Interpreting the news and separating out the extraneous is pivotal to the profession. Therefore, dumping a load of facts into a bottomless database would do little to aid public discourse, inform the community or attract a new generation of readers.
Newspapers will become news companies, information companies. And one of the products they will offer is a paper product, as well as CD-ROM, news channels, online services, etc.
Watching and waiting may not be such a great idea for most newspapers … I think they’d wake up one morning and find out a substantial portion of their lunch had been eaten. It would be extremely foolish for people as an industry to not find ways to use this technology.
Newspapers will become news companies, information companies. And one of the products they will offer is a paper product, as well as CD-ROM, news channels, online services, etc.
We’re going to make some nice money on this. If the other companies find local news to be compelling they will find ways to get that information out there to our readers … We’re not going to wait until cable operators define the world of journalism.
The possibility of 500 channels in the home has shaken up the industry. We are at risk of being disenfranchised; they could take [all of the newspaper industry’s] advertising – and all we’d have left is an editorial product with no advertising to support it. So we’ve really got to insinuate ourselves in[to] these new worlds.
Much of the new activity within the print industry is fired by the same fuel propelling computer, telephone, cable and entertainment companies: fear. Technology is breaking down the barriers between these once-distinct industries, allowing unforeseen competitors into the new markets. This same technology could render any one of these industries obsolete.
Holmes told the promotion executives that they would have to rethink their craft in this new future. The interactive system of the immediate future will have the capacity to target spots to individual neighborhoods of 200-300 people, he said. The traditional notions of 30- and 60-second spots will lose their meaning, he said.
Programming will be structured according to one question. What does the customer want? The answer might be infomercials, classifieds, continuing education, couponing or even buying life insurance (with the cable company getting the commission) … And we will be in the telephone business.
A host of services via a new “network of networks” combining fiber and coaxial cable … will forever change definitions of channel and audience and will replace one of the boxes on the average TV set: the VCR.