The Sunday Times Business section remains a must read for us on a Sunday morning. Three things worth a thought today.
Setanta in financing struggle isn't new news, but reminds us how hard it is to challenge a dominant player with much deeper pockets, without enough killer content. It doesn't look good for them right now, bad time to have lost so many Premier League games going forwards.
Second thing is the page 6 article on US newspapers and their rate of print closure. Again this isn't new news, either on this blog or the wider media. It is good to see though the thoughts of Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of the WSJ, making the point which we strongly believe in. Newspapers have given their content away for free online, and find themselves unable to realize sufficient ad revenue alone to make it pay. His view, which we endorse, is that technology like the Kindle and iPhone allow a new distribution channel which can be charged for in future. Not an easy task, but it is an opportunity to reverse the free content drain.
The article, which has a distinct tone of newspapers are dying, and print is becoming anachronistic at a rapid pace, sits next to an ad from the Newspaper Marketing Agency, strapline "Newspapers Deliver". Hmm. If I was sat in NMA's office right now, not sure I would be that happy with the placement of their good news message. However, the value of the NMA should be at its absolute peak right now in these desperate times for the industry. Is it? I'm not sure, can anyone shed light on their performance recently?
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