At the latest Ignition conference, Henry Blodget of Business Insider gave his most recent assessment of where digital media are headed. It’s a sound appraisal. It’s worth noting that while he sees media’s direction as predominantly digital (true enough), he leaves unstated (because it must seem so obvious to him) that successful digital media are not simply old print publications placed online.
The same sensibility that got print into trouble hampers online publications that carry over or mimic that tone (locally, e.g., Gazette, Daily Union, Register, Banner). The generational divide in media viewership is profound, and cannot be bridged merely by swapping ink for electrons.
Odd, but some otherwise clever people in town have trouble grasping this. It’s the reason I would never trade this website’s position for that of any of those other publications.
In any event, Blodget assesses insightfully –