We’re going down the toilet while Google eats our lunch, warns News Limited editor
The news industry is “going down the toilet” while the likes of Google and Apple invest in better ways of sharing stories with the public, News Limited’s innovations editor David Higgins has warned.
Speaking at the Walkley Conference in Brisbane, Higgins called for media companies to work harder to use technology to find audiences wherever they are. He said:
“I think we should be taking this more seriously and getting over to our correspondents the idea of telling stories in ways we are not used to doing, allowing us to go into environments and to markets, particularly young people who are not reading as much journalism as we would like.
“There’s a shocking lack of innovation. We’re going down the toilet. Our lunch is being eaten by companies like Google and Apple and companies who are experts in technology and, if we’re serious about having a secure future, we need to put investment into this technology, taking it more seriously. Putting HTML developers, JavaScript developers, those sorts of people into the newsroom with the journalists.
“Were starting to see this sort of thing at News Ltd. We need to take our craft and our products out into the market.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Very true indeed Mr Higgins.
News and events are not changing; technology is, which means that the broadcast is different and far more ‘multi channel’ than ever before.
Breaking news can be consumed socially (as we all know), then might await a credible source to qualify what is happening. Generally, a trusted credible source, like say the ABC or BBC, will affirm in my mind that the tweets I have received are valid… (If you trust these two goverment institutions of course…) 😉
However, what is stopping Twitter to use maths to substantiate whether tweets are credible? Surely volume of tweets, who is tweeting (credible sources) etc can be filtered through an algo and ‘Bobs ya uncle’ you could get a percentage to ‘this is true’ accreditation on a trending topic..? “75% sure this is totally legit…”
Live video at scenes of crimes, accidents etc is happening online and soon via Google Plus you will probably be able to hunt down why you are stuck in traffic with the driver 1km ahead at the scene videoing as you watch and speak with them, because they made a circle called “car crash at xyz intersection…”
Interesting stuff. For a big company like News would they not partner with a tech company..?
Thing is would Google want to partner with a company like News..? Do they need to?
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“Putting HTML developers, JavaScript developers, those sorts of people into the newsroom with the journalists.”
Is it just me or does this quote really underline the fundamental lack of understanding amongst the execs running things like newspapers?
Yes you need to engage with people in way that’s relevant to them today. But this is a structural problem – not something fixable by simply adding a technical skillset to the floor.
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“…particularly young people who are not reading as much journalism as we would like…”
How patronising…
Mr Higgins, we are reading journalism, more than any generation in history – The web is awash with excellent, free sources of information, produced by intelligent individuals who care deeply about their field.
Your problem is that you do not do journalism, you do propaganda and infotaintment, and we are not going to pay for either. News Ltd may be dying, but the media is alive and well. Perhaps that correlation has an element of causation.
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Sherlock, “what is stopping Twitter to use maths to substantiate whether tweets are credible?”
Jeff Goldblum is dead. That is all.
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@ Cameron. Absolutely. Putting a developer on the floor is likely to get you a bunch of hacked together code with no strategy behind the development. How about the newspapers actually stop trying to customise the bejesus out of their own platforms , buy SaaS solutions instead of hosting them themselves, and focus on fixing these structural problems by improving the technical skillets of the actual management team. It might mean firing a lot of the management team, but hey…
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No more than 10 years ago news papers and programs were the only trusted and irreproachable source of information. But, when they chose the path of lazy journalism (where sources and stories were not checked) sensationalism and political agendas, they lost our trust. If only they’d stayed the course. It’s likely that I and many other Australians wouldn’t trust news from Twitter or Apple, and only read it on a credible NEWS website. Beyond a technology problem, they have a trust issue.
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I think News Ltd would be at home in the toilet?
But I believe there will always be a need for CREDIBLE news sources (such as the ABC, BBC, Guardian etc.) – with Google and Apple being important resellers.
yes, a need for some news resources to lift their technology game – but some (such as the Guardian, which automatically emails me the news categories I am interested in) are doing pretty well at it…
But it’s all about brand isn’t it? Trust being the key consumer benefit? Sad again for Murdoch 🙂
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Apple and Google are merely doing what the feckless news industry have resisting doing, in order to “not cannibalise our advertising revenue”
Unfortunately whilst they weren’t cannibalising their revenue, someone else was reinventing their business model and cutting them out. Bugger.
Reminds me of an incredible conversation with a Fairfax exec back in 2008 when, straight-faced, they told me that they viewed online and digital as an extension and enhancement of daily newsprint, run with a separate P&L. They got quite offended when I asked if they were joking.
I think Reddit and their ilk are a far greater threat than Apple or Google.
Kinda surprised (and kinda not) that they didn’t give any reportage on the Paywall experiment.
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If you don’t write things that interest us we won’t buy your papers. But you already know that. If you just throw that same contant onto platforms that are more readily accessible then we still not read them.
You need to be looking at media as a place where you start a conversation. Not somewhere you make a statement then walk away until the next day. If someone is interested in what I say, we start a conversation. Journalism needs to be like that. Right now if I respond news ltd doesn’t respond back. Continue ignoring me then I will stop talking to you.
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@Cameron That quote struck me as being decidedly 2001. Established newsrooms are full of rusted-on leviathans who will sink their ships with their bloated salaries and longlunch supplemented stomachs. A total restructure of newsrooms is required.
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Need to start reporting news instead of generating opinion that might make a difference.The content is still king not the delivery method. The quality of the stuff on their sites is truly awful. And with online you’re competing in a global market. And in Europe and the US they’re doing it so much better than you.
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Love it. Not only is News Limited the toilet of journalism, but people have been warning the newspaper industry for years their business model was stuffed. And the same can be said for free-to-air and pay tv business models.
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I think blaming fellow Murdoch papers for stinkin’ up the joint and driving those “young people” to alternative sources of information would be closer to the mark…
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Duh… They are only about 5 years to late…
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He’s making a valid point.
But perhaps The Guardian is actually eating his lunch with their Facebook app – Facebook stats showing that it currently has 3,300,000 monthly users.
http://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/
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I hear Rupert Murdoch can re assemble a printing press blindfolded.
It also seems that most people in News have also been wearing their blindfolds when it comes to digital technology and possibilities for engagement.
It seems a shame that the investment and technology focus of certain folk running the press has been on phone hacking.
Time to flush.
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There are two sorts of newspapers, one for people who move their lips while they are reading, and one for people who don’t. News Ltd publish the former ( though perhaps readers of The Australian move their right wing as well). The lip movers are getting their pictures from other sources. Newspapers are no longer there to tell us what has happened but rather why it has happened. That requires skills not often found at News, and not appreciated by the owner. His solution is rather to desperately seek sensation, without much sucess. Vale News.
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@Cameron Hear, hear. I thought exactly the same thing.
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Everything is right there in the attitude – “the news industry is going down the toilet.” Realy? Would you like me to send you some of the 100s of excellent news sites around the world that have sprung up in the past five years alone that occupy almost all my online news reading time?
Your lunch is being eaten by those who write important, history-impacting news stories, and quality long reads, that find a worldwide audience in the millions and keep getting hits year after year. Without paywalls.
While NewsLtd execs keep whining about their audience being “stolen,” 1000s of journalists working for independent news sites, or posting to their own blogs, Facebook pages, YouTube channels and Twitter feeds, are being read by tens of millions of young people around the world. They are changing lives and making history. Meanwhile, most of news.com.au front page is celebrity pap and fluff.
Murdoch’s newspapers and websites didn’t “lose” their audience and it wasn’t “stolen’. They just finally found out what real compettion is all about.
And they haven’t stopped whining since.
Give it a rest.
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Hence why media companies are not innovators they buy innovation eg Myspace
Wakeuply awards.
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These paywalls wont work, they need to deliver content online and use online ads. Thats they way forward. 2012 ad growth will be online
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A very poor attempt at hyperbole on my part – thx Tim! Yes I do believe our industry needs to invest in more innovation. But I was actually inspired by the innovation on display at the walkley conference especially the demo of Tony Maniaty’s Warco. I do believe our industry will innovate ourselves a strong future – and i shd emphasise of course that these views are my own – not those of my employer .
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Australian media and innovation. You must be kidding. This is a culture that believes HTML is core competency.
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David Higgins,
I don’t envy your job at all, you’ve got a huge mission in front of you. But popular, quality journalism exists on sites that look like crap, too. Young people won’t visit a news site because it’s pretty or has a lot of bells and whistles, they visit for the stories, the content. And a paywall isn’t going to help bring them in. It will only drive them away.
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Everyone singing the Guardian’s praises should bear in mind that it is losing millions. At one stage it was losing half a million quid A WEEK. It can only do so because it is supported by a trust. Other commercial news websites don’t have that luxury, including the ones Higgins works for. BBC and ABC don’t have to earn a coin.
NYT bleeding cash as well.
As for quality of content, take a look at the stories that top-rate on news (and News) websites. The lazy, sensationalist stuff being derided by commentators on this story.
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The Higgins quote is perfect. For the reason that his sort of journalism is failing because it is lazy rubbish. Knowing not a thing and having not asked, he lunges for a cliche to save the day. In this case, stick a couple of HTML scripters into the subs desk and Bob is your uncle. Mindless crap.
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Most relevant content, most timely manner, most convenient format, and you’re sorted.
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Good luck with ‘putting HTML developers, JavaScript developers, those sorts of people into the newsroom with the journalists’. Sounds to me like teaming the town crier with a typographer…
I’d suggest leaving the news room alone and rather mix up the executive decisions with people that understand the dynamics of audience response and engagement is more than a letter to the Editor.
Forget audience, readership, circulation figures (and Facebook likes). Instead start thinking in terms of community activation.
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I am with you Hadley
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Shocking lack of innovation? Better slam the NBN at every opportunity then. That will help. :/
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@Mike so you are stating that it is very hard for a company like ‘News’ to make a buck in this ever changing media fragmented world? I am guessing the answer is yes?
So, what is the answer? There are start up’s (mostly online only) who are lean, nimble and totally engaging audiences. These newcomers are winning, scaling and taking market share. They are doing this because they are leading the charge and embracing ever changing technologies. Their business models are flexible and evolve as the technology does.
If traditional media companies are failing it would suggest that they are not lean, not nimble, not engaging their audiences and thus losing market share to the newcomers. A large traditional player (media company) who has to staff a traditional newsroom and has to employ so many powerful, ‘high salary demanding’ staff is going to find it hard in this day and age; when software engineers demand a high salary – go figure…
A decent journalist is gold and many people still crave a great article. The delivery is key… Being held back with so much cost, propping up some old media hacks retirement fund will equal potential collapse…
Hard times for many indeed, however where there is down there is a big up…
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Fair enough Bongo but a lot of start-ups are aggregators, or have some other symbiotic relationship with the struggling mainstream media. What happens to them when their free sources of ideas and content are gone?
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The Guardian actually lost more than £500k per week last year but they’re still eating News’ lunch.
They’re the ones with 3,300,000 monthly users on their Facebook app and I’ve just been trying their app for Spotify today – it’s a cool accompaniment to their music section and they’re launch partners for Spotify apps.
Loss making but trying hard and definitely “Putting HTML developers, JavaScript developers, those sorts of people into the newsroom with the journalists.”
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