Out With A Bang

For reasons of a long ago nature, I’ve always kept an eye on what Mr Denton is up to.

Which is why I paused and read to the very bottom of this piece in AdAge…

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=136776

This bit was interesting; an RT moment, if you like.

That the days where we could – in whatever Old Media guise we took – impose our definition of news onto what was once our audience are gone. And there’s another lesson that is still being all-too painfully learned; that the web doesn’t do imposition.

One size, one view, one time, will never fit all.

Don’t tell me what to watch, when to watch or, equally, what and when to read… ‘When I get a mo…’ I’ll read and watch what [and when...] I want.

‘Ad Age: Don’t you think they should be consuming real news, and not riffs on the news in the pages of Gawker or on “The Daily Show”?

‘Mr. Denton: People — particularly if they’re under 40 — have news priorities other than those of the editors of The New York Times or producers of the “NBC Nightly News.”

‘A new tablet from Apple — or last night’s episode of “Gossip Girl” or the adventures of the hipster grifter — is a bigger deal than the latest petty scandal in Albany.

‘You think that’s a damning indictment of modern society and a recipe for idiocracy? Fine. Start a nonprofit to cover all the local-government news you think a healthy society needs. But don’t expect advertisers — or commercially-minded publishers or readers, for that matter — to share your interests…’

Empowered by the web to surf wherever and whenever they want, there is another ‘bottom up’ thing going on here; coralling punters into one point of gathering news is a luxury none of us now enjoy; in that respect it is just as much an exercise in ‘herding cats’ as getting six UK provincial newspaper groups to think networks not silos…

And then to pal up with the nearest rump of http://www.itv.com/local/ and whoever’s left to man ChannelM to fulfill OfCom’s vision of independently funded news consortio riding to a Channel 3’s news rescue…

http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=285

They’ve gone. Long gone. And ain’t coming back.

All we can ever do now is chase what was once our audience in the hope that delivering at least one piece of ‘exclusive’ news on a vaguely regular basis – all wrapped up in nothing more complicated than a good read – will enable us to participate in their conversations.

But – and here’s the but that matters – the value is in having a fresh piece of news ‘meat’ to throw into the pot.

Deliver freshness, deliver something regularly that you’ve come to learn is to their taste and you’re starting to get somewhere.

Because people want to find fresh topics of conversation.

But more importantly still, they increasingly want to be seen and recognised as the person who found that fresh topic of conversation. Value can be had for both the originator and the finder.

That’s where Twitter works so beautifully; it enables people to rush back to their communities with the kudos of being first – not with the news, but with the link; it’s almost a case of bearing a gift – and link gift bestowed, earn the reward and recognition from their desired community as a result.

[Which may be the death knell for RSS...? Picking up stuff of an RSS feed is a singular activity... being first to the campfire with that link is far more of a communal action... there's a reward waiting for that action...]

It is, in a sense, a rite of passage; a means to acceptance… that you added something of value to what we were previously talking about. ‘So, thank you… Pull up a chair… Join…’

Which may, in part, explain why our Nick is starting to see rather more value [aka traffic...] placed on that ‘exclusive’; because for those of us that still try to provide fresh ‘meat’ – be it for my table here at OutWithABang or my other table at www.myfootballwriter.com/norwichcity – so our own hope for an eventual reward might, slowly, start to be realised.

‘If a good exclusive used to provide 10 times the traffic of a standard regurgitated blog post, now it garners a hundred times as much.

‘That should be reassuring to people. The content market is finding its new balance. Original reporting will be rewarded…’

Funny, old world. And a small one, to boot.

But within those few lines I’ve found myself – for pretty much the first time in the 25-odd years since we first stumbled across eachother’s path – actually agreeing whole-heartedly with something Nick Denton’s said.

Maybe he’s not such a bad lad after all…

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