Stop waiting for the future
Ryan Sholin says the future may not be bright for newspapers but the future for news and information has never looked brighter.
OK, so maybe I paraphrased a bit, but a recent post of his hit me this morning.
He argues, I believe, that news and information is being consumed so much that its future is already being defined while we in the newspaper business are worrying and talking and just waiting for something to happen.
The future of news looks more like Blade Runner than Minority Report. And I don’t mean the part where Deckard reads the print edition. I mean the crazy chaotic floating blimp advertising and the bits of information flowing around mobile screens in places like taxicabs and the exposed innards of machinery.
It reminds me of a few things going on inside the media company where I am and all those recent innovative “Stop Talking, Start Doing” commercials from IBM.
I get that I am ready to “Rock ‘N Roll” and jump into the pool rather than dip my foot in to test the waters. And I also get that not everyone is at the same place I am.
But, and here I go being negative again, I take away from Sholin’s post this idea that executives, editors and others have a responsible to recognize where they are at in terms of innovation and change within the industry, at the very least. That way they will not stymie the creativity or willingness of their employees who are ready to leap into the deep end of the pool. And yes, those employees may fail but they are going to learn more from failure than sitting back and staying the course.
So stop waiting for The Future of Newspapers to arrive, wrapped in a plastic sleeve with a business model printed on the outside, slipped politely behind the screen door by the paperboy. He got laid off last week. You’re going to have to try something new if you want to survive.
Jason – You’re on the right track.
More and more these days you hear the mantra: “On the Web, it costs less to try something than to have meetings about trying something.”