article-comment function, and in the last week I wrote some comments here about the value of wire services in newspapers’ print product. Google’s AP step is a bit more constructive for newspapers because it’s something papers couldn’t have accomplished on their own, and it encourages smart decisions about where newspaper’s online resources ought to be pointed.
September 8th, 2007 at 10:50 am
[…] Ryan Sholin has some rational thought here. Lucas Grindley says ‘I told you so.‘ Joe Murphy points out where newspapers should focus their energy. Howard, at Etaoin Shrudlu, points out that AP doesn’t sell state wires. William M. Hartnett says ‘Meh’ to the whole deal. […]