Print media's not dead, just in the ICU

Simons fails to discuss this.

She also fails to compare the economics of those media outlets who have expanded their share of advertisers’ marketing budgets by guaranteeing a readership through successful charging for their content online the same way they do in print (such as the wsj.comand ft.com) with those publications that don’t charge or have charged and failed to cultivate a readership.

Simons, as an educator of would be journalists is on strong ground when she defends the attributes she considers mandatory in journalists: nimbleness, curiosity, relentlessness and fearlessness. She rightly considers them the rodents of public life.

She laments that journalists these days are falling short of being civic minded, remain closeted, less inclined to produce long form investigative pieces, more inclined to cosy up to politicians and are at times indistinguishable from public relation hacks. She pokes fun at the irony and narcissism inherent in a group of Canberra journalists calling a television programme - which airs on ABC - of all things, “Insiders”.

Simons explains that fewer journalists are being hired and trained by the major print media outlets News and Fairfax, mainly given the fall in ad revenues meaning the proprietors have less capacity to invest in staff and in staff’s content.

She is convinced that most readers are not tuning out of media reporting per se but they are tuning out of how legacy media does the job. She remains convinced that the public, irrespective of age remains keen on staying, say, politically engaged, but wants politics packaged differently from what mainstream media offers.

Simons relates the story of how one American firm’s business model was changed to be more in sync with its readership and in time became successful.

In 2009 the Journal Register Company was broken. It was in Chapter 11, “regarded with cynicism and disgust by its audiences, clients and saddest of all, by its employees”. But just two years later, the company was generating better than expected profits. Advertising has improved across the board. Simons explains how the JRC was very comparable to Fairfax in its product base, readership demographics, high debts and demoralised staff.

The new CEO, John Patton, formerly CEO of ImpreMedia, started on February 1, 2010, by announcing he would provide all reporters with Flip video cameras as a sign of his commitment to the company's digital transformation.

Patton embarked on a mission called “Digital First, Print Last” that meant getting closer to the audience and unleashing the creativity of its staff. He eschewed the behaviour of many rivals who spent millions on proprietary software in favour of open source products. And he greatly enhanced his firm’s relationship with readers via Facebook, Twitter and the like.

By the end of 2011, a few months prior to the publication of this book, JRC announced US $41m profit, and as agreed with staff, everyone would get a slice of that pie.

JRC’s happy ride with its readership didn’t last long.