The importance of content

This is the first in a series of posts I plan to make about the newspaper business.

The content produced by news organizations is now more important than ever. No other time in the world's history have consumers been faced with so many choices of where to get their news.

Back in, let's say, 1920, there were no choices. Let's say you lived in Port Orchard. You read the Port Orchard Independent. That was it. Whatever articles that newspaper contained, that was what news you would be exposed to. If you lived in Seattle, then oh my goodness, TWO choices of newspapers.

Ok then came along radio, eventually TV. But as most newspaper readers know, those are really quick hits. Not much in detail. It did offer some limited choices - maybe 3 or 4 news options.

If you haven't figured out where I'm headed with this - with the Internet, the consumer today has nearly unlimited choices of where to get their news. It is no longer driven by what the paper thinks people want to read about. They better know what their target market wants to read - or else guess what happens, your readers will go elsewhere.

In this world where people are busier than ever and there are more distractions than ever, there's also exponentially more information available.

So bottom line - you better provide the information (news, stories, etc.) that your target audience is interested in reading, or else they will no longer be your audience. You no longer have the luxury of a captive audience.