Matthew Buckland: "Newspapers wonder why their online publications aren’t bringing in the bucks?"

MB: Bruce’s ambivalent attitude towards online is strangling his publication’s digital strategy. Online to him is not that important because he probably sees that his site (unlike many others) doesn’t bring in significant revenue or readership. What he doesn’t realise is that he’s part of the problem: He’s holding his digital property back. It’s not making real money so it’s dependent on his print title, the online staff are junior (because it’s not making money you see) and the quality of content is low. It’s not given the room or investment to breathe in a suffocating museum-like atmosphere. It’s a catch-22. It keeps the website right where it belongs.

What an irony then, Mr Bruce, that your very interview was published on an online-only publication of a journalist who has walked away from the print magazine he used to work for. Let’s also not forget about the “fifth estate” — the millions of bloggers, small website owners and “citizen journalists” offering commentary and news on a daily basis.

SHOOT: Points very succinctly made. And more and more the media consumers are becoming the media creators. Er...Online.

clipped from www.matthewbuckland.com Confusing journalism with newspapers Bruce also muddles “newspapers” and “journalism”. Journalism exists without newspapers, not because of newspapers. Newspapers were the medium of the day. That day is passing. It so happens that most quality journalism still comes from newspapers because that’s where the revenues are at the moment. Those revenues, however, look increasingly unimpressive in the face of crippling print and distribution costs — the albatross around many print businesses’ necks. The key reason we’re seeing advertising revenue continue flowing to newspapers, I’ve argued elsewhere, are institutional biases preserved by a generation in both the media and advertising industry that has lost touch with the pace of the new digital economy. Most local newspaper companies have sizeable sales staffs all geared to selling one thing: That newspaper. Online is “added value” and the handful of online sales staffers (handful because there is no money in online, you see) are low priority