Radio Needs Jeff Bezos

[CTListener]

Bezos someday will sell the printing plant for scrap and stop killing trees. The news content of the Washington Post will continue on Kindles.

Perhaps, but keep in mind that the core of Amazon is one very obsolete business: The Postal System. Amazon made mail order cool. But at its base, it's still mail order. Free shipping doesn't change the fact that you buy something, and wait for it to be delivered. That's the modern day version of the Montgomery Ward catalogue from 150 years ago. Same with Ebay. The core business is obsolete, but the image is cool. That's what Bezos did. Made something obsolete cool. That's what the printing press needs.

Until Amazon or someone else figures out a way to teleport that computer peripheral, vintage book or box of chocolates to you rather than putting it in the mail, the Postal Service won't be just "cool," it will be a vital part of Amazon's business. The newspaper business' problem is that its only physical product is the paper itself, and everything in that paper can be reproduced and delivered electronically far faster and cheaper. I just lost my job at a newspaper, after 32 years, so nobody wants print to become cool again more than I do, but it's just not going to happen. The physical newspaper needs to become essential before it can become cool.

Maybe Bezos can somehow start weaning the public away from opinion sites and news spinners/amalgamators like The Huffington Post. But he'll have to do it with The Washington Post's digital product, not with its print edition. And because advertising is never going to pay the freight for online journalism the way it has (and still does) for print, Bezos will have to find a way to get the computer, mobile device or Kindle user to do something that people in this "information wants to be free" society have steadfastly resisted -- PAY.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

And because advertising is never going to pay the freight for online journalism the way it has (and still does) for print, Bezos will have to find a way to get the computer, mobile device or Kindle user to do something that people in this "information wants to be free" society have steadfastly resisted -- PAY.

Bravo! A fresh thought in all this conversation! I can hear the eyelids of the younger generation popping open as they gasp... "you... you, you want me to PAY for this stuff?"

This seems to be a primarily MALE conversation. I am not an expert on women of the younger generation. But let me tell you of this lady that has been in my life for many, many years: She is literally DRIVEN by print advertising when it comes time to go shopping... and I cannot estimate how many miles she has driven through the years with newspaper ads and circulars in her hand, in her purse, going after the merchandise that she wants like a guy in pursuit of the annual deer hunt. I was about to say she has never, never, never in her lifetime gone to the computer and ordered something on-line... but that would be incorrect. She came home from chemotherapy one day, all rolled up like a ball of rubber bands over her missing hair, and took the "flyer" they handed her at the chemotherapy facility, and went on line to order some scarves and caps to camouflage her baldness. But did you pick up the key work in that statement: she had a PRINTED FLYER in her hand telling her that this on-line store was the only place she would find this merchandise.

Someone else will have to scout out the younger women.... the 23 to 33 year olds... the targets of much advertising... have they totally avoided being consumers of printed advertising and information? Curios minds have to know!

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Bravo! A fresh thought in all this conversation! I can hear the eyelids of the younger generation popping open as they gasp... "you... you, you want me to PAY for this stuff?"

For what stuff? For my $0.75, a newspaper's top values have always been (a) the classifieds (b) display advertising (c) local politics and government.

The number of advertisements have decreased dramatically, and along the way so have the number of reporters assigned to local beats, leading to more front-page PR pieces, like a local hospital opening a new oncology clinic downtown, or the parks department deciding to repair a fountain in a city park -- things that take 30 minutes of reporting (reading a press release, calling the PR department for comment, and maybe a bit of history) and an hour to write and edit.

Needless to say, I no longer subscribe to a newspaper.

 

[SaltyDog]

Things have changed but we have not arrived at some static point. People used to pay for newspapers, now people refuse to pay for news. It does not therefore follow that people will never pay for news again.

Here's an idea Bezos might pursue: Create a really excellent version of the Washington Post for tablets and charge an absurdly small amount of money for it. So small that all the critics will laugh and point out the obvious, that it doesn't cover costs. The purpose would be to get people accustomed to paying something. Once that happens, and it would take a long time, prices could gradually drift up. The problem with zero as a price is that even if you double the price, it's still zero.

As most people know, Amazon loses money on every Kindle it sells. It does not sell them to make money on them but to sell other products. His horizon is not the next quarter or the next year but years. I think he knows that success with The Washington Post will not be measured in time increments of quarters.

I have been thinking lately about investigative journalism and how little there is anymore given the budget constraints of all news operations. Most of what passes as "news" has no bearing on my life, it's just entertainment. You might be able to give away the usual press conference stuff and commentary and sell the investigative pieces. Keep it all out of the search engines and charge for that. I would pay for that if they invested in it and did it right, it's a question of how much I'd pay.

I don't assume Bezos will succeed with The Washington Post but neither do I assume he will fail.