Print News Should Embrace Digital, Not Surrender
John Paton, CEO of Digital First Media, recently gave a pep talk to his employees. One of the hardest things for humanity to embrace is change. Admittedly, not all change is good. But when the evidence shows that a tried and true model is failing, it's time to change. He eloquently points out the writing on the wall for the print industry, but aspires to the future.
Read the entire speech, by John Paton here.
Here are a few of my favorite excerpts from John's speech:
"The past does not buy the future. The future has to be built."
"Critics, both internal and external, voice concerns that by focusing on digital we are accelerating the death of print advertising.
Look, more than half of all newspaper print advertising has disappeared since 2006 in the US. Print doesn't need any help from me to continue its relentless decline."
"I hate that word content. It's like saying cargo. Well, there are all kinds of cargo all with different value.
We don't do content we do journalism and our cargo is precious."