The Blog According to Buzz

The Canadian Newspaper Association is meeting in Toronto this week. To jive with the annual conference, the CNA is placing ads in their properties blowing their own horn with the following campaign and a “Know better. Newspapers.” tagline.

Okay, so 16 million Canadians a week read a newspaper. Woah -that’s a lot of paper getting used once, or twice and getting tossed - isnt it?

Enviromental concerns aside, I’ve got to think the CNA is starting to wise up to the reality that newspapers are in trouble. And they’re scared as hell.

SMALLER IS BETTER

For the record, I dont think newspapers are totally doomed. I mean, movie theatres didnt go out of business after the advent of the VCR. But just as music companies, radio stations, tv networks and other “old” media companies face new challenges in an internet world they’ve been slow to harness, newspapers are feeling the pinch.

Newspapers, especially the small dailies like 24hrs, can carve out a niche in our busy lifestyle. They fit in your pocket, and give you all the news you can read on a bus ride. Big, thick juicy newspapers that are hundreds of pages, are the ones that are really in trouble. Most of the stories are cut and pasted from news service websites, much of the content is syndicated and repeated across multiple platforms - including the internet.

WHAT DOT COM BUBBLE?

It’s the web that’s squeezing papers, just have a read of Jeff Jarvis‘ column on a weekly basis. He’s constantly ringing the death bell for large print operations.

The public is online, the new means of gathering and sharing news is online, the medium is more efficient and cheaper to run, the old business model is shot. [source]

Much of the advertising that is still in newspapers will vaporize. Much of it already has vaporized. Papers in top markets are down tens upon tens of millions of dollars each in classified revenue that has disappeared. Those former advertisers are using free or near-free substitudes to bring in and serve customers: craigslist, real estate agents’ own sites, car dealers’ own sites, and other new competitors. [source]

Those in Silicon Valley are licking their lips, waiting for the beast to die and dig in to the estimated $42B ad carcass that will be left rotting in the sun.

After another jarring 3.5% decline over the past six months, print-paper circulation will drop to about 50 million this year–the lowest level since 1946 (62 years ago). That’s during a period in which the US population has doubled, meaning that per-capita newspaper consumption has been cut in half. [source]

And internet usage, the place where people are going to get their news, and the place where the ad revenue will follow, is not slowing down, either. Here are stats from 2 1/2 years ago.

94 percent of young people access the Internet from home, with students as early as Grade 4 beginning to rely on the Internet to stay connected to friends and explore social roles. [source]

That’s a generation that in another 10 years will have as much use for a newspaper as they have for a VCR.

RADIO’S AT IT TOO

The CNA is not alone in making a useless effort to try and revitalize their industry in the eyes of the public. The National Association of Broadcasters unveiled a campaign to promote radio listening at their convention last month.

Complete with retro lightning bolts, it was mostly laughed at.

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?

Here’s the deal - instead of wasting dollars promoting your current broken business models, spend some time and energy to figure out new ways to do things.

Add more content to your websites. Turn yourdailynewspaper.com into THE portal for local news.

Give me updates throughout the day, don’t make me wait to read a cut and paste syndicated piece the next morning.

While you’re at it, lighten the load of your paper, toss the classifieds and stock quotes, and give me something I can read cover-to-cover in 20 minutes.

Want to take it one step further? Stop printing your paper altogether and just put it on the web. That’s what a newspaper in Wisconsin did.

Cmon newspapers, you should “know better.”

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

Avril Lavigne is working the media train in advance of her Best Damn Tour hitting town tomorrow, and I’ve been helping out. I took my radio interview from earlier this week and cut it up for 24hrs Vancouver.

Check out 24 seconds with Avril Lavigne:

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

As someone who got his fair of share of getting picked on as a kid, today I will wear pink.

I had braces. I had glasses. I was small. I did what my mom told me.

Add that up and chants of “spaz! spaz! spaz!” hang from the rafters at hockey practice, or a nickname of “mamma’s boy” gets tossed your way in the frat house.

“David Shepherd, Travis Price and their teenage friends organized a high-school protest to wear pink in sympathy with a Grade 9 boy who was being bullied…[They] took a stand against bullying when they protested against the harassment of a new Grade 9 student by distributing pink T-shirts to all the boys in their school.

‘I learned that two people can come up with an idea, run with it, and it can do wonders,’ says Mr. Price, 17, who organized the pink protest. ‘Finally, someone stood up for a weaker kid.’

So Mr. Shepherd and some other headed off to a discount store and bought 50 pink tank tops. They sent out message to schoolmates that night, and the next morning they hauled the shirts to school in a plastic bag.

As they stood in the foyer handing out the shirts, the bullied boy walked in. His face spoke volumes. ‘It looked like a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders,’ Mr. Price recalled.

The bullies were never heard from again.” [source]

I’ve been wearing pink shirts for years, around 2003 I almost got into a fist fight in Willowbrook Mall over it. I had just come back from golfing, was rocking the pink and this guy looked and smirked as he walked by. I said “Excuse me?” He proceeded to tease and laugh at me for wearing a pink shirt. Keep in mind I’m in my 30s, he’s in his late 20s.. I could only chalk it up to being in Langley, a land of lesser enlightment. It degrades to where we’re almost at blows, yelling obscenities across a mall.

Over a pink shirt.

Today I will wear pink. I hope you will too.

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

I write for a local newspaper, 24hrs, and a local magazine, Vancouver View.

The odd thing is, I don’t really read newspapers or magazines, I get most of what I need to know from the web.

Now that model doesn’t work for everyone, I get that, so I believe there is a place for print in our world - but that place is getting smaller.

SOME WORK, MOST DON’T

Free dailies, like 24hrs, are brilliant. They are tightly packaged commuter papers. You get the headlines, some features and basically just enough information to be able to read the whole thing cover to cover before you get to your stop.

It’s the big newspapers that are feeling the pinch. In the US, newsrooms are laying off staff as circulations shrink and revenues plummet. Craigslist’s free service is sucking the revenue out of the Classifieds, while the web is getting people their information as it happens, not a day or two later.

But there is a way for big daily newspapers to become relevant again. They have the staff, they have the resources, they have the content - they’re just not using it properly.
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I’ve got more than a few websites on these here internets. For 12 years I’ve been writing about technology and hosting a radio feature called cyberbuzz. Currently it airs across Canada, but has also aired in Africa, Australia and Europe.

I put most of my tech pieces over there, including archives of my radio features, columns for 24hrs and magazines.

Today I’ll double post one here for you.

CBC’s Test the Nation is back on Sunday night at 8. It’s a national pop quiz on current events to test your mettle against those from other lines of work.

This weekend its flight crews vs bloggers vs backpackers vs celebrity lookalikes vs chefs vs cab drivers.
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Today’s column in 24hrs tracks down some of the geekiest people in my address book to find out what they want for Christmas.

Got a “hard to buy for” on your list? Today’s piece is a must read (page 14).

BTW, they edited out one of my paragraphs for space… Here it is to get you started:

iPod Family $89-$329
http://www.apple.ca
Most of my friends want something from Apple. HiTech Mommy Cat Schwartz would dig a MacBook while local blogstar, Meg Fowler, says “if it has an Apple icon and likes to be touched, I’m down with it.” Social media marketer, Jordan Behan, agrees “a simple 8Gb Nano with a longer lasting battery than my ancient 10Gb would suffice. Heck, even a shuffle would be good for those Skytrain rides.” Yes, there are other media players but anything from Apple is sure to bring the biggest smiles this season… (more)

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

If you’re in the market for a new computer for the holidays, make sure you check out today’s edition of 24hrs.

My latest cyberbuzz column has an interview with Leo Laporte where he runs down all the specs you need for the best possible box.

(Hint: get a Mac)

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?