Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The future of legacy media


It appears that year 2014 is a year of new assessments, a cross road where the legacy and new media followed new paths that will remain the same for years to come.

Two major processes became obvious these last few months.
First, the triumph of news websites which after many unsuccessful attempts seem to find the proper recipes to drag audiences et finance their efforts, as long as they deal with national and international pieces of information. However, their shape is very different from the usual print press. They collect data spread all other the place, they rely heavily, too heavily maybe, on Google and social networks such as Facebook which is slowly turning into a new and very powerful media. they mix up more and more text and video, blurring the lines between traditional media, press, radio and TV.

Then, the legacy media keep drowning, losing for ever advertising income and their readership. The success of their Web services is uneven. Some seem to make it like the NY Times, le Monde or le Figaro. Others, dailies or magazines are trailing behind and, anyway, none of them is able to finance properly a strong investigation team. If and when they vanish, what will replace them?

The big question, I will treat next time in this blog is the future of information. What do people want? What are they willing to pay? What level of information is necessary in a democratic society? Keep tuned.