News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch has an excellent editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal about the state of journalism and the media today. He says media organizations who innovate and embrace new technologies will thrive and those who do not will go out of business. Companies that do not produce a product consumers want are supposed to go out of business. What we don’t need, says Murdoch, is for the government to get involved and prop up failing news organizations.
Technology now allows us to do this on a much greater scale. That means we have the means to reach billions of people who until now have had no honest or independent sources of the information they need to rise in society, hold their governments accountable, and pursue their needs and dreams.
Does this mean we are all going to succeed? Of course not. Some newspapers and news organizations will not adapt to the digital realities of our day—and they will fail. We should not blame technology for these failures. The future of journalism belongs to the bold, and the companies that prosper will be those that find new and better ways to meet the needs of their viewers, listeners, and readers.
…Finally, a few words about government. In the last two or three decades, we have seen the emergence of new platforms and opportunities that no one could have predicted—from social networking sites and iPhones and BlackBerries, to Internet sites for newspapers, radio and television. And we are only at the beginning.
The government has a role here. Unfortunately, too many of the mechanisms government uses to regulate the news and information business in this new century are based on 20th-century assumptions and business models. If we are really concerned about the survival of newspapers and other journalistic enterprises, the best thing government can do is to get rid of the arbitrary and contradictory regulations that actually prevent people from investing in these businesses.
There’s a lot more and everyone should click over and read the rest. Murdoch is one of the greatest business minds in the world. When he speaks we should all listen.
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