Let me start off by saying that I do believe traditional media companies (print, tv, broadcast) need to stay the course and continue to move online and innovate.
In the future, what's important will be the brand and message, not the medium in which it is delivered. Media companies need to become platform neutral and have confidence that if people are turning to their brand for information (whether it's in print or on a mobile device) they will be compensated.
However, these traditional companies should not be overly criticized for treading water a bit of late as the latter part of that equation fails to materialize. As the economy tightens and profit margins are disappearing, can we really fault media executives for falling back to what they know best and what actually makes money? It's a lot to ask of them to continue to invest and innovate in a medium which is adding very little - and in many casing taking away a great deal - from their bottom line.
Having come from a print background myself, perhaps I take it a bit personally. The critics have the luxury to simply criticize without having to come up with any real solution. Traditional media executives are constantly being portrayed as slow, backward thinking, etc. To be fair, in many ways this is the case. However, they are also charged with keeping their companies profitable and growing. It is admittedly short-sighted, but for now, they have chosen to hunker down and focus on the advertising sources that add to the bottom line.
In better times, investment in digital (which lost money, but promised great returns at some unknown time in the future) was easier to stomach. But today, when jobs are being cut and budgets tightened, what would you suggest they do?
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