Who Will Publishers Blame Next?
July 6, 2010
Google has been the target for some media companies for years. Most of the hostility has been ignited because Google indexes content. Users want to find information. Anyone who uses a computer wants to shorten the distance between A (what is needed) and B (where the information is). Simple and a constant problem for Google’s engineers to understand.
Now publishers have to face some painful facts.
First, Yahoo – after years of inattention – has figured out that clicks yield valuable information. According to the New York Times, Yahoo will use these data to deliver “news.” (Note that this link will go dead because the New York Times is trying to cope with online. Helpful, right?) Gee, I do that in this lousy blog. I look at usage reports from Blossom, AWStats, and other analytics sources. I write about what gets clicks. If the addled goose, aged 65, figured this out years ago, what took Yahoo so long? Interesting how those young wizards overlook the message of the purloined letter?
Second, the US Postal Service is going to raise its rates. (Same deal. The link will be dead in a nonce.) The USPS has been the print publishers’ pal for decades. My grandfather, after World War I let him out of the trenches, delivered mail. He complained long and loud about the crap he delivered at bargain basement rates. In Harrods Creek, the postmistress and I talk about the volume of junk that flows through the system. One conference promoter sends me dozens of fliers at bulk rate prices. Last year, I gathered up these fliers and mailed them to the company president. Guess what? No change. It is cheaper to pump baloney through the USPS than clean the mailing list. How long will this outfit be in business?
Hopefully the media titans will direct their ire at Yahoo and the US government. Why not blame others instead of oneself? Isn’t that the modern MBA way?
Stephen E Arnold, July 6, 2010
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