Are newspapers really becoming passé?

If so, what lessons can we learn from their apparent demise?

A few weeks ago National Public Radio hosted a panel of journalists and journalism academicians to discuss the plight of the newspaper.  Most of the panelists expressed concern that readers aren’t aware of what they were giving up by not supporting newspapers.

In particular, the panelists are concerned that the public doesn’t realize that they are:

• sacrificing accuracy in reporting
• losing access to local news

The panelists saw the loss of accuracy as a byproduct of lost revenues which means that there are fewer reporters available to check the facts on the stories they cover.  The same lost revenues also result in fewer reporters available for local news coverage.  In both instances the panelists believed the public to be naive in its understanding of what it is truly giving up.

Unfortunately I was in my car driving to an appointment when I heard this discussion.  I would have loved to addressed this panel.  Here are the questions I would have asked:

• How important is fact checking when sensationalism is your primary goal?
• Where exactly does one find this “local coverage” on important issues?

My experience has been that, while newspapers may report facts, they put such a spin on them that the facts get overlooked by the readers.

I remember one particularly vivid example during the height of the economic meltdown when headlines stated that Sony’s earnings were down 56%.  While the facts were accurate, these headlines were designed to fuel the fear that readers were already experiencing.  It would have been just as easy to say, “despite a 56% decline in earnings, Sony remains profitable and is generating positive cash flow.”

Newspaper people tell us that sensationalism sells – that’s what the market wants.  Please don’t tell me that the readers cited above really wanted to experience more fear than they already were.  I haven’t seen any indications that we, as a society, have become masochistic.  Nor does the decline in newspaper revenues substantiate their claim that sensationalism sells.

Let’s shift our attention to the local news coverage we’re foregoing.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t tell you how many hours I spend trying to find background information on candidates and issues in local elections.  That information certainly is not available in my local newspapers.  More importantly, this isn’t a recent phenomenon.  I’ve been voting for four decades and I can never recall a time when the information I sought was readily available in the newspaper or, if I did find it, that I didn’t feel that the newspaper was pushing its own agenda.

So what’s the message for you.  If your customers are abandoning you, stop bemoaning their naiveté and start listening to them.  They’ll tell you what you need to know if they think you’ll actually change your way of doing business.  It’s counter-intuitive, but, when you’re losing business it’s not the customer who is naive, it’s you.  You’re in denial and you need to take a long, hard look at what your doing and why it’s so objectionable to your customers.  If you don’t, your business will go the way of the newspaper.

The 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE program is designed to help you see more effective ways of doing business – ways that dramatically improve your bottom line while making your life easier.  In today’s blog Step 1, Contributory Negligence, was used to help you see how costly ignoring your contribution to the problem can be when you ignore the market’s messages.  For more information on the 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE visit www.furtwengler.com/7steps.htm.

If you’d like to receive a weekly email reminder with a link to The Invaluable Leader blog or if you’d like me to address specific topics, please send me an email at dale@furtwengler.com.  Please share your experience with our readers by posting a comment.