It began yesterday,
Me: Assertion: #SM is merely a transitional technology. It will get old, fast. The only two mass mediums in the real world are Print and TV.
Then continued this morning,
He: Describe QR please.
Me: QR is a printed ( or displayed on screen ) graphic that can send and receive info from the web with one click on a smart phone.
You can get a good idea of the issues involved at 2D Codes in the Global Media at LinkedIn http://ilnk.me/100c
He: QR sounds good but old world print with ink...not so much:)
Me: There we go again about "old." I prefer enduring. In 500 years Print has seen it all. And changed as needed to thrive.
as for "old world" China is the one of the oldest in the world. Maybe old is the new "new"? and Print is the next big thing.
He: Print is dead my friend! D-E-A-D!
Me: D-E-A-D? Then howto explain that CGX and Donnelly stock is up over 50% While McClatchy is up almost 7X and Gannett 5X.
He: For Gannett I would say without the research that they have rolled all their media into 1 stock.
Me: I have my little IRA in all print related companies. So far up 85% this year. Print is far from D-E-A-D. Just ignored.
He: Don't think of the medium but content. Newspapers were not successful because they are paper but the journalist's content.
Me: "Don't think of the medium but content" Actually the medium really is the message. McCluhan had it just right.
Re Newspapers:The enduring value of newspapers has never been news, it's always been the paper. Consider @niiu_community .
He: If u define print as also digital then no...it is not dead.
Me: I knew we could agree! Digital printing is Print's adaptive response in the evolution of the communication ecology. :-)
He: Nice use of my company name! U know how to win me over every time:)
Me: U have to keep in mind that I sold Print for 35 years. Back in the day some called me "the prince of bullshit." thx 4 convo :-)
He: LOL! LOve it and look forward to more discussions.
Posts
Thanks for sharing our conversation. The newspaper discussion is not over yet:)
ReplyDeleteNext time I want to discuss your thoughts on Rupert Murdoch's desire to put all his content exclusively on Bing.
Jeff Mello
Founder, Evolution of Communication
My sense of Murdoch's play is that he knows that sustainable revenue streams are a non starter on the web. If he can get Bing to give him some money, so much the better for him. He understands that the defensible value is logistics. Easy to start a website. Very hard to open a state of the art printing plant.
ReplyDeleteThat helps explain why he's built the largest ( I think) newspaper printing plant in the world. I read that it has the capacity to print almost every newspaper in the UK.
The thing I watch in newspapers on the industrial side is Transcontinental's new plant near San Francisco. What I think we are seeing is a separation of printing the newspaper from the brand ( the going forward promise to the customer) from manufacturing paper.
The other thing I watch in newspapers is the buzz about hyperlocal. As far as I can tell it is still distracted by focusing on the web as the "biz model." The emerging reality is that more will see the possiblities of versioned and digital newspapers to do hyperlocal in print at Production speeds.
That's the value of Oce. They are far and away the leaders in producing digitally printed newspapers and industrial strength print. As far as I can tell the conversation is still all about "marketing" and "transpromo." But my guess is that one of the reasons that Canon bought them is for the digital newspaper and book global infrastructure they bring to the table.
Are any K12 text book publishers going hyperlocal for customized, print-on-demand reading comprehension collections or workbooks for kids? Another way to leverage the works they've licensed might be to sub-license school districts permissions to remix text books with student input for reading content differentiated to students' levels and interests. A company could charge the same price as a workbook, but let the school division pay the paper price, using the larger profit margin to pay for the infrastructure to deliver the texts and remix interface to divisions. And why not throw some QR tags on each page back to additional online resources or practice hosted by the company?
ReplyDeleteI'd rather not send text book companies any more money. School budgets are drying up, and there's an awful lot that can be done with free software and open-access informational texts. I hope open-source education beats companies to the differentiated-textbook-on-demand punch. Until there's a compelling collection packaged for easy use, divisions and teachers will probably stick with what they're given. Any chance of open source education drafting authors to produce CC or public domain work for schools? Is this going on already?
Lots to think about. Thanks, Michael!