TNTJ January: A mixture of both (old and new) will be the future

This post originally appeared on the Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists group blog.

I thought long and hard about this month’s question, puzzling about whether it would be the new start-ups who will rule the media roost or whether the old juggernauts will continue in their place at the top of the media tree. After much puzzling I decided that I couldn’t decide who would win, and it lead me to the conclusion that there perhaps isn’t a battle-line being drawn yet – as we haven’t seen enough evidence of new start-ups.

To reach my conclusion I weighed up both sides:

The “old”

They have the power, resources and knowledge to transform themselves. Indeed some of them already are, opening themselves up, pushing more resources into multimedia and pushing their content out via different platforms.

Most importantly the “old” news organisations still have a huge readership, centred in one place, and they still have trust with a lot of their readers. Not everyone is in the ‘new wave’ of digitally literate. There are still those who prefer the printed page and there always will be.

The “old” media organisations will need to be working closely with those in the tech industry, particularly mobile phone makers and networks, to ensure that their content is accessible from anywhere at anytime. As mobile phones become more important for internet use and widespread easy access to wireless networks is commonplace, reading the latest headlines on your mobile phone web browser will be considered everyday normality.

“old” media brands will always have a place in the new media world, but they need to ensure that they have their content opened up and accessible in as many different ways as possible to their increasingly scattered and diverse readership.

The “new”

New start ups would be a good place to put yourself as a new journalist, but with them they carry huge risks. They exist in the online world, one that is still expanding, but as everyone keeps saying “there’s no money there yet” – well, not the money that was required to support the “old” media models.

Start ups will have to work hard to win trust, capture the public’s attention and ensure they are providing the right content. True it’ll be easier to make their content accessible and incorporate multimedia, it’s always starting afresh with a blank slate – but the “old” media have their archives, providing a lot of added value to their content.

The other thing that worries me is will any new start up that makes more than a penny suddenly by snapped up by the “old” media and incorporated into their corporate structures? We see it in the tech sector, a new network/tool comes along and then a giant like Google or Microsoft weighs in and buys it.

Startups though could have a big role to play in local/regional journalism. With a smaller patch to cover and the tools at their disposal, and with a declining local/regional “old” media (well here in the UK anyway) and murmurs of state intervention to save them – wouldn’t it be amazing if a state bail out went to a big fund that new media entrepreneurs could bid to for their local news media startup (yes, I realise this raises a whole load of ethical questions but it’s an idea)?

The battle between “old” and “new” media does not seem to be fully joined yet, as the “old” still dominate but if the “old” do not pull their fingers out over the next decade then the “new” will start to become a reality.