You should watch this 18 minute video on Mitch Joel‘s blog on the future of Associated Press. Let’s be honest, I have no idea whether the model Tom Curley suggested is going to work or not, neither do you. It might very well turn out to be the future of journalism.
However, it’s both alarming and ironic how “traditional” businesses and their business models can fall so hard so quickly; the brands that we’ve grown to known and love have not grown with us, and surely not loving us enough.
By just listening to the words they use in their conversations can tell a lot about the two organizations and the directions that they are heading toward.
Tom Curley:
“devolved”, ”we, our, us”, ”compensating”, ”control”, “free won’t make it”, “bad customer experience”, “Internet can’t build brands”, “pull back”, “authority”, “protect”, “police”, “get paid”, “we need to get paid”, “get premium payment”, “disconnect”, “we get paid”, “not directly to the consumer”, “micropayments won’t work”, “restrict”, “who is going to pay”…
Arianna Huffington (here is her take on the interview):
“link”, “valuable”, “drive”, “search”, “brave”, “new”, “confident”, “succeed”, “monetize”, “embrace”, “read a book”, “innovation”, “consumers”, “honor”, “celebrate”, “powerful”, “change”, “accepting”, “not going back to the past”, “love”, “twitter”, “facebook”, “youtube”, “the future is here”…
I am sorry, Mr. Curley, but I am afraid the future of the web belongs to us and the businesses built by passionate and dedicated professionals to serve us.
[Update after reading some of the comments on Ms. Huffington's post]
The nature of the web is simple: the best ones thrive while the average ones sink, regardless of your profession or industry. “Best”, in this case, is defined by each individual consumer.
Isn’t it obvious that people WILL pay a premium for those premium goods and services? Just look at Apple. IPod is more expensive than 99% of the digital players in the market yet they own 60% of the market share. Anyone can try to charge anything that they want(including AP), but if we are not willing to pay for it, then you will simply just…fade.
Become the best at what you do, or lose.
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