Media Proposal

The media industry has experienced a great deal of upheaval over the last several years. This process is best exemplified by all the changes in the music industry. Albums were a secure and controlled delivery method from their introduction in the 1940s until well into the 1980s when they were overtaken by the more portable cassettes. However, the most important innovation of cassettes was the ability for consumers to create their own cassette recordings. As the next generation moved to recordable CDs, this spawned the adoption of CD “ripping” and allowed consumers to make mp3 versions of their songs that could then be re-recorded in any order or mix they wanted. There is little question now that portable digital players and file sharing programs cemented the mp3 format in popular culture and moved the music industry to a song-based sales model. Music industry revenue is decreasing in large part because music companies can simply no longer sell whole albums when consumers really only like and want a single song.

This attitude has infected younger consumers of news media as well. They wonder “why should I pay for the whole paper when I only want the sports section?” or “why do I have to watch the whole newscast when I only care about the weather?” When looking at the progression of the music industry, consumers have consistently expressed their desires via their purchasing patterns and exploited all opportunities to control their music listening experience. This “Rip.Mix.Burn” mentality has spread throughout the various mediums. People upload their videos to YouTube, create communities on MySpace, and develop mountains of blogs and podcasts on every imaginable topic. Consumers of news and information no longer want a passive exp...

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...one in partnership with other media companies and/or hardware makers, but the device would be constantly fed with up-to-date information directly over the Internet based on the preferences of the user. The device would support an array of content formats and would be customizable enough to accept 3rd party content, such as digital books or movies. With this information, usage activity could be tracked and mined similar to the way Tivo does today.

Most industry pundits recognize the news media business is changing and will not be the same in the future as it is today. As more and more content moves to digital distribution, Media General needs to move with it by finding completely new revenue streams to offset those lost in our traditional mediums. Pursuing the three initiatives above would achieve that goal and make us a leader in our industry well into the future.