Bobbie’s comment brings up an interesting thread… which i would like to hear Jeff’s thoughts on…’
So… in the future, open-sourced-distributed-user-generated world of news… how do news organizations define and defend a “core poduct”. It obviously makes sense to “outsource” those areas that are not “core product” but that quickly gets to how a bricks and mortar current gen news company re-defines its core product.
I recently had a conversation with the owner of a TV station in Hagerstown Maryland. His arguement was that they were “hyperlocal” and so didn’t need regional or national news. Clearly that was and could be outsourced. Ok… so, local news, right? Well, not quite, there are a dozen local web sites covering the school board, the town council, etc.
Hagerstown is in the mountains of Maryland, near parks, wine country, recreational venues like skying… was that it? Not sure? So exactly what role do local news providers file in the future? When does “outsourcing” become an excuse for not investing the resources to create relevant and interesting information users really want? and how do you know?
This is all going to get sorted out…. ’cause the “great migration” from broadcast to broadband will force a re-allignment of business models. But these companies will be challenged to define their “core products”.
