The Buck Stops here!

Over the last few weeks we have been reading many traditional media stories on Blogging, ‘Mummy Bloggers’ to be precise, that have been far from complimentary. We have had the Prime Minister invite a group of successful bloggers amongst other media to morning tea, we have seen Fairfax announce the job cuts for 1900 employees, we have heard bloggers interviewed on Radio by presenters that sound totally unimpressed by the fact their listeners may actually be interested and possibly because it was their producers idea not theirs; after all they are journalists as well.

Can we think there is a connection to all this? We know the internet and on line media have changed the exchange of information extensively and everyone with a computer now has the ability to have their voice heard not to mention the social media sites that have now become an everyday experience for every age group.

It was not long ago that one of my girlfriends (who had little or no interest in computers or the internet mainly due, I think, to her lack of knowledge) told me that the Police were going to shut down Facebook due to the online predators. Low and behold at the beginning of this year she opened a Facebook account (with the help of her children); she even posted a photo of her dog at the computer screen on the weekend. It took her a long time to realise kids were not the only ones using Social Media. 

I had to use a computer for my business (under instruction from my accountant) in the early nineties. I had no idea so I took myself off to Tafe and subsequent courses as this ‘tool’ was something I needed to use. When my children were at primary school I was constantly being asked how to use the computer but by the time they were in High School they were instructing me. I now refer to my baby as my ‘Inhouse IT’. I basically now work exclusively within this genre albeit in many facets. The ‘Z’ generation does not know life without technology. I saw a video recently where a 2yo was given a book and she was running her finger across the cover trying to ‘open’ it. I really think the only generation that does not have much to do with technology these days is the ‘Builders’ i.e. the ones before the Baby Boomers. I’m a Boomer.

I was reading a Business Speculator article just before writing this and this was how it finished. ‘There were no obvious alternatives for Fairfax. With around $500 million of legacy revenues within the metro business it couldn’t jump straight into a pure digital model but it did need to create the foundations – in structure, costs, staffing and work practices – for the inevitable moment when that occurs.

There are, however, no guarantees that Fairfax can manage that transition seamlessly or, even if it does, that a digital-only model would be economic. The only certainty is that, without dramatic change, however traumatic and painful, the metros have a bleak and probably very short-lived future.’

The advertising dollar that funds our media can only stretch so far, and I am sure they are having trouble hanging onto their traditional print advertisers. If we want a job these days we go on line, if we want to source where to purchase products we go online, if we want to know what is on Television tonight we go online even if we want to catch public transport we go online. 

Not only do we have computers we have tablets and smart phones so this information is now accessible to us where ever we go. I cannot see our internet accessibility decreasing so these mediums of conventional media have to change. Blogging in the US is a multimillion dollar business extracting advertising dollar away from the conventional methods, but more importantly and in much larger amounts is the social media and networking sites.

Possibly Fairfax and the like need to create platforms for bloggers to work from making it a win win situation instead of belittling an ever growing number of people that share their experiences and opinions on line and the people reading the information regularly.