John Hartigan: Our competition is whoever gives our audience a better experience
News Ltd boss John Hartigan has offered an upbeat assessment of the future prospects of journalism – and warned his fellow publishers that they need to become more agile to stay in business.
In what marked something of a change of tone from previous speeches from senior News Corp people, Hartigan said:
“The editorial stars of this new age will be those who are innovative, creative and entrepreneurial.
“They will be the ones who:
- Really understand what their audiences want;
- Know how to exploit the new technology; and,
- Can put the two together to create and publish content people will pay for.
“Instead of assuming that our scale and market power is unassailable, we have to start thinking like an entrepreneurial start-up.”
Hartigan added: “Traditional newspaper publishers, far from being threatened by technology, should be capitalising on it.”
Citing the developers of an iPad newsreader app, Hartigan told the newspaper publishers in the room they were no longer his main competition. He said:
“This kind of home-grown innovation is why, with the greatest of respect, News no longer regards you as our primary competition. Our competitors are people who are challenging journalism aimed at mass markets. And replacing it with well targeted, low cost, specialist news and information services.
Our competitors are anyone who can satisfy an audience need with a richer experience than traditional media has been willing or able to provide in the past.”
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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I didn’t read Hartigan’s speech in full, but from what I’ve seen of his opinions he has little understanding of the changing media environment.
So he’s realised that people will pay for specialist, important information services? I recall The Economist reaching that conclusion at least 3 years ago, so Hartigan is a little behind on the times.
What sort of services is Hartigan planning on bringing to the market? Hyperlocal content? Last I checked News Ltd was complaining that the ABC was building these types of platforms for local areas to create their own news, so what’s the alternative?
He’s also criticised bloggers for writing content of “such limited intellectual value as to be barely discernible from massive ignorance” – has he ever read the papers that he manages? How is he going to change tabloid rags like the Herald Sun or the Courier Mail so that there is ‘intellectual value’ present?
I’m very interested in his answer to these questions, especially since he’s spent the past few year complaining about anything remotely synonymous with change in the media. Particularly changes that the ABC has brought about primarily because the commercial media hasn’t done so.
Is this speech a genuine realisation that drastic changes must occur, or is it simply another spiel to shareholders to keep profits from freefalling in future?
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Hi Chris,
I’d recommend giving the speech a read. Many of your questions are answered there.
The tone, in my view, has moved on well beyond blaming bloggers.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Having read the speech I agree with Tim. There remains a place for well established news brands working across platforms in an innovative and clever way which maximises the delivery platform and offers a rich interactive user experience. The challenge is to develop a sustainable business model. One thing for sure if newspaper brands only offer general news (blog style) with a bit of video thrown in then they can’t expect people to pay – thata already available for free. But if they deliver a creatively delivered quality product and don’t get greedy about pricing it then the future remains bright.
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I appreciate the sentiment of Hartigan’s speech but it seems like he’s trying to give validity to an industry he just cottoned on to. None of this is new information to smaller publishers and the rest of the world.
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I feel sorry for John because he really just “doesn’t get it”.
Whilst he was parading around with his Australian iPad app espousing how great it was the rest of the world was laughing behind his back.
The app has been a complete failure in vision, execution, subscription sales etc and is by far the worst of all of the news apps around the world.
If he is serious about News Ltd being successful in this new age he needs to heed his own advice and focus on experience, creativity and out of the box thinking.
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Thanks for the response Tim – I’ve read the speech and it seems Hartigan is opening his mind up to possibilities which he had previously opposed.
Let’s hope it’s more than words though. It’s no good espousing the wonder of new technologies if News Ltd isn’t willing to actually use them. I also hope he reduces his criticisms of the innovators as well in the coming months and years – they’re the ones revolutionising the industry, and if commercial media is losing money because of it they have the obligation to adapt.
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You can read what Harto says in his speech and it all makes wonderful sense, especially the bits about how News Ltd is encouraging editors who think like entrepreneurs etc etc etc.
But a more realistic picture is painted by the judge who ruled on former Herald Sun editor Buce Guthrie’s wrongful dismissal case:
http://scv2.webcentral.com.au/.....emode=none
Hard to imagine much of that innovating stuff in a company with News Ltd’s look-after-your-mates culture.
If this is an innovative organisation, Harto is the next pope.
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