I’ve been watching recently as Mark Jones, IT Editor at the Australian Financial Review, has slowly started posting blog posts biased toward main stream media. That’s to be expected I guess, he literally spends 10 hours a day immersed in the industry. Previously Mark worked for IDG Communications and was instrumental in helping them blog-up and add podcasting. He’s a very cool guy.
His post today, Ballsy or scary? reminded me of a conversation that Cameron and I had on today’s G’Day World (yet to be posted) about Bono’s thoughts on the music industry. I pointed out that a lot of what is happening on the Internet today is all about disruption–specifically around old business models.
What Mark points out is that the “French-speaking Belgian Association of the press” won a court battle, in which they said Google could not link to, nor cache, its articles without paying the Association. By not complying the court ordered Google to remove the links and items in cache or face a fine.
The Association obviously doesn’t understand the new way of distribution. They obviously don’t understand, what David Weinberger calls freechasing, in which you give items of value away for free so you can benefit by repercussion.
This isn’t an easy thing for some organisations to grasp. However, it’s becoming the norm online. There are literally thousands of organisations giving away valuable things for free, and benefiting in other forms. Google itself is a great example, providing search for free, and now branching out into word processing and video to name a couple of examples. They now make billions in advertising.
I also heard, many months ago, Jonathan Schwartz talk about the airline industry. He pointed out that one CEO suggested that airfares will be free, and in-air services will provide the airline with profit.
(The same blog post mentions the interview I did with Jonathan as part of my I/O Podcast.)
You see, it’s now time for many companies to start thinking outside the box, because the Internet has created a disruption.
Main stream media should worry less about making money, and more about servicing it’s customers. They will be surprised at how many other ways there are to make some coin.
3 Comments
In the words of Generation Y… Hello!
Mark’s missed the point completely, Google has done what’s been asked of them, the question is why the Association is stupid enough to ask for it. That would be some *real* journalism. Why does an Association want to be cut off from the rest of the internet?
If you don’t want to be on the internet, turn your bloody servers off.
Hey Richard, interesting observations and ta for the kudos. I’ve just posted my latest thoughts on the “Ballsy or scary” post that you so kindly linked to.
You’re obviously entitled to your opinion about whether I’m “baised towards mainstream media” or not. One thing I can offer in response is to note that openly attacking your employer is rarely deemed a good thing, regardless of where you work. I’d also make a cheeky observation that many bloggers writing about new media could also be open to claims of bias since that’s their reason for being… ; )
Haha. Good points Mark!