I work for a newspaper but sometimes wonder if it’s going the way of the telegram. This sense of impending doom was exacerbated today by Jeff Cole, who has been heading at team at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communications, that has collected data about Internet usage for the past six years. Cole, who was speaking at a MSN/Sympatico digital advertising conference in Toronto today, said teenagers aren’t reading newspapers and likely never will. At the same time, newspaper publishers are still struggling with ways to generate revenue from offering content online because there are too many free ways to get the news. With fewer readers and less-than-encouraging online prospects, Cole believes many newspapers will disappear over the next 30 to 40 years (Yikes!). One of the only bright spots, he said, are Sunday newspapers such as the New York Times that could become more popular by morphing themselves into weekly magazines. It’s a provocative viewpoint because newspapers have been around for such a long time and are still an integral part of many peoples’ daily lives. But you can’t help but think that Cole is right and/or newspapers need to change their stripes to survive. If you look around newsrooms across North America, hundreds of reporters are being cut loose as publishers scramble for ways to deal with lower advertising (which is being taken away by online rivals such as Craigslist, eBay, Match.com, Yahoo, Google, etc.). As a journalist, I don’t think newspapers will disappear but I'm biased. That said, they will need to aggressively build out their online operations (blogs, podcasts, video blogs, Web sites, RSS, etc.) as extensions of their off-line businesses – even if the business models are far from clear yet. At the same time, they need to recognize their brands and content are valuable and can be leveraged with some creativity.
What If Jane Jacobs Had a Blog?
Earlier this week, Canada lost a true hero when urban activist/writer Jane Jacobs died at the age of 89. Since she moved to Canada in 1969, Jacobs had been a major force in shaping Toronto's development – providing city hall with a vision of what the city could be. Perhaps the highlight was her active role in killing the Spadina Expressway, which would have run a highway right through the downtown core. (Jacobs also led the charge to kill the Lower Manhattan Expressway).
In addition to her landmark book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs was a prolific writer and constant presence on the local politican scene. It would have been fascinating if Jacobs had embraced the blogosphere. With an insatiable hunger for new ideas, news and lively discussion, Jacobs could have used a blog to deliver her views on a variety of topics to an audience with a growing interest in how large urban centres are developing and evolving.
At the mesh conference, our politics/society stream is going to explore how blogs are playing a growing role in getting new ideas and fresh thinking into the mainstream. With Michael Geist kicking things off with a keynote and panelists that include Andrew Coyne, Paul Wells, Captain's Quarters, David Pollard and Tom Williams, it should be a highly engaging and informative day. For more thoughts about this stream from the mesh gang, check out Mathew Ingram, Stuart MacDonald and Rob Hyndman. You can register for mesh here.
What If…..IE Never Happened?
With the launch of the IE7 beta, there has been some fascinating discussion about Microsoft's track record in the Web browser market. John Dvorak, who's no stranger to controversial, against-the-grain ideas, describes IE as "The Greatest Microsoft Blunder" – suggesting it has taken the company's focus away from more important strategic priorities such as getting a new version of Windows – Vista – out the door. So, what if Microsoft never got into the browser market? What would have happened if Bill Gates had not decided to turn the Titanic onto the super-highway or, at least, decided to focus on other online opportunities other than the browser? I suspect Netscape would probably be around and thriving, and the Navigator browser would be industry standard. Maybe it would have been better for the Web's evolution because Microsoft wouldn't have had such a key role in how people accessed online services and content. You have to remember that until IE7 came along, the core of IE was still based on technology licensed from Spyglass Inc., which Microsoft jumped on after failing to secure a licensing deal with Netscape. While Microsoft continued to reply on Spyglass, rest of the browser market continued to move ahead with Opera, Firefox, et al pushing the envelope. Meanwhile, Netscape got sucked up by AOL, which proceeded to emasculate what had been one of the Web's most exciting companies. If Microsoft had not launched IE and/or not proceeded to attack Netscape, maybe the browser market would be a different place today. Maybe Marc Andreessen would still be working there and Netscape wold have evolved into the flagship Web 2.0 company. Then again, Netscape's demise has allowed Firefox to successfully emerge so perhaps that's the silver lining.
For some other thoughts on IE7, check out Nicholas Carr, Inside Microsoft, Nick Bradbury and Makeyougohmmm.
Ted Rogers: Style Guru
If any CEOs out there are looking to make a fashion statement, perhaps they should seek some advice from Ted Rogers, who was stylin' in a bold, blue suit at Rogers Communications' AGM yesterday. It was quite striking compared with the standard blue/black suit, white shirt “uniform” dutifully worn these days by most CEOs. For all the fashionistas, the photograph (left) doesn't do the suit justice but Mr. Rogers' tailor (one assumes this kind of suit doesn't come off the rack, right?) should be very proud.
Que CIRA Sera?
Stuart Macdonald, the marketing wizard behind the mesh conference, has been named chairman of CIRA's first nominating committe, which is charged to find board members for Canada's.ca registrar. If you're interested, check out CIRA's Web site.
Memories of Scott McNealy
So Scott McNealy is finally handing over the reigns reins to Sun Microsystems after 24 years. I've only had the privilege to interview him once but can't say it was the best conversation I've ever had with a high-profile CEO. In contrast to the peppy, funny, irreverant person who puts on a laugh-a-minute show at high-tech conferences, McNealy was unenthusiastic, grumpy and far from newsworthy. It could have just been a bad day or it could have been he was less than thrilled about talking to a journalist from a newspaper he never knew existed. I guess part of being a CEO is you have a role to play – sometimes you're on, sometimes you're just not into it. McNealy must give dozens of interviews a year so it's not like each one will sizzle. Like a professional athlete, I'm sure he gets up for the “big games” when the Wall St. Journal or New York Times comes calling. For the rest of us, we have to hope he's having a good day. It should be pointed out McNealy is a bit of an anachronism these days given the disclosure restrictions that CEOs of publicly-traded companies face every time they're out and about. These rules do little to encourage a CEO to candid or straightforward. While McNealy will no longer be Sun's CEO, I'm willing to be bet he'll be as active and outspoken.
