For news outlets, the emergence of the new technology brings back uncomfortable memories of the growth of tech giants like Facebook and Google, which upended the way people consume news and cannibalised revenues in the process.
It would really help if newspaper publishers understood who has screwed their business. It’s e-Bay, Monster.com, Rightmove and Autotrader.
For local papers (nationals are different, they’re also not all going bust) classifieds were a significant profit driver. Really significant. And that’s the bit that’s disappeared to online. That’s also what is killing local newspaper finances. Losing that local monopoly on classifieds.
Fuck all to do with Facebook and Google.
For local papers (nationals are different, they’re also not all going bust)
But this piece only talks about national ‘news’ organisations.
“said Katie French, regional group editor at Newsquest, which owns titles including the Brighton Argus and the Oxford Mail.”
??
OK, I’m not going to bother totting up the mentions but by about 20-1 it almost talks about national news organisations. Do you think anyone gives a flying fuck about the Brighton Argus?
Is the Guardian still full of public sector job adverts? If so why on earth is that allowed to continue? Is it not beyond the wit of the civil service to have a gov-jobs website that would also be able to earn revenue from say google ads to make the thing pay for its self. You could then cut all civil service recruitment budgets a bit and also enjoy the anguish of the Guardian. We should pass any and all laws to make this happen (ie competition laws etc).