Pity the Poor Publisher

For all my ranting and raving about the failings of newspapers, I’ve never understood why publishers, who are very smart people, have mostly refused to see and do what’s necessary to save their businesses.

But now I have a theory.

Once upon a time, a newspaper publisher was one of the most powerful people around.  He/she could shape cities, make or break politicians (or even lowly film makers), change laws, expose corruption, protect the little guys, antagonize the bad guys, sometimes help the bad guys and of course, make money.  Lots and lots of money.  

It was delicious, all that power, all that authority, all that money.  How marvelous it was to build and run an empire.  It was an era of unbridled success.  Anything was possible - “You supply the pictures and I’ll supply the war.”

But something has changed.  The authority of the daily newspaper is being replaced by the algorithmic authority of the Internet.  The money is drying up as advertisers are finding more efficient and effective media in which to spend their money and readers are finding their news and information for free.  The power of the publisher is diminishing. 

Pity the poor publishers.  I believe they are grieving a terrible loss.

What if the current plight of newspapers is not so much an industry issue as a very personal one?

Could it be that of the many PhD theses that are sure to be written about the decline and fall of newspapers, the most telling will have been written by psychology majors?

Stay with me.

Originally created to describe the experience of coming to terms with death and dying, the Kublar Ross stages of grief can occur during any great loss.  I’m struck by how closely the thinking they describe aligns with the behaviour of the 21^st century publisher.

Stage 1: Denial

“I feel fine”, “This can’t be happening, not to me”

Nothing has to change, we certainly don’t have to change.  It’s all good.  The Internet will never replace the authority of the printed word.  You can’t take the Internet into the bathroom, on a train, etc.  Our readers need us to tell them what’s important.  It isn’t news until we tell them it’s news.  Everything will be back on track as soon as the recession is over…

Stage 2: Anger

“Why me? It’s not fair!”, “How can this happen to me?” “Who is to blame”?” 

Our readers no longer value our content.  They expect everything for free.  And, they expect to be a part of the conversation.  They no longer view us as the sole authority. 

But the real culprits are Google and the other aggregators, those untrustworthy bloggers, not to mention the BBC.   They are all thieves and parasites who encourage online news reading “promiscuity”…

Stage 3: Bargaining

“I’ll do anything for a few more years.”

Somebody has to pay for this.  Staff cuts have kept things going for a little while.  Pay walls should buy us a few more years.  We can block Google from crawling our sites and enforce the ACAP standards.  Then we can change fair use doctrine and copyright law.  If all else fails, maybe we can get the government to pay us…

Some people don’t actually make it through all the stages of loss.  They get stuck somewhere along the way.  I’d argue that most publishers haven’t made it past bargaining.  But if they do, here’s what to expect.

Stage 4: Depression

“I’m so sad, why bother with anything?”

I don’t know if any publishers are feeling this way, but I know a lot of newspaper employees are.  Not exactly the best environment in which to create the exciting digital future.

Stage 5: Acceptance

“It’s going to be okay.” “I can’t fight it, I may as well prepare for it.”

It would have been great if all publishers had reached this stage 10 years ago.  Norway’s VG did and now 38% of its profits are derived from the digital side of the business.

Having been through these stages myself recently, I can tell you that denial is awesome.  I really enjoyed denial.  And anger certainly has its uses.  But acceptance is pretty great.   Let's hope some publishers will join me there.

Comments

[Michael Nielsen]

It certainly doesn't fit into the stages of grief, but in this context adding "Stage 6: Scheming / plotting world domination" sure seems healthy to me!